american hotel showers

This is probably too private for most people, but revealing it serves a purpose;) I like to end my showers with cold water. Authentically cold. It started probably 10 years ago during a ski holiday somewhere in Slovakia, where the cistern was not large enough for the amount of guests and whoever got a shower later then earlier got the colder water. Nothing worse then a cold shower after a long day of skiing in the cold. But towards the end of the holiday the few unfortunate times I was not among the first to shower I actually started liking the cold water. There was something very soothing about it. It was only a positive experience if first I got at least a few minutes of really nice hot water. That was the beginning of a daily routine. After I returned home I just could not have my showers any other way and it’s been like this ever since.

I grew so accustomed to the practice that I am completely unaware of practising it. I was until I started visiting American hotels. By American I guess I mean where the furnishing is American, ergo where the capital is American, or majority guest nationality; whatever the case, it is something I found only in this side of the Atlantic and not necessarily mainland USA.

I am an open mind, or at least I like to think of myself that way. I travelled a lot since little and still do, so I know not everything has to be the same and different places have their different ways. But the American hotel showers just drive my crazy. Who do I complain to? The issue is the shower knobs or shower dial, the whole system of picking your waters temperature and intensity.

Let me explain. In most European establishments you have 2 dials, one to regulate the amount of cold and one to regulate the amount of hot water.The more of whichever water you choose the stronger your flow. But if you choose very little of both temperatures, you can have your balanced mix at very low intensity; and if you choose a lot or maximum of both temperatures, you have a strong or maximum intensity. Basically you are the master of ceremonies. You decide.

standard European 2 knob

I have also seen 2 faucets, each for each water, which I admit is not convenient and probably only present in very old hotels as a nice but impractical relict of the past. And I am not lobbying for these.

Then there are systems which have 1 handle. Usually moving it right/left gives you different proportions of hot/cold water while moving away/towards you gives you different intensities of the selected by you desired proportion of hot/cold. This is simple to use even if you foam in your eyes, you can still arrive at your perfect temperature and intensity with one hand and closed eyes.

handles which move left/right to control temperature and away/towards you to control flow intensity

And there is the system I keep on encountering in American hotels. grr! This system has just one dial, which moves one way to turn water on, opposite to turn it off. Unfortunately the dial serves also as a temperature regulator. As you reach the maximum intensity of water you reach burning temperatures. As you turn back towards colder water the intensity of the flow turns to a drip. And when I reach my satisfactory cold temperature I no longer have a shower, I have a drop every 2 seconds:(

most unimaginative shower system

How come so little imagination for an activity so important, so daily and, I thought, so cherished in the US?