Did you ever stay at a hotel in which the room was very comfortable, the bed was superb, the flat panel TV was top of the line, the towels were generous and fluffy, and all was well with your world until you decided to take a shower?
You turn on the shower and the flow of water from the shower head is downright anemic. Why is that?
It’s because of the government- you know, the people who are there to help us.
A little research indicates that there are various and sundry regulations at the federal, state and local levels (yes, even some local governments have something to say about shower head water flows).
The most common provision requires that the water flow from shower heads not exceed 2.5 gallons per minute, but California has decreed not more than 1.8 gallons per minute.
With a 10 minute shower, unless you are under the California regulations, you would use about 25 gallons of water. In California, it would be 18 gallons.
But according to the federal EPA, a full bathtub would require about 70 gallons of water.
It appears that you can take a bath without apparently offending the shower head police, but if you try to purchase a shower head that actually gives you a reasonably strong flow of water, you are in deep trouble.
Most of the major plumbing manufacturers no longer sell shower heads without flow restrictors pre-installed in them.
My solution has always been to remove the flow restrictors installed in the shower heads whenever I can do so. I do not know whether there are any actual penalties for removing the flow restrictors in your own home, but to do so in a hotel room would probably fall under some law prohibiting tampering with or destroying the property of another- so keep it clean- only in your own home if you are so inclined.
The Web is loaded with sites that show you how to remove these abominable water flow restrictors from shower heads. I found that it took me less than a minute per shower head.
So, strike a blow for shower freedom and cleanliness.
Let the Californians walk around with soap in their hair because of their ridiculous nanny-state water flow restrictors.
But not us in New Hampshire.
Life Free or Die! Death is not the worst of evils.
