From: eliot@chutney.rtp.dg.com (Topher Eliot)
Subject: Re: No Hot Water!
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 16:59:06 GMT
Distribution: na
Reply-To: eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC

In article <y1_s6dd@dixie.com>, jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:
|> eliot@chutney.rtp.dg.com (Topher Eliot) writes:
|> 
|> [me]
|> |> J> The hysterisis in the thermostat is generally fixed.  You have a couple of
|> |> J> options.  You can turn the thermostat up higher so that you use less
|> |> J> of hotter water during your shower.  This will probably be very effective,
|> |> J> particularly if someone has been propagandized into turning the heat
|> 
|> >Or they have been correctly warned that water hotter than 120F can cause life-
|> >threatening scalding of little children who turn it on full blast on them-
|> >selves in the tub.
|> 
|> Figured I'd flush a safety nazi or two out with that one.  I'd be amused
"Nazi"?  Just last week I got accused of bigotry for my opinions on physics.
At least that correspondant had the good taste to limit her comments to email.
This is getting outlandish.  Did I or anyone else suggest forcing you to set
your water heater down?  No.  So watch your language.  "paranoiac" if you will,
or "silly billy" even.  But not "Nazi".

|> to hear any scenario you could come up with where a child could receive
|> a "life threatening" scalding in which the parent was not being irresponsible.
|> If the parent is responsible enough to worry about water temperature,
|> s/he is responsible enough to keep the kid out of boiling water.

One way to be responsible on the issue is to turn down your water heater.
Another way is to spend every living moment making sure your children don't
have access to a hot water faucet.  The 'life threatening' aspect requires
a bathtub or shower, but you can scald your hands just fine with a kitchen
faucet.  Our bathtub has a single knob shaped rather like a T-shifter from
a 60s muscle car (I try not to let my wife hear me going 'vroom' as I turn
on the shower in the morning :-).  A kid could easily slip and grab at it
and turn it from medium to all the way hot.  Said kid could then panic and
get burned before figuring out what to do.

My 4-year old is required to wash his own hands, and he regularaly mis-sets 
the handle on the kitchen faucet, and plunges his hands in.  He's learned 
lots of things well, but seems slow on this one.  I have enough else to do 
without having to personally supervise every use of water.

My nephew flooded his whole damn house by leaving a washcloth over the shower
drain.  This kid had been taking showers by himself for years.   These things 
happen.  Prudent people try to reduce their probability and/or severity.

Kids are different, too.  Our first boy had to be told once not to mess with
wires, and that was it, he left them alone from then on.  Our second boy is 
wearing us to a frazzle on things like this.  He would chew through every 
wire he could get his hands on if we weren't constantly on top of him.  
Same parents.  Same home environment.  Same full-time mom.  Kids differ.

Just out of curiosity, do you have kids?  If so, how do you handle this issue?

|> PS:  The stove can also cause life threatening burns and can burn your
|> house down.  Do you also run your stove at reduced power?

A stove has to be hot to cook things.  A water heater doesn't have to be that
hot to get a decent shower.  Don't be silly.

You owe the m.c.h archivist 100 megabytes of disk and an apology.

-- 
Topher Eliot             Data General DG/UX Systems Administration Development
(919) 248-6371                                             eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com
Obviously, I speak for myself, not for DG.
misc.consumers.house archivist.  Send mail to house-archive@dg-rtp.dg.com
"I've got the corn on the cob blues"  -- Tommy, age 4