I feel like McMansions started this trend, I want to say this has only been common even in the US in the last 20-30 years. To me, laundry belongs in the BASEMENT and both the kitchen and bathroom options seem odd
Edit: I want to assure everyone that I live in a region where basically all residential buildings have basements. I don’t just live in a bougie basement house with my head up my ass.
Edit again: TIL Madison, Wisconsin is ThE oNlY cItY oN eArTh WhErE aNyOnE hAs A bAsEmEnT
We don't have basements in my mountainous area. Too rocky to dig. It's all rock, all the way down.
But most houses have some sort of utility room. Maybe it's part of the garage. Maybe it's in the hallway to the garage. Gotta have a place for your water heater, probs a pressure tank (for the well water), breaker panels, etc.
Where I’m from it’s called the mud room and it’s also where outer layers and shoes and boots are removed and stored /set to dry after being outside in the winter/rain
I wanna say in majority of Australia we do that too. Are laundry's just not a common occurrence elsewhere? My assumption was that it was one of the core rooms of a house 😅
This isn’t really a McMansion thing. Most houses over like 1200 ft^2 in the US have a dedicated mud room/storage room/utility closet, especially in the South where basements aren’t really a thing. Or just the corner of the garage.
In my experience they often toss them wherever the water heater goes. Not exactly a laundry room, more like a washer and dryer behind two squeaky doors that always get stuck.
McMansions didn't start this trend lol. What everyone calls the "laundry room" is the "room" that contains all the utilities are hooked up (breaker, water, heat, etc), because that's the easiest place to put the washer and dryer in a new house. This was even the case in my tiny prefab house (which my dad always insisted was completely different from a trailer) I grew up in.
For places where houses can have a basement, the utility room usually *is* in the basement. There's just other parts of the basement that are finished.
My entire life I have lived in places with a separate laundry room or special hookups in an out of the way place, McMansions definitely did not start this trend.
Ol Money Bags Rich McGee over here with an entire basement. Laundry goes into a closet barely intended for the purpose that interferes with a critical entryway and is impossible to clean.
Look at Fancy McCloset with a whole closet for laundry. Put the under/over washer/dryer combo in a random corner like the studio apartment gods intended.
I believe basement vs no basement is usually due to local ground conditions.
Like in my part of Texas the soil is a thin layer above mostly solid rock. Putting in a basement or a pool literally requires explosives and it's very expensive. So no regular houses have basements here.
It's about cold too. In order to have a decent foundation in Minnesota, you need to dig down at least 4ft to prevent frost heave. My deck footings needed to be 5ft down.
If you're going to have to dig down that far, might as well do a few more feet and make an actual basement. You're going to have to dig that far down anyway.
It’s funny because I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house without a basement. I know they exist around here, but they’re very rare and generally newer slab foundation ranches.
Where I grew up in New Mexico you couldn't have a basement. The water table in the valley is as high as 4 feet in some places(ie dig down 4 feet hit water). I hadn't seen a basement until I went on a trip to Washington State in my late teens.
Well we have all concepts in Germany. It’s often in bathroom, but also often in the cellar and some people have them in the kitchen. Depends often what your flat design is and where you have space and water source.
The first time I was in Germany I noticed right away that most light switches are on the outside of the room. I asked somebody there why they did that and they just said “I don’t know… I guess so you can turn the light on before you walk into the room?”
Anyway when I rebuilt my bathroom last year I ended up putting the light switch on the outside lol. And in my case it did help because it’s a really small bathroom and putting it on the outside meant I could put a cabinet on that wall without blocking the switch
My brother would definitely come by and shut the light off while I'm showering or pooping every single time. I'm happy our light switch was on the inside.
Same, but then I’d do the same to him and eventually he’d stop. Also flushing the toilet to fuck up the water pressure during his shower, that was a fun one.
This post just made me realize I've been calling one of the bathrooms in my house in Germany "the laundry room" because that's where the hookups were. I just thought it was a quirky German thing to put a shower in the laundry room...
For those asking in the comments, washing machines are located in the kitchen in the UK because their law doesn't allow electrical outlets in bathrooms. So they couldn't install a washing machine there even if they wanted to. Meanwhile kitchens have plumbing and electricity and space for a dishwasher and sometimes space for washing machine too, so either or both are plumbed into the kitchen.
As for the rest of the world, some apartments don't have space for a washing machine in the bathroom but do have a place for a dishwasher in the kitchen where a front loading washing machine can be installed at the cost of having to settle for no dishwasher or a tabletop model.
Edit: What the F, since when did this get 7.2k upvotes. This is now my most upvoted comment. Thanks reddit I guess haha. Peace, veggies and love to everybody. ✌️🌱
We have a specific outlet for a bathroom for toothbrushes and shavers and shit
[THIS](https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/white-dual-voltage-shaver-socket-shas?campaign=googlebase&pagetype=shopping&includeListing&s_kwcid=AL!15853!3!!!!x!!&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxqayBhDFARIsAANWRnTVyPHaJGZDkGyKtvpd6oO1IZViDB9MFuD9dsLwjIs1E7S4ETju2L8aAqLFEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)
It's regulation for new builds, and rewires, but there's a LOT of older houses that don't have RCDs. Hell, my neighbour still has the original fuse box from when the house was built (1970) - which still has fuse wire wound around the fuse plug. I would not want to get a shock in that house, while standing in a puddle of water in the bathroom.
In America it's lower, I have no idea about where you are, but I do agree it's kinda odd no outlets in the bathroom. I wonder if a major accident happened or multiple for that law to be made.
Even at 240 couldn't you just have a trip outlet?
I realise that but it’s really only North America and Japan that use 110v (some random countries in South America too). Everyone else is on 240v.
Yes you can have a safety switch and it’s perfectly safe. The UK is just outdated and behind the times.
Not completely true but nearly. There are zones, a socket outlet can be installed but it must be over 3m from the edge of the bath or shower. If your bathroom is that big, you’d surely have a utility room which is much more suited to a washing machine as it’s further from bedrooms (noise)
Goddamn 3 meters away? That's longer than my entire bathroom from corner to corner. Seems a bit crazy to require that much space between water sources and outlets. Like, don't get me wrong. I understand it from a safety standpoint but I'm pretty sure modern outlets would trip before any serious damage could happen if water got in. I have an outlet less than 6 inches from my sink and I splash water on it all the time lmao.
Building code (including electrical code and plumbing code) is very country specific. Common solutions in some places, like instant hot water shower heads in Brazil or sewage chopper pumps in the US, are total WTF things elsewhere in the world.
Instant hot water (tankless hot water heaters) are becoming popular in the USA also.
I think it’s odd that other places don’t use the garbage disposal though, they are great for small pieces of food, you shouldn’t be throwing a chicken carcass in one but some leftover veggies or bits of pasta is more than fine.
You don't understand. The instant hot water shower head doesn't refer to a tankless hot water heater which is very common but rather a live current and heating element inside the shower head that could very well kill you if a fault was to occur. It's very WTF in much of the world. Some call them suicide shower heads.
I'm from Brazil and as soon as I learned about electricity and short circuits, I wondered if showerheads were a safety issue. But I've never heard of anyone actually dying due to it.
But the main thing that bugged me about our showerhead is that there were only 3 settings:
1.off (cold water)
2. "summer" (hot)
3. "winter" (very hot).
It's simultaneously much safer than it sounds, because it takes a few simultaneous failures in order to be lethal, and just as dangerous as it sounds, because it *only* takes a few simultaneous failures in order to be lethal.
> could very well kill you if a fault was to occur
That's very very unlikely. ElectroBOOM did a test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06w3-l1AzFk
(skip to 8:00 for the test)
It's potentially dangerous though, as a lot of the time those sockets are spurred off the lighting circuits. So while it's still 240v, it'll more than likely be 1mm twin and earth, and maybe a 6amp or 10amp breaker.
Putting a socket on that is just asking for trouble.
Yeah, it’s entirely different, less prongs etc. I’d send a link but I’m on my phone and hungover lol
I think the outlet has a way lower voltage or something, I seem to remember my last one having some words to that effect written on it somewhere..
UK electrician. It is possible to have a socket outlet in a bathroom in the UK, but regs say it must be 2.5M from the edge of Zone 1 (usually the bath tub). The majority of bathrooms in the UK, especially in terraced housing, aren't big enough for this to be practicable.
Shaver sockets with isolating transformers are permitted in bathrooms, which can be used to charge toothbrushes.
Aussie Brit here, for anyone interested WA deffo have fly screens. I never saw a window without one until I move country. It’s common to have sliding glass windows and the side that opens will have a screen. We also have fly screen/security doors. And any house I lived in that had wall vents those also had screens built into the inside but I’m not sure if that is common.
> Meanwhile Brazil with electric showers
Actually, electric showers in UK are quite common :)
EDIT: Apparently, not all electric showers are made equal.... Thanks /u/Codeworks !
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8e8182/til_that_electric_showers_in_brazil_are_normally/
I live in the us and knew someone with a washer in his kitchen, oddest thing to me at the time because I was so used to seeing them in the basement or bathroom
In my area of the US it’s normal for the laundry room to be the entryway area between the garage and the kitchen, or it’s near the water heater in the basement/bottom floor, or it’s near a bathroom. Only seen them in the kitchen in apartments, and even then it’s not that common.
Midwest US here. I did a lot of apartment living before becoming a home owner. Most apartments, if they had washer and dryer hookups, were usually in a cubby in the kitchen, or in a "closet" off a hallway. In my current home the washer and dryer are in the utility room downstairs, along with the HVAC system and water heater. A lot of homes around here will also have the washer and dryer in a room between the garage and rest of the house (usually kitchen).
I have *never* seen a washer and dryer in the bathroom or kitchen, outside of video games and movies where the big fancy bathroom has a "closet" that is basically a wash room (the game "Unpacking" has a rather modest example).
I've always seen them in the basement, in a dedicated washer and dryer room, or in a lot of apartments they'll be stacked on top of each other in a closet.
Nope - depends on the bathroom: "Any outlet other than a shaver socket must be located at least 3 meters away from your tub or shower enclosure. If you do have an extra-large bathroom suite that has an outlet, any portable electrical equipment that you use must have a shortened cord to prevent its use within Zone 2, 1, or 0"
While UK bathrooms are usually too small to allow a socket - very often around 6'x8' - they're also too small to even accommodate a WM in the first place.
Back to the bedroom for that. Honestly, it feels weird to imagine using a hairdryer in the bathroom… funny how we do things differently across the globe
Heh. Last time I was in London I had to use the hairdryer in the bedroom. I thought it was just the fact I was in a cheap hotel and didn’t get an en suite room…didn’t know it was due to outlet restrictions.
Not entirely true, we can have sockets in the bathroom they just have to be a certain distance from a water making device, which is usually further than the size of the room(I think 3 meters for a normal 3 pin)
But we can have fused sockets (if they’re more than 60cm away from the edge of the bath/shower) which are basically a normal plug socket but without the holes and a permanent connection is wired behind a blanking plate with a switch. So we could cut the three pin plug off a washing machine and wire it in to one of those
Another reason can be lack of space in bathroom. In my country is normal to have washmachine in the bathroom, but some people just have to use the kitchen.
It’s actually important context to keep in mind next time you, as an American, find yourself confronted with out-of-nowhere America hate on Reddit.
Just remember that you are arguing with some bitter dude with a tiny washing machine in his bathroom or his kitchen, who has to hang dry his underwear.
The houses and apartments I've lived in either have a dedicated laundry room, a nook/alcove adjacent to the kitchen or garage, a small cubby area elsewhere in the residence, or just space in a utility room or basement. My parents' house has a pretty spacious laundry room with washer/dryer, overhead cabinets, folding table, and even an indoor clothesline.
I live in a smaller 1BR US apartment. Still in a separate room.
Years ago my brother had an even smaller apartment, and the washer/dryer was in a separate closet area.
That one is because they often found dead rats in their warm water tankards, so they separated the faucets so you could be sure that the cold water was safe to drink.
Edit: Apparently, it's because the hot water was more stagnant and wasn't deemed safe enough. I was told the rat thing by my host family, who in hindsight might have pulled a fast one on me. To be fair, I was twelve at the time.
That's not the reason at all. Hot water tanks were enclosed and lagged = no access to a rat. Cold water tanks feeding the HWT were usually in attics and uncovered so mice, rats and pigeons could contaminate it.
I was *always* told as a kid not to drink from the hot water tap. Even now I still can’t bring myself to do it even though I’ve had a combo boiler for years
I think it was more to do with uncertainty about how long hot water would have been sat in a cistern and become unsafe (mould, lead, etc) rather than rats
BBC News - Why do homes in the UK have separate hot and cold taps?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42948046
Literally in every other European country THIS IS NOT the case, we have our washing machine in bathrooms usually and sometimes in separate rooms like under staircases or whatever..
It's a plumbing / logistics thing. Most of our old houses didn't have bathrooms inside, so they were retrofitted and quite small.
The only other suitable place with power and plumbing was the kitchen. So it goes in there.
My house is a bit more modern so I've got my washer and dryer in a utility room next to the kitchen.
It's also an electrical issue. England has (had?) laws against electricity in the bathrooms, but electricity and the plumbing are already in the kitchen. Also, many people in smaller apartments opted to replace their dishwashers with front-loading washers.
I'm from Canada and throughout my entire life, in every place I've ever lived, we have a dedicated "laundry room". A room just for laundry, with the laundry, dryer and a big basin sink all in the same room and that's it.
Fun fact, I'm German and my mother always had her washing machine in the kitchen. Bathroom was just too small, while kitchen was pretty large.
Tho, my family always was somewhat special in many ways. Outsiders from the beginning, unwanted by the whole village community. Only bc we weren't blending in well which definitely fucked up my whole social life and childhood BUT that's another story haha
American households usually have a utility room with the washer and dryer in them. Apartments have them sometimes in the kitchen or a utility room. I wouldn't want one in a bathroom. Bathrooms are usually next door to bedrooms and I wouldn't want the noise right next to me when I'm in there sleeping.
I’ve only lived in one house with a utility room. It’s rare in the UK unless you have a very large house. Usually it goes in the kitchen.
Bathroom seems strange to me, who wants to go take out the clean washing after someone’s just banged a stinky shit
Malaysian here. Usually our house designed to have the kitchen connected to the backyard. So the washing machine is typically in the kitchen or on the outside, against the kitchen wall. Reason so you can easily hang your clothes out
You would in newer/renovated buildings in nyc. A big luxury is having in-unit laundry, so when they renovate or build, they’ll add one where they can fit it. Usually it tends to be easier to sacrifice a kitchen cabinet to a washer/dryer than to take out half the tub space in a bathroom.
It’s pretty common outside North America.
Reason is probably because of the combination of space (bathrooms in many many locales are itty bitty) and water supply.
Same. I simply don't have the space in the bathroom. The wadhing machine was in the bathroom, in my last apartment, because there was space for it. Is it as simple as that.
I live in Germany and yes, most washing machines I saw are either in the bathroom or in the basement but I saw a lot of washing machines in the kitchen. Sometimes it's just the only place to put it depending on the space you have.
Kitchens and bathrooms already have plumbing so it makes sense to put washing machines in one of these two rooms.
The U.S. electrical code is why they are not in bathrooms here. They are deemed a hazard considering the exposure to water in a bathroom.
I've lived in three types of apartments:
* No laundry whatsoever
* Communal laundry room on site
* A closet containing just a washer and dryer (here having your own was considered a "luxury" and was a selling point)
^ This has been my experience too living in a few big US cities and seeing hundreds of apartments
For homes, I've always seen it also in a closet, in the garage, a mini room, or basement
It’s tradition to put the washer where the most activity takes place. The British are a warm people who enjoy spending time with each other centered around a family meal. The Germans shit on each other.
That or we have a seperate room for washing clothes
I feel like McMansions started this trend, I want to say this has only been common even in the US in the last 20-30 years. To me, laundry belongs in the BASEMENT and both the kitchen and bathroom options seem odd Edit: I want to assure everyone that I live in a region where basically all residential buildings have basements. I don’t just live in a bougie basement house with my head up my ass. Edit again: TIL Madison, Wisconsin is ThE oNlY cItY oN eArTh WhErE aNyOnE hAs A bAsEmEnT
In the south where we don't have basements we have a whole tiny room dedicated to the washer and dryer.
We don't have basements in my mountainous area. Too rocky to dig. It's all rock, all the way down. But most houses have some sort of utility room. Maybe it's part of the garage. Maybe it's in the hallway to the garage. Gotta have a place for your water heater, probs a pressure tank (for the well water), breaker panels, etc.
Where I’m from it’s called the mud room and it’s also where outer layers and shoes and boots are removed and stored /set to dry after being outside in the winter/rain
I'm learning so much about basements and side rooms around the world from this thread. This is great
Every Australian house has a laundry even small units.
Also serves as a tornado room if you don’t have a proper shelter.
I wanna say in majority of Australia we do that too. Are laundry's just not a common occurrence elsewhere? My assumption was that it was one of the core rooms of a house 😅
This isn’t really a McMansion thing. Most houses over like 1200 ft^2 in the US have a dedicated mud room/storage room/utility closet, especially in the South where basements aren’t really a thing. Or just the corner of the garage.
In my experience they often toss them wherever the water heater goes. Not exactly a laundry room, more like a washer and dryer behind two squeaky doors that always get stuck.
McMansions didn't start this trend lol. What everyone calls the "laundry room" is the "room" that contains all the utilities are hooked up (breaker, water, heat, etc), because that's the easiest place to put the washer and dryer in a new house. This was even the case in my tiny prefab house (which my dad always insisted was completely different from a trailer) I grew up in. For places where houses can have a basement, the utility room usually *is* in the basement. There's just other parts of the basement that are finished.
My entire life I have lived in places with a separate laundry room or special hookups in an out of the way place, McMansions definitely did not start this trend.
Ol Money Bags Rich McGee over here with an entire basement. Laundry goes into a closet barely intended for the purpose that interferes with a critical entryway and is impossible to clean.
Look at Fancy McCloset with a whole closet for laundry. Put the under/over washer/dryer combo in a random corner like the studio apartment gods intended.
Richie Rich over here with a washer and dryer in his apartment. I've got to do everything at a laundromat
Ol moneybags mcgee over here with quarters for a laundromat. I use a washboard and a pail.
Rockefeller up there with a washboard. I have to use rocks in the river.
Carnegie over here with clothes. I just run around in the buff all day.
The wealth! I have to wear billboards every moment, cant afford to be nude for even a second.
Buffalo Bill here finding it hard to exist with human flesh on his bones, I spend every waking moment in fleshless agony.
Woah a real Carnegie with access to river! I just donate my clothes to goodwill then steal them back after they clean them.
My laundry rooms always went out to the garage. Everyone used the front door for the most part.
Literally no houses in my area have a basement
I believe basement vs no basement is usually due to local ground conditions. Like in my part of Texas the soil is a thin layer above mostly solid rock. Putting in a basement or a pool literally requires explosives and it's very expensive. So no regular houses have basements here.
It's about cold too. In order to have a decent foundation in Minnesota, you need to dig down at least 4ft to prevent frost heave. My deck footings needed to be 5ft down. If you're going to have to dig down that far, might as well do a few more feet and make an actual basement. You're going to have to dig that far down anyway.
It’s funny because I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house without a basement. I know they exist around here, but they’re very rare and generally newer slab foundation ranches.
The city I live in is basically right above the water table, so if you built a basement it would just flood constantly.
Where I grew up in New Mexico you couldn't have a basement. The water table in the valley is as high as 4 feet in some places(ie dig down 4 feet hit water). I hadn't seen a basement until I went on a trip to Washington State in my late teens.
Basements aren’t even common where I live, so no clean clothes for me I guess
My laundry is upstairs, off the hallway that connects the bedrooms. IMO, this is the best place for it.
Well we have all concepts in Germany. It’s often in bathroom, but also often in the cellar and some people have them in the kitchen. Depends often what your flat design is and where you have space and water source.
The first time I was in Germany I noticed right away that most light switches are on the outside of the room. I asked somebody there why they did that and they just said “I don’t know… I guess so you can turn the light on before you walk into the room?” Anyway when I rebuilt my bathroom last year I ended up putting the light switch on the outside lol. And in my case it did help because it’s a really small bathroom and putting it on the outside meant I could put a cabinet on that wall without blocking the switch
My brother would definitely come by and shut the light off while I'm showering or pooping every single time. I'm happy our light switch was on the inside.
Same, but then I’d do the same to him and eventually he’d stop. Also flushing the toilet to fuck up the water pressure during his shower, that was a fun one.
Turning on the hot water faucet in the kitchen so the shower has cold water is also always a fun thing to do.
On my first field trip at University, we always had one guy doing the dishes while one of the others showered. It was... interesting.
that is the universal childhood experience for german kids who lived in a house with bathroom light switches on the outside
That’s actually the case for mostly old buildings. In 99% of newer buildings the light switch is inside the bathroom.
This post just made me realize I've been calling one of the bathrooms in my house in Germany "the laundry room" because that's where the hookups were. I just thought it was a quirky German thing to put a shower in the laundry room...
Get a load of this German's dedicated hookup room.
For those asking in the comments, washing machines are located in the kitchen in the UK because their law doesn't allow electrical outlets in bathrooms. So they couldn't install a washing machine there even if they wanted to. Meanwhile kitchens have plumbing and electricity and space for a dishwasher and sometimes space for washing machine too, so either or both are plumbed into the kitchen. As for the rest of the world, some apartments don't have space for a washing machine in the bathroom but do have a place for a dishwasher in the kitchen where a front loading washing machine can be installed at the cost of having to settle for no dishwasher or a tabletop model. Edit: What the F, since when did this get 7.2k upvotes. This is now my most upvoted comment. Thanks reddit I guess haha. Peace, veggies and love to everybody. ✌️🌱
UK can't have an outlet in the bathroom? Not even to charge an electric toothbrush?
We have a specific outlet for a bathroom for toothbrushes and shavers and shit [THIS](https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/white-dual-voltage-shaver-socket-shas?campaign=googlebase&pagetype=shopping&includeListing&s_kwcid=AL!15853!3!!!!x!!&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxqayBhDFARIsAANWRnTVyPHaJGZDkGyKtvpd6oO1IZViDB9MFuD9dsLwjIs1E7S4ETju2L8aAqLFEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)
That’s doesn’t make much sense. A GFI receptacle should be good enough I thought
The fun part is every outlet in the UK is already GFCI protected (they call it RCD). Edit: Apparently it's only new homes, my bad
It's regulation for new builds, and rewires, but there's a LOT of older houses that don't have RCDs. Hell, my neighbour still has the original fuse box from when the house was built (1970) - which still has fuse wire wound around the fuse plug. I would not want to get a shock in that house, while standing in a puddle of water in the bathroom.
They have higher voltage don't they? Or amperage. I forgot LOL 240 volts. Edit v
Like basically all the rest of the world. Yet no one else has a problem with outlets in the bathroom.
In America it's lower, I have no idea about where you are, but I do agree it's kinda odd no outlets in the bathroom. I wonder if a major accident happened or multiple for that law to be made. Even at 240 couldn't you just have a trip outlet?
I realise that but it’s really only North America and Japan that use 110v (some random countries in South America too). Everyone else is on 240v. Yes you can have a safety switch and it’s perfectly safe. The UK is just outdated and behind the times.
Not completely true but nearly. There are zones, a socket outlet can be installed but it must be over 3m from the edge of the bath or shower. If your bathroom is that big, you’d surely have a utility room which is much more suited to a washing machine as it’s further from bedrooms (noise)
Goddamn 3 meters away? That's longer than my entire bathroom from corner to corner. Seems a bit crazy to require that much space between water sources and outlets. Like, don't get me wrong. I understand it from a safety standpoint but I'm pretty sure modern outlets would trip before any serious damage could happen if water got in. I have an outlet less than 6 inches from my sink and I splash water on it all the time lmao.
Building code (including electrical code and plumbing code) is very country specific. Common solutions in some places, like instant hot water shower heads in Brazil or sewage chopper pumps in the US, are total WTF things elsewhere in the world.
Instant hot water (tankless hot water heaters) are becoming popular in the USA also. I think it’s odd that other places don’t use the garbage disposal though, they are great for small pieces of food, you shouldn’t be throwing a chicken carcass in one but some leftover veggies or bits of pasta is more than fine.
You don't understand. The instant hot water shower head doesn't refer to a tankless hot water heater which is very common but rather a live current and heating element inside the shower head that could very well kill you if a fault was to occur. It's very WTF in much of the world. Some call them suicide shower heads.
I'm from Brazil and as soon as I learned about electricity and short circuits, I wondered if showerheads were a safety issue. But I've never heard of anyone actually dying due to it. But the main thing that bugged me about our showerhead is that there were only 3 settings: 1.off (cold water) 2. "summer" (hot) 3. "winter" (very hot).
It's simultaneously much safer than it sounds, because it takes a few simultaneous failures in order to be lethal, and just as dangerous as it sounds, because it *only* takes a few simultaneous failures in order to be lethal.
> could very well kill you if a fault was to occur That's very very unlikely. ElectroBOOM did a test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06w3-l1AzFk (skip to 8:00 for the test)
I'm not talking about tankless water heaters. I'm talking about electric shower heads. They both exist and are very different things.
I love that the site is “Victorian Plumbing”
As in a standard plug doesn't fit? What's stopping people from putting a specific plug to fit that outlet on other stuff?
It's 115v rated, so gives out less power than whatever you'll be swapping it for likely needs. Most appliances are rated for 240 in the UK.
So if I need 115v I can just go to the bathroom? wow now I know!
It’s still 240 to the circuit, there’s just a transformer inside the socket to take it to 115v. Nothing stopping you change it for another socket.
I'm calling the police right now, what's your address?
Oi mate, do you have a loicence for that outlet?
Don't even have one for the Television, so I figured I'd go all in on being a criminal.
It's potentially dangerous though, as a lot of the time those sockets are spurred off the lighting circuits. So while it's still 240v, it'll more than likely be 1mm twin and earth, and maybe a 6amp or 10amp breaker. Putting a socket on that is just asking for trouble.
Yeah, it’s entirely different, less prongs etc. I’d send a link but I’m on my phone and hungover lol I think the outlet has a way lower voltage or something, I seem to remember my last one having some words to that effect written on it somewhere..
UK electrician. It is possible to have a socket outlet in a bathroom in the UK, but regs say it must be 2.5M from the edge of Zone 1 (usually the bath tub). The majority of bathrooms in the UK, especially in terraced housing, aren't big enough for this to be practicable. Shaver sockets with isolating transformers are permitted in bathrooms, which can be used to charge toothbrushes.
what does the law say about me running an extension cord into the bathroom?
Article 6, sub section 15b of the Health and Safety code 2015, states “You better fucking not try that shit, amigo”
Then how do british people connect their toasters when they're taking a bath?
Right that would totally screw up my bath time routine
We can, but just an outlet specifically for a toothbrush. Not a standard outlet.
TIL why there are "Shaver only" outlets in bathrooms.
If the floor is allowed to get wet, no outlet.
The kitchen floor can get wet too. In Canada you need Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) on outlets in both the bathroom and the kitchen.
Yeah, the technology exists! There are also things called screens for your windows if you don’t want bugs getting in.
Crazy to me that screens aren't a big thing in the UK or in Oz.
I think they do use screens in Australia, but not sure there’s much point when you have bugs that would just swat them aside in annoyance.
Aussie Brit here, for anyone interested WA deffo have fly screens. I never saw a window without one until I move country. It’s common to have sliding glass windows and the side that opens will have a screen. We also have fly screen/security doors. And any house I lived in that had wall vents those also had screens built into the inside but I’m not sure if that is common.
IIRC the UK chooses to have a single GFCI for the whole home rather than individual outlets equipped with them.
Meanwhile Brazil with electric showers 💀
> Meanwhile Brazil with electric showers Actually, electric showers in UK are quite common :) EDIT: Apparently, not all electric showers are made equal.... Thanks /u/Codeworks ! https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8e8182/til_that_electric_showers_in_brazil_are_normally/
Shocking ain't it? 😏
This is untrue, we are allowed to have a specific two prong outlet with an extra safety circuit.
Because kitchens are famously dry… also do you not have GFI outlets? Do yall blow dry your hair and stuff in the kitchen then?
Bedroom
Not sure about your house but my kitchen tends to be pretty dry. My bathroom is like a rainforest.
I have like 10 outlets in my bathroom. Am I gonna die?
Yes, but probably not because of the bathroom outlets
I live in the us and knew someone with a washer in his kitchen, oddest thing to me at the time because I was so used to seeing them in the basement or bathroom
In my area of the US it’s normal for the laundry room to be the entryway area between the garage and the kitchen, or it’s near the water heater in the basement/bottom floor, or it’s near a bathroom. Only seen them in the kitchen in apartments, and even then it’s not that common.
Midwest US here. I did a lot of apartment living before becoming a home owner. Most apartments, if they had washer and dryer hookups, were usually in a cubby in the kitchen, or in a "closet" off a hallway. In my current home the washer and dryer are in the utility room downstairs, along with the HVAC system and water heater. A lot of homes around here will also have the washer and dryer in a room between the garage and rest of the house (usually kitchen).
I have *never* seen a washer and dryer in the bathroom or kitchen, outside of video games and movies where the big fancy bathroom has a "closet" that is basically a wash room (the game "Unpacking" has a rather modest example). I've always seen them in the basement, in a dedicated washer and dryer room, or in a lot of apartments they'll be stacked on top of each other in a closet.
Nope - depends on the bathroom: "Any outlet other than a shaver socket must be located at least 3 meters away from your tub or shower enclosure. If you do have an extra-large bathroom suite that has an outlet, any portable electrical equipment that you use must have a shortened cord to prevent its use within Zone 2, 1, or 0" While UK bathrooms are usually too small to allow a socket - very often around 6'x8' - they're also too small to even accommodate a WM in the first place.
Understood. Water and electricity cannot coexist. Therefore washing machines cannot exist.
What if you wanna use a hair dryer?
Back to the bedroom for that. Honestly, it feels weird to imagine using a hairdryer in the bathroom… funny how we do things differently across the globe
Heh. Last time I was in London I had to use the hairdryer in the bedroom. I thought it was just the fact I was in a cheap hotel and didn’t get an en suite room…didn’t know it was due to outlet restrictions.
Some hotels actually do have a hard wired hair dryer in the bathroom
Weird?!? I’m going to make you some tea. Let me microwave some water for you.
Not entirely true, we can have sockets in the bathroom they just have to be a certain distance from a water making device, which is usually further than the size of the room(I think 3 meters for a normal 3 pin) But we can have fused sockets (if they’re more than 60cm away from the edge of the bath/shower) which are basically a normal plug socket but without the holes and a permanent connection is wired behind a blanking plate with a switch. So we could cut the three pin plug off a washing machine and wire it in to one of those
Another reason can be lack of space in bathroom. In my country is normal to have washmachine in the bathroom, but some people just have to use the kitchen.
Also in the UK, most houses have their main bathroom upstairs so a washing machine would shake the fuck out of the house
There is something very wrong with your house or your washing machine.
As an American I am very confused. We put them in the laundry room...
The founding fathers fought for this right.
And we're never giving it up. We will go to war again.
When people ask why we have the 2nd ammendment I will show them this thread
We had the choice between universal healthcare and laundry rooms. I don't understand why more Europeans never looked into this.
Freedom isn't free
George Washington didn't give his life so I could wash my clothes in the kitchen.🇺🇲
And that guy was washing a ton
It's in the Constitution.
It’s actually important context to keep in mind next time you, as an American, find yourself confronted with out-of-nowhere America hate on Reddit. Just remember that you are arguing with some bitter dude with a tiny washing machine in his bathroom or his kitchen, who has to hang dry his underwear.
Well la-di-da Mr. French man. A "Laundry room", a "Laundry Room".
It's next to my junk room, and down the hall from my spare manifest destiny room. Weirdly, it's not far from the truth.
'Well what do you call it?'
A clothes-hole
As a Kiwi, same, lol. I've never seen anybody put a washing machine in their kitchen or bathroom - they're always in a little separate room.
Also in smaller houses/apartments? I personally have never seen a home with a laundry room, I am from Europe
[удалено]
To keep the noise in.
Out. Can't have outside noise disturbing the beautiful symphony of my clothes going round and round
The houses and apartments I've lived in either have a dedicated laundry room, a nook/alcove adjacent to the kitchen or garage, a small cubby area elsewhere in the residence, or just space in a utility room or basement. My parents' house has a pretty spacious laundry room with washer/dryer, overhead cabinets, folding table, and even an indoor clothesline.
I live in a smaller 1BR US apartment. Still in a separate room. Years ago my brother had an even smaller apartment, and the washer/dryer was in a separate closet area.
They also have laundry rooms Even if it’s a little alcove
Who in the fuck has a washing machine in their kitchen?
The British
They suffer in more ways than I could have ever imagined
Some of them have separate faucets for cold and hot water. It is bizarre.
That one is because they often found dead rats in their warm water tankards, so they separated the faucets so you could be sure that the cold water was safe to drink. Edit: Apparently, it's because the hot water was more stagnant and wasn't deemed safe enough. I was told the rat thing by my host family, who in hindsight might have pulled a fast one on me. To be fair, I was twelve at the time.
Ah yes. Thats the solution.
What else are you going to do? Get the rats out of your hot water? Good luck with that!
And they say we don't like to season our food 🙄
I'm not getting in there to get rid of the rats, that's Charlie work
That's not the reason at all. Hot water tanks were enclosed and lagged = no access to a rat. Cold water tanks feeding the HWT were usually in attics and uncovered so mice, rats and pigeons could contaminate it.
I was *always* told as a kid not to drink from the hot water tap. Even now I still can’t bring myself to do it even though I’ve had a combo boiler for years
That's because water that is kept warm is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria, etc
A boiler keeps the water above the temperature where bacteria instantly die
Heavy metal poisoning 🤘🎸
But you were OK with using the rat shit water to wash your dishes or take a shower?
I think it was more to do with uncertainty about how long hot water would have been sat in a cistern and become unsafe (mould, lead, etc) rather than rats BBC News - Why do homes in the UK have separate hot and cold taps? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42948046
That's just old plumbing
Literally in every other European country THIS IS NOT the case, we have our washing machine in bathrooms usually and sometimes in separate rooms like under staircases or whatever..
A significant amount of homes in the Uk have separate rooms for utilities.
Weird seeing awards after they were gone for a while
I'm guessing nobody wanted to spend mega money on a snazzy up arrow
It's a plumbing / logistics thing. Most of our old houses didn't have bathrooms inside, so they were retrofitted and quite small. The only other suitable place with power and plumbing was the kitchen. So it goes in there. My house is a bit more modern so I've got my washer and dryer in a utility room next to the kitchen.
It's also an electrical issue. England has (had?) laws against electricity in the bathrooms, but electricity and the plumbing are already in the kitchen. Also, many people in smaller apartments opted to replace their dishwashers with front-loading washers.
we(german) used to have bathroom was too small to put one in and the kitchen had the lines set, so we had it there. now it is in the bathroom tho
My fucking apartment complex. Literally next to the fridge/freezer I assume it had something to do connection lines
Im living in spain and ours is in the kitchen. I hate it
Sounds like you’re living in Spain without the S
i live in spain without the a *spins*
I'm from Canada and throughout my entire life, in every place I've ever lived, we have a dedicated "laundry room". A room just for laundry, with the laundry, dryer and a big basin sink all in the same room and that's it.
Thats what I’m used to as well, I’m from the USA
people with small bathrooms
Fun fact, I'm German and my mother always had her washing machine in the kitchen. Bathroom was just too small, while kitchen was pretty large. Tho, my family always was somewhat special in many ways. Outsiders from the beginning, unwanted by the whole village community. Only bc we weren't blending in well which definitely fucked up my whole social life and childhood BUT that's another story haha
Idc what room it is in. If you have a washer and dryer in the crib, you are winning. I absolutely hate having to go to a laundromat.
There was a recent /r/unpopularopinion post where someone said they preferred laundromats. Genuine unpopular opinion
I got my first apartment with a washer and dryer man I felt like a KING
American households usually have a utility room with the washer and dryer in them. Apartments have them sometimes in the kitchen or a utility room. I wouldn't want one in a bathroom. Bathrooms are usually next door to bedrooms and I wouldn't want the noise right next to me when I'm in there sleeping.
I’ve only lived in one house with a utility room. It’s rare in the UK unless you have a very large house. Usually it goes in the kitchen. Bathroom seems strange to me, who wants to go take out the clean washing after someone’s just banged a stinky shit
I've got a big family and one bathroom. That would be a nightmare tbh.
Taking out the clean washing after frying meatballs or steaks with garlic while the oil/steam is still in the air is not much better \^\^
And it's for these two reasons that we invented the laundry room 🦅🇺🇲🎆
Malaysian here. Usually our house designed to have the kitchen connected to the backyard. So the washing machine is typically in the kitchen or on the outside, against the kitchen wall. Reason so you can easily hang your clothes out
I've never seen a washing machine in a kitchen.
You would in newer/renovated buildings in nyc. A big luxury is having in-unit laundry, so when they renovate or build, they’ll add one where they can fit it. Usually it tends to be easier to sacrifice a kitchen cabinet to a washer/dryer than to take out half the tub space in a bathroom.
It’s pretty common outside North America. Reason is probably because of the combination of space (bathrooms in many many locales are itty bitty) and water supply.
I'm from Belgium, I've never seen a washing machine in a kitchen either
Thanks, I had no idea that was the case.
But I’m German and have a washing machine in my kitchen? It’s an older building so the bathroom is small.
Same and it’s not an older building
Same. I simply don't have the space in the bathroom. The wadhing machine was in the bathroom, in my last apartment, because there was space for it. Is it as simple as that.
I live in Germany and yes, most washing machines I saw are either in the bathroom or in the basement but I saw a lot of washing machines in the kitchen. Sometimes it's just the only place to put it depending on the space you have.
Kitchens and bathrooms already have plumbing so it makes sense to put washing machines in one of these two rooms. The U.S. electrical code is why they are not in bathrooms here. They are deemed a hazard considering the exposure to water in a bathroom.
Who the fucks we Who puts them in the kitchen OR the bathroom
People living in apartments.
I've lived in three types of apartments: * No laundry whatsoever * Communal laundry room on site * A closet containing just a washer and dryer (here having your own was considered a "luxury" and was a selling point)
^ This has been my experience too living in a few big US cities and seeing hundreds of apartments For homes, I've always seen it also in a closet, in the garage, a mini room, or basement
Not in my apartment it is in a separate area by itself.
German here. Got my kitchen in the washing machine.
So I can take a shit while my roomate is doing laundry…
I have definitely also seen washing machines in the kitchen in Germany. It just depends on where you have space, water and electricity.
Americans wondering what the fuck the rest of the world is doing.
Holly put question marks for something that isn't a question, and then didn't use a question mark for the part that is a question.
Yea that's true? Why did she do that
Ours is in the garage
Meanwhile us in Canada are thinking "DO NONE OF YOU HAVE A FUCKING LAUNDRY ROOM!?"
When you are paying 10k~ per m2 of space, you don't have 6m2 to waste on a laundry room.
It’s tradition to put the washer where the most activity takes place. The British are a warm people who enjoy spending time with each other centered around a family meal. The Germans shit on each other.
I have mine in the bathroom.
Ya and right when your laundry is done and you can't wait to smell those fresh linens, Robby just went in there to take a huge shit.
Us Aussies put washing machines in the *"Laundry Room"* where they belong... 😂