I have a gas water heater. Yesterday the gas had to be turned off for some kind of maintenance and the pilot light is now out. I’d rather not relight it myself as it’s in an attic and
1- I don’t have a ladder
2- I’m not 100% convinced I won’t come tumbling down once up there (I recently had some “ceiling issues”)
3- I live alone save for two dogs and even with a ladder I just don’t want to take the risks et al
4- I don’t want to blow up half the neighborhood due to some 1:3000000 oddity
The gas company will relight it free of charge but they have to have somebody at home obviously and I don’t know if I can be there tomorrow during their hours, so long story short is I may not have hot water until Monday.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve had to take a cold shower and I didn’t like it then (and I was a lot younger). I’ve a low threshold for physical discomfort (my safety words are “ouch”, “stop”, “don’t”, or anything remotely similar) and the water from my pipes is damned near frigid as central Alabama’s having a colder March than usual. I don’t have a stove with which to heat water (which is to say I do but it’s on gas and ain’t got none) though I do have a microwave.
So- since I may have to take cold showers until Monday, any suggestions for any way to make them more bearable? Or any good alternatives? (I could wash my hair in the kitchen sink, but the water there is just as cold.)
I’m a bit like you. Cold showers are torture. I have had to endure them, and was told that if you wet the back of your neck first, it helps. I don’t seem to remember it doing much good though. It may work for some, or it may be utter bunkum. Either way, I don’t pretend to present it as a cite-laden General Questions-type solution, but I guess it can’t hurt to try.
Jump under the water - well, not literally - you might slip - but steel yourself and get wet quickly, and all over, then step out of the water and soap yourself all over, stepping back in to rinse it off (by which time it might feel warmer, as you’ll have been shivering in the air).
I think this is actually the best advice. Generally, you get more clean in a shower than with a strip wash, but to be honest, you probably won’t in this one if you’re ducking in and out, and getting out of there as soon as you can. Microwave sounds like the best option.
Most gyms (around here, anyway) offer free 1-week trials. Spend a lackluster 20 minutes on the treadmill, then enjoy all the hot shower you want. While you’re at it, pick the nicest gym in town and enjoy the whirlpool and sauna. Downside - saying a firm no to the sales pitch that will follow.
If that’s not a possibility in your area, my one suggestion would be to apply shampoo to dry hair before you start your shower. Then just rinse the shampoo out. It’s a little quicker. You might also be able to do this to your whole body with liquid soap.
Put a space heater in the bathroom a bit before you shower? Make the room warmer than usual so the cool water is tolerable? Or, you could just boil some water and have a bath? Boil some big pots of water, and pour them into a partially filled tub?
In a microwave? I was gonna suggest this as that’s exactly what we did when our power was turned off last year, but we were lucky. We had a turkey fryer handy and propane is relatively cheap. It is really hard to carry those big, giant pots of scalding hot water, though.
I meant on the stove top. Have those hotpad glove things, and be VERY careful pouring! Don’t fill the pot all the way, better to heat four pots, then quick go for more. The bath won’t be toasty, but it’ll be at least tepid which is better than cold. ETA: It is important to have some water already in the tub when you go to pour the boiling water in. What I did when I had to do this was turn on the faucet, get the hotpads on, carefully tote a pot of water to the tub, pour, refill, replace with each pot. Just make sure to consider how easily you can get that hot pot off the stove and extricated from the other hot pots without spilling. nod
I’m confused. You say the gas water heater would work if you got the pilot relit, but your gas stove (which I assume has its own pilot which has to be easier to get to) won’t?
Ah, I missed the bit where Sampiro said his stove was gas. (I was lucky, the stove was electric when I had to heat water on the stovetop for a bath…) Well, use the space heater idea I proposed, I guess, or as another said, warm some water in the mircrowave (BE SURE TO STIR IT BEFORE YOU TOUCH IT!!!) and give yourself a “cat bath”?
Do you have gas or not? In one place you say you just need the pilot light on your gas hot water heater lit, and then regarding your stove you say you don’t have any gas at all. Which is it?
Run a cold bath and let it warm to room temp and take a bath instead. Or do the same with a space heater warming the room at the same time.
Do not under any circumstances put the space heater into the tub while listening to the climax of “White Rabbit”, however.
ETA: It is important to have some water already in the tub when you go to pour the boiling water in. What I did when I had to do this was turn on the faucet, get the hotpads on, carefully tote a pot of water to the tub, pour, refill, replace with each pot. Just make sure to consider how easily you can get that hot pot off the stove and extricated from the other hot pots without spilling. nod