# Plumbing question/problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473 "2012-07-17T01:56:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/1 "2012-07-17T01:56:09Z")
I have several bathrooms in my house. An up stairs with toilet and sink. About 20% use A main floor tub/shower, sink and toilet about 70% of all bathroom use is with this. A downstairs rec room toilet, sink, and shower (no tub) about 10% use. I have a functioning urinal in my garage but it’s so rarely used I’ll set it at 0%. I’ve done enough experimenting to be able to say with confidence that using the facilities in any part of the house does not affect any other, EXCEPT: When the shower is on in the main floor and the downstairs toilet is flushed, the main floor shower starts blasting cold water. When the main floor tub is on this doesn’t happen. Why would this only happen with the shower?😕 And Why cold water? My downstairs toilet is not connected to the hot water pipes. Luckily my downstairs bathroom is not used enough for this to be a pressing issue except on my inquisitive mind. So…? WTF?😕 ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/2 "2012-07-17T02:32:10Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I have a functioning urinal in my garage I’m sorry I have no answer to your question, I just wanted to say wow, cool! How come you don’t use it? Is it because you pee in the garage sink? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/3 "2012-07-17T02:43:01Z")
Your hot and cold water are actually connected anywhere you have a single handled faucet, but the problem doesn’t usually manifest with MORE cold water coming out when you flush the toilet. Anywhere you have a single handled faucet, you have one cartridge, if it breaks, you’ve effectively connected your entire system. Also, in your shower, you have an anti-scald valve which has a rubber diaphragm that can break. But like I said, above, more cold water coming out when there’s a pressure drop on the cold water side isn’t the typical symptom of any of these things going bad. The typical complaint from a home owner is that cold water from a specific faucet (the one nearest the problem) gets them tepid/warm water. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/4 "2012-07-17T02:43:09Z")
The toilet flush lowers the pressure in the hot water lines enough that the cold water dominates. I’m assuming it’s a single handle mixer on the shower/tub. The extra height of the shower allows that to happen while it doesn’t affect the tub (though I’d bet the output from the tub does get colder). You might be missing a back flow preventer somewhere, or the pressure bladder on your hot water tank isn’t working. You might think the pressure loss would be in the cold water lines, but they’re generally less complex and take a shorter route than the hot water lines. A plumbing expert could tell you about the pipe configurations that make that likely to happen. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/5 "2012-07-17T02:49:52Z")
> [@ethelbert](#): > > I’m sorry I have no answer to your question, I just wanted to say wow, cool! How come you don’t use it? Is it because you pee in the garage sink? 🙂 It’s just a “water closet”. A tiny, tiny little room (closet, actually) in the garage that has a functioning urinal in it. No sink/toilet/shower or anything else. Don’t know if it was originally here when the house/garage were built, but it was there when we bought it. It’s to the side parallel to how cars are parked, with a door, so not something you can see when the garage door is opened or anything like that. The garage, while 2 car, is actually small. All my tools/snow blower/lawn mower, etc. are kept in a yard barn. There really is nothing to do in the garage other than get in/out of a car so taking a leak there is an extremely rare occurrence. ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plumbing-question-problem/628473/6 "2012-07-18T01:02:34Z")
> [@](#): > > And Why cold water? My downstairs toilet is not connected to the hot water pipes. Are you sure? I have a water tempering valve on my toilet and it has malfunctioned in the past. That and the new hot water heaters have a flow control device/valve in the output connection. I removed this in the new heater I put in last winter. And a blast of cold water is so much better than a blast of scalding hot water. My opinion on this problem may require a couple of flow controls and that could be check valves or gate valves set at the best flow.