My wife and I don’t typically shower at the same time (I’m a morning showerer; she’s a night showerer), but last night, I needed a shower and hopped in ahead of her. I commented that I would make it quick so that I didn’t use up all the hot water, which led to an interesting (to me) discussion about shower temperature.
I take what I think (and she thinks) are very hot showers. On the weekends, when I have time for a long shower, I find that I start at a “normal” hot temperature, but that my body quickly adjusts, and that I have to continuously crank up the temperature for the duration in order to keep getting the feeling of a refreshing heat. During these long showers, I always end up having turned the knob as far as it will go in the direction of hot, and I eventually get out of the shower once I can no longer get it any hotter.
My wife finds this…odd, and has commented on more than one occasion when getting in the shower after me that she doesn’t understand how I can take such a hot shower. I don’t have any idea which of us is more unusual in this regard.
So I guess I’m wondering two separate things, here:
Do you typically stay at one temperature setting in your shower, or do you constantly adjust?
Is it more likely that my shower temperature is getting colder (thus causing me to adjust to stay at the same temperature), or that my body is adjusting and needing a hotter “fix” to get the same satisfaction?
Temp: How much hot water capacity does your residence have? Some places start cooling down halfway through a decent shower. Others have functionally infinite hot water.
Time: What do you think of as a short shower? What’s a long one? Big difference between 4 minutes vs. 7 and 20 vs. 30.
Equipment: Do you have old-fashioned direct control shower valve(s), or one of the post 1990s one with an anti-scald feature?
IME:
I’m inherently cold-natured and cold-blooded. I can get cold-soaked through and through in moderate room temps. My wife is the opposite.
Given infinite hot water my showers are longer and hotter than my wife’s. Always have been. I might, sometimes, increase the water temp towards the end. But I might as likely reduce it if I’ve finally started to overheat. Climbing out of the shower actively sweating is no good either.
On average I really enjoy the feeling of almost-too-hot water … at first. But just 10 short minutes later I’m warmed through and had enough of that. Time to climb out before I start sweating.
I’m in a house, and I don’t know the tank capacity. But given that I’m usually adjusting upward within the first minute of stepping in, I don’t really think it has anything to do with capacity.
It is a miracle, even on a weekday morning, for me to get out of a shower in under five minutes. If I have infinite time, they’re usually about 20 minutes long. And they’d be longer, most likely, if I could keep the temperature where I want it. I am VERY grateful to no longer live under SoCal’s water rationing.
Our house was built in '96, so I assume it is the latter, though I’m unfamiliar with the feature you’re describing.
The only time the temperature gets adjusted is when we are in the shower together, because I like a normally hot setting and my wife prefers it when the water is heated up to near-plasma temperatures. I don’t know how she survives it - she would bathe in boiling lava if she could work up a lather.
When by myself, I just set the dial to what I know I prefer, let it warm up, and leave it alone. We don’t generally run out of hot water.
I’d be more than willing to bet the temperature at the end of your shower is pretty low. If she gets in after you and turns the water on with out changing any settings, it’s probably quite hot, hotter.
You’re probably getting used to the temperature, but it’s more likely that the water heater is running out of hot water. Where it started out at 120 degrees and mixing with the cold at the shower, by the middle, maybe it’s 100 and it’s probably close to 70 when you finally give up and get out.
Later, when she gets in, the water heater has recovered but you have the shower set with the hot water turned all the way up.
Even if you have an anti-scald, all that does is limit how high you can turn the knob, you can still catch someone off guard if you have it cranked all the way to one direction and they’re expecting it to be in the middle. It’s more meant to prevent someone from getting sprayed with scalding water if they, for example, slip and fall in the shower and grab the knob on the way down (had a friend get burns over most of her body, requiring skin grafts, when she did that).
Anyways, like others said, just use a thermometer and check it. I’d use a digital kitchen thermometer. Make sure it can read down as low as 60 or so. At the start of a ‘comfortable’ shower, fill up a cup with water and check the temp of that. Near the end, do the same. My guess is that at the beginning it’s about 100-110 and it’s well below that at the end when you run out of hot water.
At least that’s the case for me, I keep turning the hot water knob up to compensate for running out of hot water.
No quarrel with the rest of your post, but just to be clear, we’re often not turning off the water in between our showers. We’re talking about her waiting to hop in as I’m hopping out, so there’s no recovery time involved for the water heater most days.
Still, though, I have to imagine there is at least some cooling taking place over the course of my longer showers.
Okay, then I’d disregard my post and just say that you’re used to it. I’d bet if you reversed it it’s the same. She could probably get it, turn up the water and you might say the same thing. Kind of like how she could be sitting in a hot tub, all the way slunk down with her chin in the water, but you (the general you, maybe not you specifically) will still have to get in slowly because it’s so hot…but after a minute you’re fine.
I keep the temp about the same but do need to get it adjusted/set before entering the shower; I don’t like to adjust it while its all running over me.
I have found in my travels that some showers will seem to cool off or heat up a little slightly into the experience. I asked a plumber about it once and he blamed it on the valves some companies use - that as the water flows hot or cold minor expansions occur restricting one tap or the other. We were drinking at the time so he could have been full of something or other but it almost sounded logical at the time.
Hasn’t been a problem. I’m usually only getting to take a long, hot shower like that once a week. Also, can I have the fire-breathing shower in that picture?!?
I think I’m going to try the temperature measurement that Joey P and others suggested, for the sake of science.
When I lived in the USA, I had a gas water heater. I loved hot baths and had a soaking tub. I noticed if there was no use of hot water, the tank temperature would drop. I would turn on the hot water until the main burner came on, then turn off the hot water faucet. When the main burner turned off, I resumed filling the tub. I had plenty of hot water.
I adjust. I start with “very warm” and progressively move it on to “very hot”. If I’ve got time to kill, I’ll turn the cold supply down some to the heat things up. Then I’ll spend a minute or two soaking it all in to “warm-up” before getting out.
I don’t think the water’s getting colder, or that my body’s getting used to it. I just want it hotter!
Oh, I primarily do this in the winter time. My summer showers are conducted at much cooler water temps with little desire to make things any warmer.