# Which way would would you turn this faucet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582 "2007-01-11T17:39:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/1 "2007-01-11T17:39:17Z")
If you wanted to get hot water out of the faucet illustrated in the linked-to picture, which way would you turn it - the way illustrated in Figure A, or the way illustrated in Figure B? [Picture here](http://evilrepublic.com/hotcold.png) In case it’s not obvious, the picture is looking from the top down on a faucet with a single handle that you twist left or right in order to set the water temperature. The faucets in my office building are all connected in a way that seems completely backwards to me - but I thought I’d check to see what the popular opinion on here was. They are all connected properly, I checked with the manufacturer’s instructions, but the design just seems screwed up to me. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/2 "2007-01-11T17:42:00Z")
Figure A. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/3 "2007-01-11T17:50:27Z")
Figure A ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/4 "2007-01-11T17:54:54Z")
Fig. A ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/5 "2007-01-11T17:55:59Z")
All else being equal: A. The red dot indicates the side of the faucet toward which to turn the handle in order to get hot water. I would not expect to try to line up the red dot on any axis, just move it in the “normal” direction (with normal defined as every other faucet produced in the U.S. by Crane, Delta, or Moen or the other typical suppliers). If the building has been furnished by some odd company with a fetish for doing weird things , then all bets are off. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/6 "2007-01-11T18:00:42Z")
A. The only time I might even consider going away from the red for hot water would be if the dots were reversed. I would consider it more likely for the dots to be “wrong” than the whole tap. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/7 "2007-01-11T18:00:48Z")
Figure A ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/8 "2007-01-11T18:03:15Z")
Figure A. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/9 "2007-01-11T18:06:24Z")
Damn! Hit submit too soon. Figure A UNLESS I was in a Chicago apartment, in which case all bets are off and you just have to try both. Lots of us have plumbing that’s plumb (or should that be plumbed) backwards. I heard once (read:“this is probably not true, but I’ll do my part to spread disinformation anyway”) that a huge percentage of Eastern European plumbers in Chicagoland in the 30’s-70’s plumbed our pipes like they were back home - hot on the right. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/10 "2007-01-11T18:07:33Z")
Figure A. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/11 "2007-01-11T18:08:12Z")
A. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/12 "2007-01-11T18:09:46Z")
Okay, that seems pretty universal. But yet, as you might have already guessed, all the faucets here are connected so that Figure B is the correct answer. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/13 "2007-01-11T18:11:29Z")
My mother has a similar faucet in her shower. For her it would be “B”. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/14 "2007-01-11T18:13:30Z")
It’s bad design, because it’s not intuitively obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/15 "2007-01-11T18:13:52Z")
[QUOTE=Absolute] Okay, that seems pretty universal. But yet, as you might have already guessed, all the faucets here are connected so that Figure B is the correct answer. Weird. [/QUOTE] Not just weird – but wrong. Hot water is on the left, cold water on the right. Every plumber knows that (or so said the plumber who helped me re-plumb my bathroom several years ago.) It’s possible somebody screwed up the specs and the hot water supply comes up on the wrong side of each faucet. But I’ve seen those taps before and everybody else on this thread is right – Figure A is how it’s supposed to be. At least according to my plumber friend (who also enjoys beer in great quantities, so Lord knows how accurate he is.) ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/16 "2007-01-11T18:28:16Z")
Just had this argument with a friend a few days ago. They should work like Fig A. All single-handle faucets you push to the side that the separate handle would be on - which is the left side. (Except that I kept saying “right” when arguing the other day, and had to end up with “You know, the OTHER right!”. Hate that.) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/17 "2007-01-11T18:48:29Z")
Hmm, My first thought was “b”. The way I see it, you move the desired temp towards the spout. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/18 "2007-01-11T18:54:39Z")
“A”. [http://www.baddesigns.com/intro.html](http://www.baddesigns.com/intro.html) ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/19 "2007-01-11T19:18:35Z")
**Trunk** , I really, really hope you don’t think I have any bad intentions, as I followed your link before I realized who posted it. That being said, I think the person who pointed out all those bad designs in the link … simply wasn’t very bright. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582/20 "2007-01-11T19:32:33Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] > **[Bad Designs - Introduction](http://www.baddesigns.com/intro.html)** [/QUOTE] Is the crappy design of the web page supposed to be ironic? 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-way-would-would-you-turn-this-faucet/387582.md?page=2)