mises.org— You don't have to be a libertarian to like a good shower. A fellow from Mises explains how to hack your shower-head to circumvent government-imposed flow rate limitations.
Jan 10, 2006View in Crawl 4
magog said "Ok, I get it. adding "hack" to the headings is just a joke to infuriatethe pedants who continually try to explain otherwise. I always get achuckle out of it. If not, how can u idiots be serious.About the wasting water. In Sydney, Australia the dam level is around45%, lowest its been in decades. Do u idiots think its ok toluxuriously blast water down the drain just because youve paid for it.How about pulling your heads out and realize you are living with otherpeople, not on your own island. Unless you are, in which case go aheadand waste ur resource, you'll soon be thankfull for your foresight."How is it "wasting" water when we have the same amount of water on the earth as we did x thousands of years ago? What is it supposed to be going out into space when it goes down my drain? I'll use what I pay for, everyone else can get over it.
All the people complaining about the environment, get over it. If you live in a desert then you might expect to have water shortages. There is already TOO much government now so more laws is not what we need, just common sense.I get my water out of a well that I paid to have drilled. I will use that water anyway i see to useit. I modify all my shower heads.
Wow, for a bunch of libertarians, you guys are pretty touchy. How was my post off-topic or a flame? The reference to waco was clearly in passing, not the point; the point was shower heads and libertarianism, exactly like 50% of the other posts here (the rest being debates about the meaning of the word "hack"). I'll risk the wrath of the moderators and repost, removing the one profanity. Please feel free to debate the ideas, if you libertarians have any. Your notions of property are particularly naive, so that might be a good place to start."You libertarians are pretty dumb. "It's my water, I paid for it;" "It's my well, I dug it on my own property;" "No government regs are gonna stop me from doing what I want in my own house;" "All water is recycled by nature anyway, so let it run down the drain;" etc. You're hurting the rest of us by wasting our water resources. "Boo hoo," you say. Well, that's why we have to regulate your butts, and bust them too if you go Waco on us. Enjoy your wasteful showers and your guns while you have them, because we responsible people are going to take them away eventually. Boo hoo."
"You libertarians are pretty dumb. "It's my water, I paid for it;" "It's my well, I dug it on my own property;" "No government regs are gonna stop me from doing what I want in my own house;" "All water is recycled by nature anyway, so let it run down the drain;" etc. You're hurting the rest of us by wasting our water resources. "Boo hoo," you say. Well, that's why we have to regulate your butts, and bust them too if you go Waco on us. Enjoy your wasteful showers and your guns while you have them, because we responsible people are going to take them away eventually. Boo hoo."Enjoy your head while it's still attached to your body you fascist assh**e. I'd like to see you try to take away a libertarian's gun or modded shower head!
After moving to a building with the newer 2.5gpm showerheads, I found myself taking twice as long showers and not even feeling refreshed. So, I got a cheap ($8) all-plastic Waterpic brand showerhead from WalMart and easily popped out the restrictors and drilled out the hole a little bigger. Since it was plastic, it was really easy to do with a hand drill and whatever drill bit I had laying around. My shower is now comparable to the pre-1992 laws showerhead that I was used to (around 5gpm). Since I can now get clean in half the time, it's really not wasting any water. In addition to the benefit of saving the time I used to spend trying to rinse my hair with a trickling stream, showering is again a refreshing, not frustrating, part of my day! Also, everyone needs to stop talking about 'wasting water' as if it were oil or something. The last time I consulted a globe, I noticed several large aqueous regions, and the last time I looked at my drain, it still appeared to be water going down the drain. The issue is not wasting water, it's wasting the resources/energy needed to treat and supply the water, so the environmental impact and possibility of shortage depends on where you live. I can see why a nation-wide law is necessary, so that those from the desert, where real water problems can arise, can't just buy showerheads across the state border. I guess that means that the rest of us just have to do a little modification to obtain the basic right to bathe comfortably and happily pay for it.
Now if only someone would find a way to add more water to those stupid low-flush toilets. The problem with the water supply is that it is almost always supplied and regulated by government. What we need is a free market in water. Oh, and the people really wasting water are farmers who get to pay for irrigation with taxpayer funds. They are subsidized to grow crops in the desert. Farmers are our wealthiest welfare recipients.
How about this? I live in the california desert, at the foot of a mountain runoff from which charges the aquifer underground from which my water comes. When the water goes down the drain it goes-guess where? percolates right back down to the aquifer with zero loss. Unlike seattle, new york, los angeles, where rules are made, where the drain water goes into the ocean. Meanwhile tourists from above mentioned cities play golf locally. On courses where millions of gallons of aquifer water are sprayed, daily, with no rate limiters. Half of this is lost permanently to evaporation. And I can't take the rate limiter out of my shower head? I won't use what one golf corse uses in a day in my entire lifetime.
Oh, yeah. The planet is a mess because people use more water than you think they should. Did you ever hear of natural global warming and cooling? What did the people who lived through the little ice age during the medieval times do to cause the earth to cool? Going further back, what did dinosaurs do to cause the extreme fluctuation in temperatures that ultimately resulted in global warming? Go back to science class.
I have lived in Phoenix a couple of times totaling about 6 years. I thought that the water in the Valley came from the White Mountains in eastern Arizona via the SRP with some coming from the Colorado River. I'm unaware of an aquifer being utilized near Phoenix. I'm sure some of Arizona does use an aquifer, but not metro Phoenix. I agree with water conservation in arid regions like Phoenix and wince at the lakes within golf courses and residential developments. Unnecessary. But, in Detroit, where I was born and raised, we have nothing but water. Why the regulations here???
exACTly. I actually found this article because our shower head broke last night so I had to shower this morning without an actual shower head (just a raw pipe coming out of the wall) and was shocked at how much water I got, and how much time I saved because I didn't have to spend 5 minutes trying to get the conditioner out of my hair.
"here in arizona water is a problem."Then feel perfectly free to use a gallon-per-minute "trickle" nozzle.... and keep your nose out of my state and my shower.
"Maybe someone would want to easily flip their shower heads to high flow. For example, in the event of an accidental chemical spill involving a child."Hey, what a great idea.... I'll leave my limiter in place. If my kid gets toilet bowl cleaner in his face, I'll tell him to sit down and wait - I have to go to the garage to hunt up a vise grips or big pliers, then race back to the upstairs bathrom, unscrew my shower nozzle, wrestle with the stupid flow restricting device, run back to the garage for a screwdriver to pop it out, back up to the bathroom to replace the now-finally-functioning-correctly shower nozzle, run back and get my kid, and... oops, no eyeballs.
h0dg3sJan 11, 2006
magog said "Ok, I get it. adding "hack" to the headings is just a joke to infuriatethe pedants who continually try to explain otherwise. I always get achuckle out of it. If not, how can u idiots be serious.About the wasting water. In Sydney, Australia the dam level is around45%, lowest its been in decades. Do u idiots think its ok toluxuriously blast water down the drain just because youve paid for it.How about pulling your heads out and realize you are living with otherpeople, not on your own island. Unless you are, in which case go aheadand waste ur resource, you'll soon be thankfull for your foresight."How is it "wasting" water when we have the same amount of water on the earth as we did x thousands of years ago? What is it supposed to be going out into space when it goes down my drain? I'll use what I pay for, everyone else can get over it.
crazyguyJan 11, 2006
prety cool articel : digg
sdawgJan 11, 2006
All the people complaining about the environment, get over it. If you live in a desert then you might expect to have water shortages. There is already TOO much government now so more laws is not what we need, just common sense.I get my water out of a well that I paid to have drilled. I will use that water anyway i see to useit. I modify all my shower heads.
iraqmaniacJan 12, 2006
woops, I want to move to canada again. again.
yankedJan 12, 2006
Wow, for a bunch of libertarians, you guys are pretty touchy. How was my post off-topic or a flame? The reference to waco was clearly in passing, not the point; the point was shower heads and libertarianism, exactly like 50% of the other posts here (the rest being debates about the meaning of the word "hack"). I'll risk the wrath of the moderators and repost, removing the one profanity. Please feel free to debate the ideas, if you libertarians have any. Your notions of property are particularly naive, so that might be a good place to start."You libertarians are pretty dumb. "It's my water, I paid for it;" "It's my well, I dug it on my own property;" "No government regs are gonna stop me from doing what I want in my own house;" "All water is recycled by nature anyway, so let it run down the drain;" etc. You're hurting the rest of us by wasting our water resources. "Boo hoo," you say. Well, that's why we have to regulate your butts, and bust them too if you go Waco on us. Enjoy your wasteful showers and your guns while you have them, because we responsible people are going to take them away eventually. Boo hoo."
corrosionxJan 21, 2006
"You libertarians are pretty dumb. "It's my water, I paid for it;" "It's my well, I dug it on my own property;" "No government regs are gonna stop me from doing what I want in my own house;" "All water is recycled by nature anyway, so let it run down the drain;" etc. You're hurting the rest of us by wasting our water resources. "Boo hoo," you say. Well, that's why we have to regulate your butts, and bust them too if you go Waco on us. Enjoy your wasteful showers and your guns while you have them, because we responsible people are going to take them away eventually. Boo hoo."Enjoy your head while it's still attached to your body you fascist assh**e. I'd like to see you try to take away a libertarian's gun or modded shower head!
pharder1Aug 16, 2006
After moving to a building with the newer 2.5gpm showerheads, I found myself taking twice as long showers and not even feeling refreshed. So, I got a cheap ($8) all-plastic Waterpic brand showerhead from WalMart and easily popped out the restrictors and drilled out the hole a little bigger. Since it was plastic, it was really easy to do with a hand drill and whatever drill bit I had laying around. My shower is now comparable to the pre-1992 laws showerhead that I was used to (around 5gpm). Since I can now get clean in half the time, it's really not wasting any water. In addition to the benefit of saving the time I used to spend trying to rinse my hair with a trickling stream, showering is again a refreshing, not frustrating, part of my day! Also, everyone needs to stop talking about 'wasting water' as if it were oil or something. The last time I consulted a globe, I noticed several large aqueous regions, and the last time I looked at my drain, it still appeared to be water going down the drain. The issue is not wasting water, it's wasting the resources/energy needed to treat and supply the water, so the environmental impact and possibility of shortage depends on where you live. I can see why a nation-wide law is necessary, so that those from the desert, where real water problems can arise, can't just buy showerheads across the state border. I guess that means that the rest of us just have to do a little modification to obtain the basic right to bathe comfortably and happily pay for it.
mingdamercilessOct 9, 2006
Now if only someone would find a way to add more water to those stupid low-flush toilets. The problem with the water supply is that it is almost always supplied and regulated by government. What we need is a free market in water. Oh, and the people really wasting water are farmers who get to pay for irrigation with taxpayer funds. They are subsidized to grow crops in the desert. Farmers are our wealthiest welfare recipients.
showerheadMar 24, 2007
How about this? I live in the california desert, at the foot of a mountain runoff from which charges the aquifer underground from which my water comes. When the water goes down the drain it goes-guess where? percolates right back down to the aquifer with zero loss. Unlike seattle, new york, los angeles, where rules are made, where the drain water goes into the ocean. Meanwhile tourists from above mentioned cities play golf locally. On courses where millions of gallons of aquifer water are sprayed, daily, with no rate limiters. Half of this is lost permanently to evaporation. And I can't take the rate limiter out of my shower head? I won't use what one golf corse uses in a day in my entire lifetime.
gaylepSep 14, 2008
No, kflott...get in that shower and use as much water as you want to pay for!!!
gaylepSep 14, 2008
Oh, yeah. The planet is a mess because people use more water than you think they should. Did you ever hear of natural global warming and cooling? What did the people who lived through the little ice age during the medieval times do to cause the earth to cool? Going further back, what did dinosaurs do to cause the extreme fluctuation in temperatures that ultimately resulted in global warming? Go back to science class.
sundevilconnorDec 7, 2008
I have lived in Phoenix a couple of times totaling about 6 years. I thought that the water in the Valley came from the White Mountains in eastern Arizona via the SRP with some coming from the Colorado River. I'm unaware of an aquifer being utilized near Phoenix. I'm sure some of Arizona does use an aquifer, but not metro Phoenix. I agree with water conservation in arid regions like Phoenix and wince at the lakes within golf courses and residential developments. Unnecessary. But, in Detroit, where I was born and raised, we have nothing but water. Why the regulations here???
jenandlawFeb 24, 2009
exACTly. I actually found this article because our shower head broke last night so I had to shower this morning without an actual shower head (just a raw pipe coming out of the wall) and was shocked at how much water I got, and how much time I saved because I didn't have to spend 5 minutes trying to get the conditioner out of my hair.
grazzitMar 1, 2009
regulations on watering your lawn I'm fine with regulations on how much f**king water I can use in the shower are ridiculous.
kcindyJun 21, 2009
"here in arizona water is a problem."Then feel perfectly free to use a gallon-per-minute "trickle" nozzle.... and keep your nose out of my state and my shower.
kcindyJun 21, 2009
I detest slow, no-pressure dogpiss showers. Digg.
kcindyJun 21, 2009
"Maybe someone would want to easily flip their shower heads to high flow. For example, in the event of an accidental chemical spill involving a child."Hey, what a great idea.... I'll leave my limiter in place. If my kid gets toilet bowl cleaner in his face, I'll tell him to sit down and wait - I have to go to the garage to hunt up a vise grips or big pliers, then race back to the upstairs bathrom, unscrew my shower nozzle, wrestle with the stupid flow restricting device, run back to the garage for a screwdriver to pop it out, back up to the bathroom to replace the now-finally-functioning-correctly shower nozzle, run back and get my kid, and... oops, no eyeballs.