The mixer tap, brilliant invention, and yet something that seems to have passed Britain by.
You'll get Americans coming over here and asking why our taps look like they're from the 1940's.
And even here, in my parents' bathroom -- I'm visiting my folks this weekend and they
just had a new bathroom put in -- separate hot and cold taps.
And there are all sorts of theories about why that might be, generally revolving
around 'Well we're British,' and 'Stiff upper lip,' and 'You know we don't need mixer taps. We've never had them.'
And well, that's partly true, but it also goes back to how houses in Britain were constructed after World War II.
In most old British houses there's a cold water storage tank up in the attic. It's reasonably sized, about 250 liters,
and that in turn feeds a hot water storage tank that's for the central heating,
and for hot water in the bathroom, and in the kitchen, and so on.
But the trouble is that might not be entirely safe drinking water. Because that cold water storage tank,
in some houses that weren't properly maintained, might have been open to the elements, or silted up, or covered
with iron rust, or, in one particular case you can read about, have a couple of dead rats floating in it.
That water might technically not be drinkable. And under the regulations - I looked up the regulations -
it is not counted as drinking water. The cold, meanwhile, at least certainly in the kitchen, and sometimes the
bathroom, too, the cold water comes straight from the mains. That counts as drinkable.
So here's the thing: You have cold, safe, the regulations call it 'wholesome', drinking water, and you have,
well, almost certainly safe but not technically, not legally under the regulations, hot water.
And never the twain shall meet. If you have a mixer tap, then technically, the unsafe hot water, in the worst case
scenario, when there is a backwash valve failure and the mains turns off, that unsafe water could go back,
backwash through all the systems, and go out to contaminate the rest of the street or the rest of the
water system. That's not legal, therefor no mixer tap. You don't cross the streams. Nowadays, of course,
it's a little bit different. This house had its hot water tank ripped out a few months ago. The attic is now just a big
empty space again. And, well, there is a very modern, shiny bit of technology downstairs that heats up water
on demand. All new built houses go this way. If they've got mixer taps, it'll be absolutely fine. But...
I remember being told as a kid 'never drink from the hot water tap.' And that stuck with me. Even now, if there is a mixer tap
and I want to drink from it, I will run the cold water for a few seconds just to make sure anything that's unsafe
has come out of it. Even now old habits die hard. And sometimes these things just feel a bit safer.
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