How To Use European Shower Fixtures
What's up with the showers in Europe??
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:04 PM
What's up with the showers in Europe??
Nosotros but returned from visiting Vienna, Prague and Munich. Lovely cities, cracking vacation, nice hotels. Only my questions are: Why do even the newest bathrooms still use those funky hand-held showers? And why don't they believe in shower curtains or doors? I got actually tired of trying to use the shower head and not getting water all over the floor. Is there some trick to using those blasted things?
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:07 PM
Join Engagement: Feb 2003
Posts: 165
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You accept been really unlucky with your hotels. In 35 years of travelling around Europe, the times that I didn't have a decent shower with fixed shower caput and shower curtain /door, have been very few and far between.
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:08 PM
Bring together Engagement: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,605
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If you lot are talking about a bathtub with a handheld spray nozzle, the deal is you are to accept a bath and then use the sprayer to aid rinse off. It isn't meant to be used as a stand-upwardly shower.
Of form, if in that location is a bracket higher upwardly to hang the handheld nozzle, I tin see why someone would try to shower with information technology.
I take stayed at a few hotels that had shower curtains, a couple that had those 1/2 doors, and so just the tub thing.
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:11 PM
Bring together Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,247
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I love hose European tubs with hand held showers , just remodeled my bathroom and had one put in!
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:36 PM
Bring together Appointment: October 2003
Posts: 57,890
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You have in fact identified one of the major mysteries of travel in europe. I can;t tell yous how many hotels I have stayed in that take these "showers" - yeah with brackets high enough in the wall to shower with - and no curtain or door or etc. (And this was non a mistake - the room was rented "with shower".)
I accept given up trying to make sense of them. I but shower away - and if the entire room is soaked - let the hotel deal with it. If it happens often enought they may get the vivid idea to put up a shower drape.
(FYI I asked them abut this at one hotel in French republic and they said how would they hang a curtain - I can't imagine they accept an entire country without extendable shower pall rods - but maybe they practice.)
Jun 19th, 2004, 07:52 PM
Bring together Appointment: Feb 2003
Posts: ix,633
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on ane Mail
Their idea is that, since the flooring is tile, it's MEANT to get moisture. Yes, it's for a shower, not to rinse off bath suds. I, as a house guest, asked my host this question in 1978; he wasn't troubled in the to the lowest degree that water got on the flooring; it's supposed to, he said. If in that location'due south a lot of h2o, just throw a towel on the floor, he said.
(Brand new house, as well, it was).
Nosotros must be conscientious not to impute our American practices and values to others in the world; sometimes theirs make more sense. Later on all, parking structures in Germany, Czech Rep, and elsewhere have 24/7 machines that take money or card in exchange for parking time tickets; nosotros have.......$7/hour parking attendents which, for the same time period, toll (with payroll taxes) $70,000/year.
Jun 19th, 2004, 08:06 PM
Join Date: January 2003
Posts: 6,019
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The hotels I used in Vienna had great shower enclosures. The apartment we rented in the Ötztal for a week had a keen shower compartment with an automatic h2o temperature control device that I wish I had.
Even the room nosotros had at Landhaus Christoph in Heiligenblut had a decent shower. So did the Sallerhof Pension outside Salzburg.
Jun 19th, 2004, 08:17 PM
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,548
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I have traveled in quite a few countries in Europe, and have been in Vienna and Prague (not Munich), and accept never once had a hotel without a shower door if information technology was indeed a shower, not but a sprayer to rinse off. A few hotels only had tubs, and of course they accept the sprayer to rinse off (as is mutual in Europe), just it wasn't a shower. Those did not have a high claw on the wall implying it was a stand-up shower, however.
Perhaps y'all but need to stay in a college level of hotel, I don't know. I've have never had that problem, even in ii* hotels. And so maybe you were merely unlucky on meridian of that.
Jun 20th, 2004, 09:27 AM
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It'southward ever interesting to hear what other travelers run across.
Nosotros were in a iv-star hotel in Vienna (which we loved-- the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth) where the hand- shower nozzle was mounted high plenty to stand up underneath. And yeah, the floor was tile, so wasn't damaged by water. But we used all our towels merely sopping upward the h2o so nosotros could finish getting ready in the bathroom without slipping and sliding.
Our hotel in Munich was iii-star and had a make new bathroom. (We also loved this place, the Hotel Uhland, right by the Oktoberfest park.) The shower stall used the partially affixed shower sprayer and actually had doors-- but nil at the bottom of the doors to stop the water from running all over the floor. The first shower that I took, I hadn't been aware of this and institute water standing on the bathroom floor that had actually leaked onto the carpeting exterior the door! Not a good thing. Then, we created a dam past folding and placing the bathmat strategically, and that worked somewhat.
In Prague, our alimony was three-star with a shower head partially mounted over a bathtub. (The Pension U Lilie.) Even trying to sit downward and use it was uncomfortable. I thought my back would go out trying to achieve for the darned matter, and information technology was not fun getting common cold before spraying off. I guess I'k a wimp!
I'm a chip compulsive about not damaging things, so it bothers me to inundation anyone'south flooring. Anyway, not a big deal, nosotros loved our hotels and didn't spend time reflecting on this while at that place. I am just curious why the do persists. It can't exist piece of cake for them to deal with mopping upward subsequently shower-happy Americans. I nevertheless find it odd.
Jun 20th, 2004, 10:17 AM
Bring together Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 400
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I must have stayed in about 200 hotels in Europe and I've never encountered this arrangement.
Jun 20th, 2004, 10:25 AM
Bring together Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 74,699
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hello maureen,
Nosotros use these at domicile.
The betoken of a hand-held shower is that it is to be held in the hand, close to the skin.
You lot aim information technology so that information technology does not splash on the floor.
Yous rinse. Plough the water off. Soap up. Rinse. Repeat, if necessary.
This saves water.
Jun 20th, 2004, 10:36 AM
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 661
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I remember the point is that if you enquire for a room with a bath, you get a bath. The sprayer is for rinsing off, and perhaps they added the sprayer-holder later for people who really wanted to take a shower. But I find plastic shower curtains rather dodgy and a glass wall for a bath is kind of difficult to place.
If y'all prefer showers to baths (as I do), ask for a room with a real shower, and information technology should have protection of any kind as well.
Jun 20th, 2004, 01:05 PM
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 190
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I think some of this confusion peculiarly near the wet bath floors comes from the fact that some parts in Europe ALL the baths are wetrooms while other parts they are not. In Norway f. inst. every new bath MUST be a wetroom, while in Kingdom of belgium in that location are no such requirements. So in a wetroom it's no problem getting the flooring wet and the owner should not listen at all... While if the floor is not a wetroom yous have to make sure it doesn't get wet since that will lead to the floor getting destroyed by mold/humidity. FYI: a wetroom is a room where the flooring is covered with some waterproof roofing and the floor is slanted towards the drain. A high threshold to block whatsoever overflowing water is normal besides.
And personally I was mystified when I visisted a 4 star Chicago hotel concluding year and the floor was Non a wetroom, but I suppose that might not exist standard there. 
Cobos
Jun 20th, 2004, 01:37 PM
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: iii,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Showers without curtains are more or less the standard way it is done in Europe, hotels and apartments. The douche room gets soaked and so what? I've been in about 30 countries over at that place and hundreds of hotels and it is always a pleasant surprise when I see a shower curtain, well-nigh fifty% of the fourth dimension.
Every bit for some "trick to using those blasted things" MaureenB, I effort to aim information technology toward the wall while rotating myself to rinse downwardly. This doesn't piece of work 100% and so the floor gets wet, whereupon I throw the towel in the pool.
Jun 20th, 2004, 02:24 PM
Bring together Appointment: Oct 2003
Posts: 57,890
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Ira -
That works fine except when washing your hair - after you lot lather you need both hands complimentary to rinse while the water is running - so have to practise the same with cream rtnse. I know in someparts of europe its non that common to wash your hair every twenty-four hour period - but even if its every ii days those hand held guys just don;t work.
And we're always certain to enquire for a shower - frankly nosotros don;t care if there'southward a bath or non - and have found this often even in four* hotels.
Jun 20th, 2004, 02:30 PM
Join Appointment: Jan 2003
Posts: two,049
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Nosotros accept an former house with pocket-sized bathrooms, so on our trips we took note of what nosotros liked in the small-scale bathrooms in Europe. We ended up incorporating the hand-held shower head (granted, in a tub with shower door), a bidet, and a towel heater powerful plenty to warm the entire room. Its a definite improvement over what nosotros had before.
Jun 20th, 2004, 02:57 PM
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,433
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Does anyone know what the reward is too having this type of wetroom bathroom?
I can think of a few disadvantages.
A wet tile floor is slippery, a wet tile floor with lather & shampoo rest is very glace.
After the flooring dries information technology will leave a flick from the soap and shampoo. This soap film will also settle in betwixt the tiles in the grout.
In hotels I've stayed at with this setup it seems the flooring never completely slopes towards the drain, so the water pools. And a few times the drain was capped but did allow the water to drain simply *very slowly*. And then a 5 min shower would overflow into the bedroom and soak the carpet. Although the bathroom's electrical must accept information technology'due south ain (ground mistake) excursion breaker which trips before a person can be electrocuted. You are standing in water with a metallic drain in the floor, so you are grounded. So in the unlikely effect (but not impossible) that something electrical did malfunction, the merely thing between you and 220V is a 20e circuit breaker. I'm certain that 220V electrical outlets are't immune in the bathroom, I'm thinking more along the lines of the mirror lightbulbs, switches and those very low amp shaver outlets which could malfunction. Regards, Walter
Jun 20th, 2004, 03:31 PM
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 190
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I volition add that in well-nigh cases of wetrooms I've seen they ALSO have proper shower curtains or shower stalls or similar. And assuming the drain actually works you should bleed the floor within the infinitesimal. And not to mention in Norway at least every bathroom that is less than 20 years old has heating under the tiles or other roofing so that the water will evaporate. Of form the problem with soapy water is normally very small since the bleed in the floor is in addition to the one inside the shower/bath, so only the h2o splashed outside the shower escapes... Of course if the water gets between the tiles you should contact your plumber to ready your faulty bathroom right away, as that problem is only as serious every bit not having a wetroom bath. I've experienced that in a new bath, and and so the whole bath had to be redone (and it was done free of accuse as well). Every bit you can see nosotros Norwegians take our bathrooms seriously simply because winter temperatures some of the places that is no wonder.
Sindre
Jun 20th, 2004, 03:54 PM
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 3,323
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
A proper wetroom has no toilet or bowl in it, just showerheads - a ceiling rose, and several jets from the sides. The idea is you lot can have a much larger showering area and no sense of being enclosed. Of form the bathroom should be large - and the wetroom acts equally an ante/mail room which is separate.
Every hotel I stay at has a split shower cubicle, and a bath with handheld shower. No problems there.
Jun 20th, 2004, 04:12 PM
Join Date: January 2003
Posts: 1,433
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Cobos: My fault, I wasn't clear on what I meant.
A wetroom is a very practical thought for a bath no uncertainty. And I'm very jealous of Norwegian's bathrooms with heated floor tiles (I live in New England).
The wetrooms I question are the ones where the water floods the room itself, either considering of no shower curtain or ordinarily because a curtain or then calorie-free-weight that it gets sucked into the shower/tub area.
Regards, Walter
Source: https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/what-s-up-with-the-showers-in-europe-443774/
0 Response to "How To Use European Shower Fixtures"
Post a Comment