Flush! Then Scalding Hot Water No More | Showering Enthusiast

Diamondback Online:

For freshmen, initiation into the dorm showers is quick and painful: the sound of a flushing toilet followed quickly by a scalding fusillade of hot water.

“It’s annoying because at home it doesn’t do that and so we aren’t used to it,” said sophomore Erin Lavelle. “At home I can take a nice shower without the water temperature changing every five seconds.”

Unlike the ominous freshman 15 or the dining hall’s mystery meat, this hazard is simple to fix - for $27,000 per North Campus dorm. Residential Facilities is forking over the cash to replace showers across the campus with a new faucet system. The new shower valves keep temperatures consistent, regardless of what other utilities are using water, Residential Facilities Director Jon Dooley said.

The valves have already been installed in Cecil, Cumberland, Centreville, Denton, Elkton and La Plata Halls, as well as all the dorms, such as Queen Anne’s Hall, that have recently undergone major renovations. The department will install the valve systems in four floors of Hagerstown Hall during winter break and the other four floors next summer, he said.

The scalding water problem occurs because two separate pipes carry water to bathrooms, one with very cold water and the other with very hot water. When someone flushes the toilet - which uses only cold water - some of the cold water en route to the shower is diverted, but the hot water flow is uninterrupted, resulting in a few seconds of misery for unsuspecting bathers.

To rectify the issue, Residential Facilities will pay between $450 and $700 per valve, Dooley said. He added almost all the valves he will buy will be in the cheaper end of that range. Only the handicap-accessible showers require the more expensive parts…