Hot and Cold or Cold and Hot?

Hot on the left is standard practice. I don't know if it is law though.

Agreed. Hot is almost almost almost invariably on the left. But that doesn't prevent the weird oddball installation.

Similar to light switches. Up = on on my neck of the woods, but elsewhere in the world down = on.

Down here in 'middle earth' our bathroom and kitchen faucets are hot-left, cold-right.

It is my understanding that this is industry standard.

I would think it is relevant for the visually impaired, but I expect they'd feel the taps to see which was warmer anyway?
Where does the word faucet come from? I can see tap, as you tap off liquid from a barrel... any ideas? Faucet sounds bonkers to everyone except the US, we all snigger when you aren't listening...tee hee they say faucet.
Del

Looks like it's from your neighbors.

From www.dictionary.com

faucet

c.1400, from O.Fr. fausset "stopper," perhaps dim. of L. faux, fauc- "throat." Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. Faucet is now the common word in Amer.Eng. for the whole apparatus.

A faucet refers specifically to indoor usage you have a garden tap out doors and a water faucet indoors, but then that moves the discussion onto indoor bathing and outhouses and it all flows downhill after that.

It's the derivation of the word that interests me.. what does "faucet" derive from? Maybe if the tap is stuck you have to 'force it' ?
Del

It's the derivation of the word that interests me.. what does "faucet" derive from? Maybe if the tap is stuck you have to 'force it' ?
Del

Here in Maryland anyway, I don't hear a spigot or a faucet being called a "tap" too often. I think these terms are used most often, even outdoors.

An outside faucet is a "hose bib" on most drawings, and if you try to get one at the hardware store. It's crazy. I have never heard a normal person ever call the outside spigot a "hose bib"

From my old buddy Wikipedia:

"In most countries, there is a 'standard' arrangement of hot/cold taps: for example in the United States and Canada, the hot tap is on the left by building code requirements. This convention applies in the UK too, but many installations exist where it has been ignored."

So, there you have it. If it is on the 'net, it must be true.

Yup, even out here in the boonies - hot left, cold right!

shit don't run uphill!

Oh yes it can............and when it does.........that's what you call getting your own back.........and everybody else's!!!

Interesting.

The problem for me was that I grew up in a double wide house and some where hot on the left and others where hot on the right depending on what sink you used and labeled as so. Plus my house has hot on the right in the kitchen but hot on the left in the bathroom but then hot on the right again for the washing machine connections. My friends house had the all of the hots on the right for both the bathroom, kitchen, and washing machine but the hot is on the left for the basement sink. I have also seen countless hotels with the hot and cold on either side for the sink and shower.

So you can see from my experiences I have never had any solid points of reference to which is the right or wrong way!

Having lived in a single wide..I'm assuming that the plumbing arrangements in the double wide were because the lines ran along the middle/join of the two halves.

The other variety of arrangements could be because of (original) choice by the occupier/builder?

When I was in high school, I worked as a go-fer for an electrician. We worked a housing project and followed a plumber around. He told me all I needed to know to be a first class plumber's helper was, "HOT on the left, COLD on the right, poop don't flow up hill, pay day's on Friday and the boss is a SOB". That settled it for me!

Agree with JackofAllTrades that convention in Oz is Hot-on-Left, Cold-on-Right.

However I am also of the understanding that this convention is overruled when over a bath, where you would put the Cold tap on the side closest to you. The reason behind this was to reduce the possibility of an unsupervised child turning on the bath and scalding themselves by getting into a tub of hot water, because it was more likely that they would generally turn on the tap closest to them.

Tony

I believe the convention is based on the fact that most people are right-handed. normally people don't want to scald themselves.

thus, it's become an industry standard.

Hot water from the faucet??? You have hot water from the faucet??? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of showering? I mean, I thought one showered to cool off....

Not all of us live in paradise!

I remember when I was in Qatar in 86 - we turned off the hot water heater and used it as a chiller. The 'cold' water entering the house was to hot to shower in - the pipes were apparently a bit close to the surface outside.

If the taps in a shower are mounted one above the other...........is the top tap the hot tap?

regardless of convention, it is a good idea to keep the hot water the most 'out of reach' for todders... so the higher or further away from the tub entry would be smart.

"If the taps in a shower are mounted one above the other"

In this case, I think the installer was drinking too much.

in this case, Bob, the manufacturer is to blame.

when your eyes are blinded by the soap and you're groping for the handle, pray it's the right one...

I have seen this in many places..........apart from private homes, in hotels and motels (those that don't have flash mixers)

Hot and cold running water INSIDE a house??????

Evidence based answer: Think back to how many restrooms you've been in where C was on the left and H on the right?

Pedantic answer: Depends on whether the user(s) like to use the "crossover" move. Depends on what country and what language. Depends on whether most users are Right or Left-handed. Depends on whether the brain is male or female. Doesn't really depend on anything.

So why is the water dispensing fixture called a "tap"?

Because we're not tapping barrels anymore for our beer. And the actual mechanism was a type of gate valve to dispense the liquid.

Now, spigot seems very appropo.

1. hot is left side, cold is right side.

2.righty tighty, lefty loosey

3.red and yellow kill a fellow, red and black venom lack.

4.red sky in morning, sailors take warning, red sky at night, sailors delight.

The only true constant is number 3

Number 2 not being constant really messed with the tire shops on my old dodge pickup truck.

One side had normal threaded lugnuts, one side had reverse or left handed lugs.

On two different occasions, the left hand threaded side had to get cut off with a blowtorch, because they kept cranking up the pressure, trying to remove them with the air wrench turning to the left.

Somehow i always forgot to warn them that the "L" stamped in the lug stud meant it was backwards, lol. hehe. Im a tree guy, not a mechanic...

Thats the great thing about ditties they are location specific

No 3 red belly black snake, red back spider

As noted by many others, the convention is hot on the left. As noted by a few, this has been documented in building codes, at least in the USA.

What I haven't seen anyone else mention yet, single-control fixtures such as many shower knobs are provided with a visual guide that indicates turning (the top of) the knob or lever further to the left will provide more hot water. This may only be a case of design hewing to convention, but there it is.

I was recently involve in a project that included a rather elegant (and expensive) single lever kitchen fixture from a well-known manufacturer (I believe it was a US manufacturer, but may be misinformed on this), installed by someone else. The owner of the project noted that the lever worked reverse to be expected- move it to the right for hot water, to the left for cold water. We studied the installation to determine if the fixture had been reversed or possibly assembled incorrectly, and came to the conclusion that it had been installed as intended by the manufacturer, and that the location of discrete blue and red dots suggested that the lever was selecting hot and cold in accordance with the manufacturer's intention- reverse of what one would expect from our understanding of "convention"...

Rules are made to be broken...

Was the fixture designed to be facing 180 degrees? And at some point installer realized the outlet would be wrong, and saved himself trouble and just switched the outlet side? That would have left the 2 inlets reversed underneath the sink.

bob_c-

The fixture had been installed in accordance with manufacturer's instructions, and no, 180 degrees off would have made the handle inaccessible. Lines not crossed- first thing we looked at. The key was the little red and blue dots- the fixture worked as the manufacturer "intended" it to work. At what stage in the design/manufacture of the product this particular intention was locked in is not clear...

I bought a fancy faucet set for my bathroom sink.It was a reduced price special at Home Depot. All of the components were there, so I bought it. As I was installing it I came to realize that I had 2 hot water valves, and no cold water valve. This left me with both of the fancy crystal handles indexed to the left side of the pivot point of the handle. Short of cutting and grinding a new indexing notch in the valve stem, I am stuck with it.

So after all of this it comes down to being an industry standard to have the hot on left and the cold on the right unless of course the company or person building or installing the faucet/tap/valve/thing decides they want it the other way around.

I am right back to where I was when I first posted. Thanks.

Hold on there. You started this crap, now finish it to the ugly end. What about when the handles are top and bottom. We need an answer to this.

tcmtech wrote: So after all of this it comes down to being an industry standard to have the hot on left and the cold on the right unless of course the company or person building or installing the faucet/tap/valve/thing decides they want it the other way around.

Sandman in #22 cited and quoted the (international) code that says hot on the left. At least one other person mentioned it was also in US plumbing codes.

Sandman did mention an exception for properly marked shower and tub/shower mixing valves.

So I don't think that's back to where you were when you posted this.