Today’s hotel had the following tap.
- you only have one set of temperature controls
- you can only have a shower *or* a bath; not both simultaneously
- the dial on the front lets you choose between bath/shower. It rotates clockwise 90degress to the horizontal position, but immediately falls back to pointing vertically down; there was no click/resistance/activator, so I assumed it was broken. However, when you turn on the water, and have water pouring into the bath, and *then* turn that dial, the water pressure holds the lever horizontal and you get a shower! Success! 🙂
Sometimes, it feels like I’m living *in* some sort of adventure-puzzle-game, part of the fun of traveling….hmmm, which reminds me, looks like they are making progress on on the new Legends-of-Zork.
Actually it’s very common for mixer taps to require water pressure to activate “shower” mode, presumably so as to avoid accidentally showering someone, but it’s also easier to adjust the temperature in “bath” mode.
Are your taps back home different? The ones I’ve always had don’t look like that but function the same…Usually a knob that gets hotter when you turn it left, colder when you turn it right, and a dealie at the bottom that you pull up (with the water on) to turn on shower mode. Like this: http://www.savingsahead.com/pimages/8777_PRODUCT_VIEW_1.jpg, except the bottommost part near my feet.
I have never even heard of a tub where you can shower and bathe at the same time!