The 21st Century Shower?

So my wife and I are having our two bathrooms renovated. A claw foot tub in the downstairs bathroom will be going upstairs to replace a small and hastily installed shower stall. Downstairs, we will have a new, large, custom-made shower – lovely porcelain tile, new fixtures, sliding glass door, a built-in bench, the works. (Having officially reached “middle-aged,” sitting down to wash one’s feet seems a priority.)

So – we need to provide our contractor with the fixtures for the new shower. Yesterday, we went to a store that specializes in this sort of equipment and suffered a severe case of sticker shock at first. We were thinking that we wanted a decent showerhead and a hand-shower wand attached to the wall, near where the bench will be installed. Well, the lady who helped us told us that we needed a thermostat, a volume control valve, the showerhead and hand-shower materials, and then an additional volume control for the hand shower, because “you never want to use a diverter!” (I need to mention here that both my wife and I were kind of scratching our heads at the mention of a “thermostat.”) All of this – plus the door – could be ours for only $2,200.

Said I: “Now, why exactly do we need this thermostat?”

The lady: “Well, it will always keep the water at the exact same temperature and it will be warm the instant you turn it on. Really, it’s how everyone’s doing it these days. You’re going to love it!”

Said I: “But, there is an option where we can just have a valve, right? Something you turn on and adjust to the desired water temperature?”

The lady: “Oh my! You want to fiddle around all day trying to find the right temperature?!?!?!?”

Said I: “You know, I’ve been finding the right temperature in the shower for 45 years now, and it’s never really been a problem for me.”

What amazes me about this is that I’ve stayed at four and five star hotels all over the world (Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, Vienna, Huatulco, and many US cities) and I have never encountered a shower with a thermostat. Since when did this become a must-have luxury? I can’t imagine it’s very energy efficient either to have one’s shower water kept at the same high temperature 24 hours a day. Yikes.

Call us old-fashioned if you like. We’re going old school and saving many hundreds of dollars (and energy) in the process.

Namaste.