I wanna hear YOUR crazy bathroom stories! 😅👇 Have you ever felt completely lost in the bathroom when traveling to another country? Or even just at a friend's place?
I wasted a bunch of hot water because in Mexico the hot water takes a lot longer to heat up but in the States the water takes like 30 seconds to heat up
I heard the toilets referred to as "trophy shelves". And it was explained to me to create a "flying carpet" (use toilet paper on top of the shelf) to keep them clean.
I am female. In a Paris Restaurant : After using the toilet I went over to the sink to wash my hands. I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the faucet. Surprise #1: A male patron showed up (! Mixed bathrooms almost never happens in the USA) . He showed me a contraption below the sink that you push with your knee. That thing turns on the water. Makes complete sense. Once you know about it!
The best idea I saw in a German hotel bathroom was a full wet room with the shower drain in the floor - no need for a shower curtain at all. LOVE it - perfect for aging in place and easier to clean the bathroom.
yeah but if your toilet overflows with a healthy chunka poo and the drain is clogged at the same time...Ooh yeah that could be nice. Also the mold in your shower may noe spread through out the room instead of just the stall.
On a trip to the Netherlands, back in the '90s, I stayed overnight at someone's house; eventually, I needed to use the loo and was surprised to see a 'poop shelf' staring up at me. I seriously believed that the toilet had been installed back-to-front!
Having lived in Germany, the worst part of the poop shelf was that the water doesn't move all the poop off the shelf, resulting in the need to clean the shelf with a brush, which then got disgustingly poopy no matter how much you tried to rinse it off.
That's what I was picturing happening in my head while she was talking. Even though it's your own......Bluck! What if someone leaves theirs behind? LOL
I went to Austria on a skiing trip with my school many, many years ago. We saw the shelf and my friend said “ Wow look! you can see whatcha done, how much you done and why you done it! I’ve never forgotten that remark. We laughed ourselves silly 🙃
I was always told that the "inspection shelf" was to check for intestinal parasites. Makes sense in older homes as they were likely more common many decades ago, assuming meat inspection has improved since the 1950s.
That's what I was told. The Germans like(d) to eat a lot of pork. In the old days, these could contain tapeworms which would be visible on the German toilet. Nowadays pork is tapeworm-free. But, after flushing there would be scrape marks left, so I always lined the shelf with toilet paper before starting.
I'm so glad you made this video. I went to Germany in 1993. The poop shelf definitely freaked me out more than anything else. On my return to the US, my family and friends had a hard time believing it. Now, 30 years later, I can show them I wasn't making it up! 😂
The poop shelves freaked me out too when I first saw them in Dutch hotels in 1999 (it is just too gross). Good for me, the apartments I rented in the Netherlands and Belgium had standard toilet designs (like in the U.S.)
I have no idea why it is, but I do have a suggestion. The German monarchy. Back in the day it wasn't uncommon for a monarch to have his stool examined to verify health. So it wouldn't surprise me if the "shelf" wasn't put in place to make for the poop inspection easier and it just became a standard feature. However, the water usage in toilets differ and I believe the German design used less water, so that in itself may have played a role too. Less water in the bowl so less water waste.
because you guys just love poseidons kiss (water containing bacteria of thousands of people that used the toilet splashing back on your ass), or you want to waste toiletpaper by first throwing toiletpaper there before shitting, increasing the chance of getting stuck@@hughjorg4008
Lived in Germany for a few years and had a poop shelf in my apartment. I thought surely there would be a sensible German explanation for this. Guess not! I loved the windows in Germany and when I got back to the US I took the screens off my windows. After the access to the outside I experienced in Germany the screens looked ugly and made me feel claustrophobic.
The shelf toilets are holdovers from when pin worms in children were very common, being spread in the schools like head lice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_infection
The dual shower curtain serves a functional purpose as well: with a single curtain, the water moving downward causes the air to move as well, which tends to draw the curtain towards the water stream. With a second curtain outside, it tends to greatly reduce that venturi effect.
I moved away from single handle faucets in bathrooms as a design choice as they look more balanced. Single handle faucets tend to open the hot side more often even when not needed increasing hot water usage not even intended by the user.
Feli, great content. I want to address the commercial restroom divider issue though. There are a number of building codes, fire codes, ADA codes, venting codes, and general ease of cleaning issues that determine the toilet partition divider gaps at the bottom and top you have referenced in the USA. The gap at the bottom of the door is generally 12 inches or greater for three reasons. First ADA code says that doors must be solid to the floor below 12 inches or be above the 12-inch mark, we generally go above the 12 inches. The 12" or greater gap promotes ease of cleaning, and airflow from the HVAC system more effectively, and makes the doors themselves a little lighter so that the door hinges can last longer. Also, some toilet partitions are ceiling-mounted where weight is a huge issue. The larger gap at the top is driven by factors such as the Fire Code that needs 24" of gap to allow the fire sprinklers to reach inside the stalls. We also have to provide the visual/audio fire annunciator in each room. The large top and bottom gaps allow us to use one fire annunciator for the entire restroom. If the walls go full height, then each toilet compartment is considered an individual room requiring a dedicated fire sprinkler, annunciator device, and HVAC supply and return which gets very expensive. Higher-end public restrooms such as those in airline lounges, casinos, and hotels will do the full height walls and take the hit on the expense for the customer experience. I visited Germany in 2019 as I was inspired by your channel and was surprised to see what can be done building code-wise vs. the USA. In the USA we have extremely strict fire and life safety codes that dictate design that those not in the architectural industry may find baffling, but there is usually a valid code reason behind it.
For the luxury effect, some people in the UK are now installing Japanese style toilets in their homes. You need a degree to use them but you get a full service of your undercarriage on completion, including a wash and blow-dry. (You might also get a coffee while you wait.)
I'm in the US and in my wildest dreams I never imagined people scrunch their toilet paper (I fold it a bunch). That said on a Reddit post not too long ago I learned basically everyone whipes differently, sits differently, etc. so as a whole I guess bathroom experiences is one of those things that varies wildly without people realizing.
I once used a toilet in a fancy restaurant in England that had a living room-sized room that the toilet stalls were off, that had a fancy rug and sofa-chairs in the middle. The stalls also had stone walls and very sturdy, heavy, nice-looking doors that didn't even show any light at the bottom to my memory. This is the most luxury bathroom I have ever been to... and it was very hidden away, I believe it may have even been upstairs, but it was sign-posted and clearly for the use of customers. I have lived in England all my life and only once or maybe twice experienced anything like this, so definitely don't expect it, but I wanted to share because it was pretty amazing!
In America I've been impressed with two bathrooms. One was an expensive gym in a rich part of town. It had a living room in it too. The other was my favorite restaurant, Cantino Laredo. Each bathroom toilet was a room. Like full drywall floor to ceiling with a real door (It was slated, but still -- not see through at all). Very fancy tile too. Excellent bathroom.
There is (or was) a department store in Pearl Ridge, outside of Honolulu that had a ladies room lounge like that. It was almost nice enough to serve afternoon tea in.
My first visit to Germany was when I was young teen with my grandparents (my grandmother was from Germany) and as a 13 year old dealing with a "poop shelf" toilet might have been one of my most confusing and traumatic things. I was a kid. I was ridiculously embarrassed to ask anyone about how to use it. In an otherwise awesome summer in Germany, it freaked me out.
I lived off post when I was stationed in Germany while in the Army. Yeah, that shelf was really weird. It's really embarrassing when a house mate informs you you forgot to flush. The toilet paper was weird too. It was wax paper, thick and smooth. Fortunately I heard my grandmother explain how they used pages from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. You hold an edge in both fists and crinkle it. There ya go. I'm 67 and will never forget my experiences in Germany. I was stationed in Heilbronn, by the way.
Regarding faucets, I find dual handle faucets (the ones that have levers that turn from 0 closed to 90 degrees full open) far easier to use to set the expected temperature than a mixer tap. They are also easier to turn on without touching the handle with "dirty" fingers, as one can more easily bump them into the desired open position with the back of the hand.
The first time I flew to outside of the U.S. was into Berlin. After the transatlantic flight, I was anxious for a restroom and did not know I would need to pay. The restroom had an attendant who spoke only German. It was obvious that I was supposed to tip her, but I had nothing but large travelers checks with me. We had not been through customs yet, so we had no opportunity to change currency. I had to leave without tipping. The attendant was angry, and she yelled so loud I could hear as I ran down the airport corridor. I was embarrassed, but why did they have an attendant expecting tips in a restroom inside the international terminal where foreign travelers would not have been through customs yet? Once I was able to get change, I was not allowed to go back into the terminal to tip her. That was thirty years ago and still bothers me!
OMG, you reminded me of my first trip to Germany...during my first trip to Europe (with a friend), actually. Anyway, we'd taken the train from Brussels, Belgium, to Cologne, Germany. Something I'd eaten the night before wasn't agreeing with me so the minute we arrived at the Cologne train station I made a mad dash for the ladies' room. I was confronted by pay toilets and I had not yet exchanged any money....oh my, I had to run upstairs to the currency exchange and then go back down to the bathroom (in the nick of time). For some reason, though, the bathroom attendant started yelling at me and banging on the stall door and tried to open it with her key. I had to finish "my business" holding the door shut with one foot.
That kind of failure to think about things has been pretty common in Germany. For example, until a decade ago, the duty-free shops at Berlin-Tegel airport were cash only. Who wants to take a bunch of cash from the country you're leaving just in case you might want to buy a bottle of slightly discounted booze? The one time I shopped there, I saw it as a chance to get rid of some change and notes that would be useless once I left - only to get chewed out by the cashier for "too many coins".
LOL, I would have just put a couple quarters in there. So many places in Europe I was at in the Navy accepted American cash iirc. I do remember buying something in Amsterdam airport when I had to fly home for Emergency leave after my dad died, I'm sure I paid in American dollars since I certainly didn't exchange any money. Very few times I actually exchanged money.
4:55 you can very much still confirm that the lock works. With door still open, press the button. Then check if the knob/handle on the outside is able to be turned/pushed down or not.
You forgot to mention that at gas station bathrooms, you often either have to have the code to enter the bathroom or they give you a key, which is invariably attached to the most unwieldy thing possible like a broomstick, a giant spoon, or a hubcap.
I have always lived in Alabama, USA and I've never actually seen this. I've seen it in movies and understand the reasoning -- but I can't ever remember having to get a key to use a gas station bathroom.
Up to the 70's, most men's public restrooms in America had pay toilets. The standard charge was a 10 cent coin put in the mechanism to open the stall door. There was a little poem that was popular at the time: "Here I sit all brokenhearted; paid my dime and only farted."
No, they did not pay toilet were only used by a minority of businesses, and I was surprised the first time I saw one. What city had mostly pay toilets in businesses in 1960's I didn't know any.
You would find them in bus stations and were probably discontinued because people would mess up the stall in resentment because they had a no-dime experience in the past.
Wrong. Public pay toilets have not been the norm in NJ during my lifetime. I’m 66. The exception to this are on boardwalks, which often include showers and lockers.
Funny how you brought up the push-button locking doors. At my last workplace we had a bathroom door that was notorious for the lock not working on all occasions. You always had to check the door by locking it while it was still open and checking the outside handle before closing the door behind you as you enter the bathroom.
I'm from San Francisco and many of our older houses, especially the Victorian-style ones, do have some of these European features, like light switches on the outside and turning bolt locks. It's also common for those houses to have the toilet and the sink in separate adjacent rooms, which is very uncommon in the US in general. Fully tiled bathrooms are also common here. I currently live in a very modern building, but I did grow up in an old one. As someone with a physical disability, I also really like those versatile handheld showerheads. Getting one was one of the best decisions I ever made. I highly recommend it!
The strangest toilet experience I had was in Sweden, when I didn't want to pay for a restroom visit while in Stockholm. There was a free men's room, but there were no urinals; the floor was a grate, and you were just supposed to... pee anywhere... *shudders* I had to leave and find a pay toilet.
I have seen very primitive men's rooms in the US, which were basically a trough on one wall. But never just "pee anywhere on the floor". The same floor you are walking on. No.
@@TheRetroGuy2000 I agree, the concept is disgusting, but it's a pretty rare day in the USA when one can step up to a urinal without standing in a puddle of someone else's pee. I can't for the life of me, understand how anyone can "miss" when there's like 120 degrees of target area in both the horizontal and vertical directions.
One aspect of European toilets (probably other places, too) I loved was the bidets! "Why wipe it dirty when you can wash it clean" When I experienced a bidet again when I stayed at the Moana Surfrider in Honolulu, I bought the add on type of bidet for my personal bathroom. It washes, dries, feels a lot more sanitary, to me!
I have a bidet in my home too. It's not a hot water one. It doesn't sing to you like the Japanese ones do (Everything sings to you in Japan...) it just uses cold water. But I don't think I could live without one. I don't understand why this hasn't caught on in North America.
@@BeckBeckGo There are more people that have bidets than it might seem. It's not a subject that would be discussed over lunch or dinner. I only have one bathroom in my home. I keep a couple rolls of toilet paper if a guest doesn't want to use the bidet. I'm glad my bidet doesn't sing! That would become annoying & kinda creepy.
Bidet is a french word and tradition. They were numerous in the old times and houses but now are disappearing for it was mainly designed for the maison closes aka bordels ..
The "shelf toilet" was an interesting experience when I visited Germany in 1994. I was in Hanover for CeBIT, staying in a home. Which was so much better an experience than a hotel.
*If there is a single outflow of water, it is a "mixer tap" no matter how many handles it has: you don't have to turn on only one faucet at a time.* Non-mixer taps have separate outflows for hot and for cold and, while common until recently in the UK, have not been used in new construction in the US since the late 1950's.
My grandpa was first generation born American, his parents came from Germany. He completely renovated his house so many times (walls, support beams, bathrooms where there were none, etc). I remember, as a kid, my brother and I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE/HATE turning the light in the bathroom off on each other. Yes, he purposefully put the light switch on the outside! I never knew it was because this was how Germans did it. I now have a topic to talk to him about next time I see him in the nursing home. I'm sure he'll love talking about it lol 🤣
The light is on the outside of my bathroom as well. I never realized it was a common thing in Germany. I'm going to try and dig up the info on the guy who built the house in the 50s and see if maybe he was German lol. I remember he was a dentist but thats about it.
That's for security reasons. If you splash the switch with water when you are in the tub you could be electrocuted. So to avoid that they put the switch outside the bathroom.
The aesthetics of a two-faucet configuration in a bathroom is undeniably more appealing than a single spout/tap, in the view of many. It's a simple (or as inexplicable) as that! Love your channel!
The two things that made me think, 'oh wow, that is different' in Germany (1996-97), was some of the public toilets and how they kept them sanitary. The first one was the toilet seat wrapped in plastic sheeting, and when you flushed, a new plastic sheet was reeled out, and the old one was reeled in. The really neat one was when you flushed, the toilet seat would have a small arm that came out the back of the toilet, and the seat would spin around, sanitizing the seat with a solution, and there was a tiny little squeegee on the arm that wiped the liquid off the seat!
The Kansas City, Missouri, airport had the toilet seats wrapped in plastic sheeting for a while, some time from 2000 - 2020. (I don't remember exactly which years I used the restroom at MCI while picking up friends who flew in). It's possible the moving plastic sheeting on the toilet seats was there earlier, in the 90s, but I wasn't living in the KC area then.
I lived in Germany for 9 years. I could never understand the lack of a shower curtain. I did though learn to love the hand-held shower. My house, in Georgia USA, has 3 showers. All have hand-held shower heads. I also have one for traveling. I don't travel much, but when I stay in a hotel, I literally remove the shower head and install my hand-held one. I also have Teflon tape and tools so I can install the hotel's shower head back on properly. Really people, if you've never showered with a hand-held shower head then you don't know what you are missing. And those shelf toilets, ack, the bad smells. You have to poo and then instantly flush or you get to smell your work of art.
I've being to my fair share of weird bathrooms and stories, like in Mexico where they have those crazy cowboy doors and break pedal to flush. Not very common. I'm from Brazil here are some... Waterflow on the toilet bow is usually weak (depending if you live in house versus an apartment) so usually if you throw your paper on the bow it will clog. So there are those toilet paper bins (sometimes marked as paper recyclable, although not often) that you are supposed to throw your used paper. Yeah pretty bad but don't smell as bad as it should. Another thing is that public restrooms may have a paper dispenser, where you grab lots of small "napkins" to clean yourself, It's really weird and, and sometimes you pull a paper and the the next one doesn't come out and you have to insert your finger inside to pull a bunch. Some public restrooms and have a spray called "FreeCô ™" (which means Free💩) which you have to spray out five times sideways (not from the top) into the bow water BRFORE you go number 2, which. It works surprisingly well to isolate the smell under the water tension, instead of mixing lavender spray AFTER the fact, which gets poo smell with a lavender or mint touch. In some homes the shower head is ELETRIC, which is more or less a execution room. New houses are replacing them with propane or natural gas boilers, we usually don't have space for central boilers. No hot tap water in most places. But if they do have and they are using those gas boilers and someone else in the kitchen decides to use the hot water too, usually they aren't very well calculated, and your shower gets cold and very hot fast, and you have to jump in order to not get burns. Bidets are a common sight but modern houses and even some public restrooms have a small shower head next to the toilet bow that spray cold water in your ass to clean it better. It isn't bad as it sounds and can be a life saver and better for the environment (less use of toilet paper that ends up in landfills instead in a water treatment station). It's common to have tiles on the floor and all the way up and small windows in home bathrooms, nowadays they are installing those ceiling air thing. But to be honest a nice window (remember we don't have snow down here) and FreeCô are great to the bathroom getting smelling well and dry up air fast after a shower. Happy #1 and 2!
The only unusual experience I had in Germany with public bathrooms was when I went in one with my dad and the was an older lady in there [something totally foreign to me]. My dad said she was the cleaning lady and that we had to pay her before we left. She did seem somewhat animated when it looked like we might not pay, she clearly wanted her money. I'm not sure what dad paid for the 2 of us but it seemed to make her happy.
My father was stationed in Heilbronn in the early '90's and I was fortunate enough to be able to join him for a couple years there as a child. I never encountered a voluntary pay bathroom as you described, but coin operated stalls were everywhere and did take some getting used to. It is a beautiful country and I hope to be able to visit again as an adult and truly appreciate it.
When I saw the poop shelf for the first time, I immediately thought of an old German novel I read where someone's grandmother would carefully inspect his feces every time he went. In intercultural training at German companies in the US, I used to use the Flachspüler versus the Tiefspüler as an analogy for the difference between German and American mentalities. American engineers used to complain that in project meetings German engineers would harp on mistakes made three years ago that the Americans had already dealt with and flushed away. This contrasting Flachspüler versus Tiefspüler mentality was one way Germans and Americans drove each other nuts in the workplace.
This was such a fun video haha! I'm not from Germany or the US but have spent quite a bit of time in both. The giant gaps around US public bathrooms never fail to confuse and amuse me lol. I must say though, I have just done a huge road trip around the US Southwest, almost 10,000 miles, and found every public bathroom I stopped in (and there were A LOT on that trip) to be immaculate, from gas stations to truck stops. In Germany I didn't think the bathrooms were actually as clean, especially given that you have to pay.
The light switch outside the bathroom brought back memories of my first time visiting Germany in December 1991. I actually celebrated my 18th birthday there. It was also a little weird seeing the electric wire on the outside of the wall. I also recall my friend's bedroom having an inside and outside window which he said was for insulation. I don't recall being confused by the door lock, however. I kinda giggled a bit when you went over some of the American style locks. Downstairs they had one of those shelf toilets which i found strange. Returning in 1996 and staying for a few nights in a cheap Munich hotel was definitely an experience. First of all there was a June heatwave and I couldn't figure out how to swing the window open so I left it slightly tilted at the top. The next morning I forgot my dictionary and asked for a wash cloth by explaining that I needed something to rub soap on and wash myself, auf deutsch. Die Waschlappen are different in Germany than the USA. Do Germans usually just rub soap on themselves because I had to ask my friend in 1991 for one as well? Going from Weimar to Halle was like stepping back in time. Understandably, as unification only occurred less than six years prior, it was typical to see a house that looked like it was from the 1950s next to a fully renovated one. My friend's apartment had a toilet where the tank was almost above you and you pulled on a chain to flush it. The bathroom also only had a really deep clawfoot tub, no shower. Ah the memories!
In the US pay toilets were around here and there when I was a kid. Never saw an attendant person but these were locks on a door or stall door that you had to put coins in to unlock. This was in the 70s. I don't remember ever seeing those after 1980.
I remember the coin accessed toilets in the U.S. in the 1950's and 60's I'm glad they fell into disuse. They were however a source of some interesting grafitti. My favorie was " here I sit broken hearted. Paid a dime and only farted."
Simple life hack for German shower curtains: buy TWO curtains - a nice one for the outside, and a practical, easy to clean one for the inside, and mount them on the same hooks. Works perfectly, and you avoid moving the one curtain in and out again all the time.
American cloth shower curtains intended for the outside do not come with the inside liner. You buy it separately. If you get a plastic one you could leave it outside and flip in inside to take a shower, or get a liner.
When I was growing up my parents had a rug in their bathroom so, that was unique. I learned in NYC that older bathtubs you need to pull a lever to stop the drain if you want to take a bath. Until then I’ve never seen one of those.
I live in Serbia and our light switch for the bathroom is also on the outside so maybe it is a European thing and since most of the time the light switch comes with a little light on it to indicate the light in the bathroom is on (it is also the same switch for our boiler and heating in the bathroom) so maybe it is also made this way to indicate that someone is inside.
I remember that at one time back in the 70's for a short while there were pay toilets here in the US where you paid some change into a locking mechanism to unlock it and use some public toilets. I was a very young kid back then so I don't remember what they looked like, but I do remember their existence.
@@TheNudeAmerican Pay toilets were always the standard and you always had to be sure to carry some dimes and later quarters in case you got caught out and needed to use the facilities. I think at some time in the 70's they ruled pay toilets as cruel and unusual punishment.
I'll be 76 next month and have been in all 50 states and lived in many of them thanks to Uncle Sam. While I do remember pay toilets in the US, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many I've actually used.
I grew up in a 1925 row house in D.C.; the bathroom had a tiled floor, tile running up about 1.2m and painted plaster the rest of the way. Ours had an openable skylight over it for ventilation, no window. Hardwood flooring throughout, lath & plaster walls (typical for that time). We had hot-water radiators and a furnace which was converted to oil from coal. Cheers from Virginia's Southern Border!
I think you left out a really important detail that I learned as an American stationed in Germany when I was in the army. Germans (and other Europeans) don’t use the term “restroom,” or “bathroom.” Germans (if I remember correctly) use the term “WC” which I guess is an abbreviation that translates to “Water Closet” in English. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
A bathroom in the UK has a bath in it (or at least a shower) and is found in a house. If you are looking for public toilets the room would be signed as 'toilets' or less often 'lavatories' if using words rather than than pictograms and sometimes WC.
As a native german speaker, pls note that we would say "Toilette" in a more formal environment (such as asking at a restaurant or in a house where you're invited at). Among family or close friends, you would just say "Klo".. which is derived from "Klosett" or "Wasser Klosett" (i.e. "WC").
This was so funny. We lived in Germany from 87-92. I remember our first apartment with an old poop shelf thinking what on earth would that be for. Just wait until the public WC video for some real fun. Then travel from country to country. In the end I really miss the quality and options of German bathrooms and kitchens. It was Germany we first had a heated tile bathroom floor. Heaven.
The light switch was on the outside of the bathroom in my parents house (built in 1950), in Manitoba, Canada. Most of the houses of this era were like that. Never seen it since.
One thing that really threw me about bathrooms in Germany & Netherlands RE: the water tap. Quite often, I see only cold water and no hot. Especially if there is just a toilet (non-shower), you will almost always see only cold water in the tap.
Because cold water is enough for washing hands. Most people I know only use warm water for rinsing the mouth after brushing the teeth or washing hair at the basin. And of course for showering. But washing hands with warm water is a waste of energy.
It's a thing in guest bathrooms of older houses. My grandparents' place also has a guest bathroom with a sink that only has cold water. It's that way because it's only ever used by guests, and you don't need warm water to wash your hands. The water can be uncomfortably cold in winter, but that's a first-world problem I'd say. Nowadays it's the norm to also have mixer taps in there as well.
Hi Feli, I inspected homes for buyers for nearly 23 years. What I discovered is that most consumers don't know that even many cheap 1.6 gallon flush toilets in the US have a dual flush mode even when there aren't two buttons. For flushing urine with less water, just hit the handle once and the stopper will reset inside the tank quickly and you'll use only about 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of water used for a full flush. For fecal matter, hold the handle down all the way for a second or two instead of releasing it immediately and the stopper won't drop inside the tank until the tank has been almost completely emptied of water. The added weight of that extra water is what helps to push fecal matter down the trap built into the toilet. Many users don't know this; and, when their toilet clogs, after they've done No. 2, they get very upset and insist the toilet is defective and needs to be replaced. Showing them the handle trick fixes the issue immediately.
@@davewright8206 - Dave Wright?!! I don't suppose you're the same Dave Wright who was an Army Lineman in February of 1976 and got tangled up with another guy jumping out of a C141 on your third jump while going through Jump School at Ft. Benning?
Dang! I was hoping someone would know that guy, reach out to him, and have him come on here. I was the guy that landed on his canopy, ran off, fell between his suspension lines, and then we rode those entangled chutes alll the way down. That day, I almost quit without completing the last two jumps I needed for graduation. Been trying to find him for a long time, but There are a helluva lot of Dave Wrights in this country.
@@mikeohandley1922 Our company commander in basic training at Ft. Jackson told of this happening to him in Airborne training. He said he landed on someone's canopy and had to run to the side to jump off as his own canopy was deflating. I don't remember much else of the story, but he was a Captain at the time. I was in basic training in June/July/August of 1977.
@@tararenemartin - Yeah, that's what they train you to do. The thing about my situation was that I guess they put me and the other guy out of the two opposing waist doors almost simultaneously, when they're supposed to leave a second between the two doors. So, as I was finishing my count, before reaching up for my risers to check my canopy, the other guy's canopy opened right beneath my feet and it wasn't fully inflated yet either. I tried to run off but his canopy was up around my knees and hips and the edge of his canopy was kind of flattened out. His canopy tried to inflate, allowing me to begin moving toward the outside but then his skirt sort of collapsed under my weight and I fell straight down into the area under his canopy at about the same instance my canopy finally became fully inflated and jerked me upward under the edge of his canopy. Somehow, three of his suspension lines got broken when I fell down between his lines. I spread my arms and legs to stop myself from passing through the other guy's suspension lines, but then realized I was on the inside anyway so spread eagling wasn't going to do me much good - I needed to get down to him. He yelled at me, "Hey man, my chute's collapsing, get down here quick." I reached out and grabbed the nearest suspension line but then realized, that because his canopy was losing air where the thee suspension lines had snapped, he was falling faster than me and to get to him I had to drag myself down by pulling up on his suspension lines hand-over-hand, lifting his whole weight. I was under his canopy, his chute was losing air, he was yelling and swearing at me and I was yelling and swearing back. The training had kicked in and wall we were thinking about was what we'd been taught - we really didn't have time to be scared. He was yelling and me and reaching up, and I was swearing back at him, pulling so hard that the lines were cutting into my hands, but my fully inflated canopy above wasn't cooperating as he got heavier it was trying to drag me back toward his canopy which was starting to droop. Without something to put my feet against and the ability to use my back, I was trying to lift all of that with just my forearms. It was hard and it was too slow. In theory, entangled jumpers are supposed to level up and then lock arms facing each other and agree to roll away in opposite directions the instant their feet touch the ground. In practice, it's a lot harder than it sounds. We'd jumped at about 1,500 ft. and were falling slightly faster than the 26fps we were supposed to be falling. I got to within two feet of his outstretched hands when I heard a bullhorn "Goddammit!!! Entangled jumpers LOOK AT THE FUCKING GROUND!!!!" I said, "Oh shit!" as we looked down. We only had time to get our feet and knees together before we hit the ground. It felt like being run over feet first by a truck. One second I was crumpling into the ground and the next second there was one of the cadre standing over me with an open buck knife slashing at suspension lines to deflate the chute and prevent it from dragging us with the wind. I was surprised to find myself in one piece. I stood up and then the other guy, whose name was Dave Wright stood up and I realized we were both OK. For about the next five minutes we had to stand there at attention listening to the instructor reaming our asses over and over, threatening to wash us out of the course. The guy literally tired himself out yelling at us and finally just said, "Pick up your shit and get the fuck out of my sight." We gathered up our chutes and took off running as fast as we could for the collection point. It wasn't until we were halfway back to Benning that it hit us how close we'd come to becoming part of that DZ. We laughed hysterically for about five minutes. That night I thought real hard about dropping out of the course - I was married and my son was less than two months old. By morning though, I was feeling pretty invulnerable though and I stayed and finished my last jumps. That was the first time the god of jumpers tried to kill me but it wouldn't be the last.
I was at a bar in Idar-Oberstein once many years ago. It was called the Cave. The entire place was black with black lights. In the men's room, the urinal was a black tile wall with a small trough at the bottom. There were about six guys using it at one time. Well, when the band that was there started turning on their equipment they blew a fuse and everything went dark. Not a good situation in a place where you have a bunch of drunk guys peeing on a wall in a totally black room.
🤣 I always wondered about that shelf when I was growing up and visiting family in Germany! I knew as soon as I read the title that I had to watch immediately to get the answer to that lifelong question!!!
The light switch outside the bathroom is typically found only on older homes. I had seen one bathroom that didn't even have a switch, it was just on all the time. They said they just unscrew the bulb to turn it off. This place was really old, it was torn down when in the 80's.
My childhood home in the US had bathroom light switches outside. It was built in 1948, I believe. That was customary back then. Ever since handheld shower heads became readily available I’ve installed them in my shower. They really do make a lot more sense than fixed shower heads. American public bathroom stalls are very annoying. Japan’s are also very private like Germany’s-and quite clean.
Yeah just on personal experience the house has to be like earlier than 1960 with the original electric to run in to them. Can't say I've ever seen one in a home new than that.
American public bathroom stalls are the way they are because of building codes.. If the stall walls go all the way up to the ceiling.. Every stall would technically be considered its own separate room.. Then every stall would need its own fire sprinkler and HVAC supply and return register.. You would be looking at thousands of extra dollars in cost per stall to have the walls run from the floor to the ceiling..
I went to Germany (Dusseldorf) for work a few years back. I used the urinals at a public bathroom in a bar. As you say, the urinals did not have any dividers. The arrangement of the urinals was interesting. When you walk into the bathroom, the urinals were on the side wall next to the door. (so, when the door opened, anybody could 'see you' using it). A cleaning lady walked in, while I was using the urinal. As I mentioned, there was no privacy and I was clearly exposed to her. We locked eyes for a second (which was super awkward) and I expected her to turn around and leave, but she just hesitated for a second and then walked right in and started cleaning.
I first saw this German style toilet in Holland. I assumed that Europeans like to smell their poop. I left an American sized brown grizller on that shelf and the entire hotel floor stunk
I live in a small house built in the 1940's in Illinois and the bathroom light switch is outside the bathroom. There is an outlet that was added at some point above the sink for convenience.
worst public toilet experience in Germany: 1st solo trip after i became disabled in a car accident - landed at Frankfurt, caught a regional train to the "Main" train station connecting with a train to Berlin for reunification ceremony & needed to go. the men's room at that Frankfurt central station was down a flight of stairs, no ramp! hope this has been changed in the intervening decades for others with disabilities. [was directed to the first aid office which had a toilet without stairs.]
@@johnp139 they don't have ADA. some well-off Austrians & Germans i know had homes in America where they spend Winters. alas, 2 widowed Austrian sisters sold their digs in Florida to buy a condo outside Johannesburg, South Africa - to have less of a time-zone change to deal with when they traveled for Winter as they got older. they very much regretted that due to high crime against persons rates in South Africa. they weren't able to sell the condo in South Africa at anything close to what they had paid. ☹
Having lived and travelled all across the U.S., I would say that your observations about our bathrooms are spot-on. The only exceptions would be in older city centers where the majority of housing pre-dates WWII. There you may find many un-renovated bathrooms with dual taps on the sink, different toilet designs, switches on the outside of the room, etc.
When we first bought our house (built 1930) we had the hot and cold separate faucets and our toilet we had back then had the biggest freaking toilet tank bolted to the wall with a separate pipe to the bowl but man, that thing could flush a cannon ball straight down. I couldn't wait to get rid of the hot / cold separate faucets and get a normal vanity but sometimes when I see a picture of one, I get a bit nostalgic and miss them. We used that sink for about two years before we had money to buy a new updated one. You actually have to get a certain timing groove, if you will, to get warm water at the same time when you washed your hands with them. It was all in the timing. LOL
Ok here is one; we were having problems when we wanted a child, so I went to a fertility doctor in Germany. While at the doc, they needed a ...specimen ...and while in the toilet, an elderly man came down to the toilet, finding it locked, of course turned off the light (and couldn't hear my shouting) so I had to ....finish in the dark which was obviously awkward on many levels.
What in Sam Hill are you talking about? Sorry Sam, couldn't resist using that expression. Is that your real name? (PS. I hope the clinic was able to help you and your wife 🙏)
I had a bad experience using the "poop shelf" toilet when I was first stationed in Bad Kreuznach back in '77. One time the facilities engineers serviced the water system in our apartment building. They turned all the water of and then turned it back on. If you have ever turned of your home water system you may have experience that when you turn the tap on water spurts outbecause the is air in the pipes. Well, I used the toilet and as I was getting up I reached back to flush the toilet and the water came out in a strong gush. The water hit the "poop shelf" and threw all the poop all up and down my back side. Luckily this was at home and I cleaned up and changed clothes. Ever since the make sure I'm a safe distance from public toilets before I flush.
When I was stationed in Germany, shortly after you, I rented a wonderful little apartment and, with my landlord, converted the old tub into a shower. Conversation eventually turned to the toilet shelf. He told me that this feature eliminated splash-back. I took his word for it.
We had a plumber in Germany who asked us if we wanted a "flat flusher" again when we renovated about 25 years ago. He said that some people "may want to check their poop" before flushing. It was a bit awkward, I thought "check it for what???". We got a modern one and I never looked back.... ;)
I was told that Germans like to inspect their stools before flushing - on the basis that Germans are very serious about their health. Perhaps it's less common than I thought - maybe that's one of those stereotypes we Brits have of Germans!
Ive been to venues in the USA where there was a bathroom attendant inside by the sinks. He would tell you where there was an open stall and get you paper towel to dry your hands etc. Even had different fragrances you could spray yourself with if you asked. He was constantly wiping sinks and counters. He usually got tipped well. It was very out of the norm and old timey.
About the only time and place I recall seeing this practice on a regular basis was at the nightclubs in Dallas' Deep Elm district in the mid 1990's. It was (and may still be) common in other large city nightclubs, but I never spent any time in those. I liked it as the restrooms were spotless.
My wife's best friend bought an architectural commune above Half Moon Bay, California (Just south and west of San Fran). The entire insides of the homes at the commune were "Free Form". For the bathrooms they tended to be done in free-form cement with the floors curving to a drain. (the master's were usually a large sort of oval shape about 20 feet by 15 feet. The showers had nothing separating themselves from the rest of the room and in the wall was a fire hose. To clean the bathroom one just took the fire hose and sprayed it down. Everything just ran down the drain in the floor. The roofs of the bathrooms let the sunlight in to dry and you could turn on fans and sun lamps too. Easiest bathroom to clean, ever.
For the bathroom faucet having the separate hot and cold taps, it's considered both classic and more high end for the fixtures. People pay more money for that in the U.S. I have seen some bathrooms in the U.S. that have a separate room just for the toilet. Usually, in higher end homes.
I once saw the American style toilet (in Germany) advertised as "Geruchlos". Good thing too, because if you're taking a multi-stage dump on a german toilet, you'll definitely be giving yourself at least one "courtesy flush" before you're done.
The light switch outside the bathroom in the USA was probably knob and tube back when electricity was a new this. Most were removed as saftey codes changed.
@5:00 Hey Feli, when you want to check how most any door locks.... hold it open and check the lock routine you believe will lock it by checking the other side after you engage it, since the door is still physically open you can test both sides.
I work in bathrooms for a living in the U.S., and can confirm that some homes at least 50 years old, especially which haven't had a lot of updating, do have the light switch outside of the bathroom. It is not that common, though. Speaking of older things, I have had some older people really express dislike of mixer taps. This tends to be because their only experience with them for extended periods of time are in hotels, and since they are unfamiliar with them, they have difficulty dialing in the exact temperature they want. In the end, people are more comfortable with what they are used to. The standard, though, is moving toward mixer taps, especially in the tub/shower area. A one-piece valve instead of a multi-piece valve means fewer potential points of failure, fewer holes that need drilled or cut, and is generally regarded as safer, because it's less likely that someone would accidentally scald themselves using only the hot water knob. I almost never see the type of shower knob that you pull out. You might see it in a hotel, but that is usually it. My company eliminates that little pull-up diverter valve in the tub spout by installing a stop-check valve in the wall, a couple inches above the main shower controls. It has a few advantages; it doesn't drip, as that old style often does after a few years. You don't have to bend over to use it. And you can leave it in whichever position you like, all the time. The traditional diverter requires the water to come out of the tub spout first before you can send it out of the shower head. Finally, one thing to blow your mind: I still see, from time to time, the following floor covering in bathrooms: carpet. GROSS! It is rare, and almost always in homes where elderly people live, but I just saw it again last week. It was otherwise a lovely and respectable home...but wow.
The bathroom carpet was one of those weird only in the 1960's or 70's kind of thing. I've seen the pull out handle in houses. Not sure they make them now. The worst are any kind of single handle where you can't preset the temperature and get it without fiddling each time. The pull out knob accomplished that.
There's an old style of tub/shower fawcets in the U.S. that you don't see much anymore with 3 twist knobs. The left is for hot water, the right for cold, and the center directs the flow either down to the tub spout or up to the shower head.
As a German having both toilet styles in my home, I like the "poop shelves" more, as I really don't like getting splashed on me, even more in a public toilet, imagining that dozens did their job there before me. Yes, the other toilet styles have many advantages, but the splashing is just more important to me.
Same here in the Netherlands, and I agree with you. Also the health part is way more important then made clear in this video. When there is something wrong with your stool, this is usually the first sign of a health problem. This is way harder to see when it lands in the water. In addition this is important for people with IBS (PDS in Dutch).
Pro tip from the US: I often fold 4-5 sheets of toilet paper in half and allow it to "float" in a cistern-style bowl. It usually prevents any backsplash and has the added bonus of preventing anything from being left for cleanup. 🚽
Wow, I'm a senior, and I've only been splashed a few times in my life, so it's not a huge deal really. You might have to wipe one extra time from the water on you, but it's no big deal. #NoShelfForMe.
Mixer faucets with a single handle are certainly the norm for any bathroom built/renovated in the last 50 years. Some people go with the old style two handle faucet because they want that look, e.g. a renovated Victorian style home.
Yes, turning the bathroom light off while someone was in the bathroom, fun. I live in the US, and my grandparents had a bathroom with the light switch on the outside
I was definitely perplexed by the poop shelf when I first when to Germany. This is the first time I found it mentioned. I always had to put toilet paper on the shelf first so that the poop wouldn't stick. Unfortunately the newer more efficient US toilets now have less water in the bowls, such as the ones in my home now. Which means that I have a toilet brush and cleaner next to all my toilets.
9:27 The trick in shelf toilet to avoid using a toilet brush ( which may have been touched by others before they washed their hands) is to put a “slider” of several sheets of toilet paper on the shelf. You can then flush without having to clean away marks.
In public restrooms for sure it’s the liquid soap. In homes that I’ve been in I’ve seen both but I feel like maybe it’s more liquid in homes too. In my home we personally use liquid
In the army nearly 50 years ago, we had regular "American" toilets on base. I found out about German toilets when my wife joined me and we got an apartment. She referred to the process as " taking a platform shit".
I was in the army in Schwabisch Gmund on Hardt Kaserne And we had the German toilets but our company commander replaced them all with American toilets.
I haven't seen a double-handled bathroom faucet for years (even here in Ohio) and it's really a toss-up if there's dividers between urinals. We had pay toilets briefly back in the '60s (coin boxes on the stall doors) but I don't think they were economically feasible; I doubt they brought in enough money to cover the cost of constantly repairing/replacing the mechanisms.
Water saving toilets have changed things in the US. Some of the early models did not flush well, so you ended up flushing more than once. You also needed to clean the bowl more often, so having a toilet brush handy was similar to the European toilets. All early US toilets had the high mounted tank that used gravity to the flush water. Very powerful flush compared to the later low tank models.
A sibling of mine used to call those "Al toilets" after Al Gore. However, technology always catches up, and today's economical toilets are a match for almost anything you give them.
Regarding American bathroom flooring, one that you missed is carpet. I have seen this more times than I care to admit. You typically will see the carpet bleached out near the toilet from urine splatter (due to males standing to pee). I will never understand why people choose carpet for the bathroom - it is so disgusting.
Carpet in bathrooms was only popular in the 1980s, and only occasionally. I rarely see it in bedrooms any longer -- tile and wood are much more desirable today.
Omg... That brought back so many memories of the first house I ever rented.. It had carpet in the bathroom. Yes, Gross!!!!! I wondered how many people threw up in the toilet and got all over the carpet.
Oh, gawwd, I know! When I was a kid in the '70s we lived in a townhouse condo that had carpeted bathrooms. Disgusting! After about 6 months my Dad hired a contractor to rip it all out and install tile. I don't know how much it cost him, but it was worth it!
Thank you for your comments on our total lack of hand held shower heads!! Cleaning showers is so inconvenient, as is bathing pets, and forget about personalization for height. It is a pet peeve of mine, but most Americans think that a fixed shower head “looks” nicer.
Handheld showerheads are... SORT OF a thing in Canada? Some showers have them, some do not. Some have a fixed showerhead and a secondary handheld, some have only one that can mount and is also handheld etc. I've been in a lot of countries in my life. Handheld do exist in the USA, but they're far less common. I forget what the most common showerhead was in China, but I believe it was typically fixed (weird since I lived there for a few months, so you'd think I'd remember this). In Turkey, fixtures were typically on the long side of the tub too, and showerhead was totally detachable. Most of EU has detachable heads. Is it true that Americans think it looks nicer? I might say that a rain showerhead is quite attractive compared with others, but it's so impractical in terms of comfort so I'd never get one. Other than that, all types of heads appear created equal to me in terms of aesthetics.
I install handheld showerheads in all my showers (and keep the old stuff in a ziplock bag if I'm renting) simply bc I hate rinsing the cleaner off the shower with a pitcher/cup. But being able to wash in a more precise manner is nice as well
I've been to many hotels and saw few showers I figured out how to turn it on. If it's a dedicated shower - usually there is no problem. But if there is bath tub you'll find full house of variations to turn it on: push/pull the temperature handle, push/pull another handle, turn the 360 spinning knob to some exact angle, tilt it in some direction, turn water to maximum if it turns off automatically. Every hotel has two problems: how to get in at night and how to turn on the shower
I'm glad to know that Germany uses toilets. I "held it" when I arrived at the airport in Izmir, Türkiye only to NOT find a toilet available. I was not up to using the hole in the floor so I just held it until we got to our hotel. Still, it's nice to travel to see the differences.
Hey fellow ohioan here (cleveland). Growing up our light switch for the bathroom was outside the room. Also the only bathroom in the house was through my parents room…… little weird admittedly but thats the way it was. To quote SerpentZA “stay awesome”. Recently found your channel and i LOVE it!!!!
I stayed in a guest house in Mykonos Greece where there was a sign not to put any toilet paper in the toilet itself, but in a bucket next to the toilet to prevent the pipes from getting blocked
Really some of the most awkward moments in a bathroom, was the last couple of years when apparently people decided knocking wasn’t necessary. Also apparently me saying occupied didn’t seem to discourage some people from rattling and mess with the stall door in order to get it to open. Note I’m still saying/nearly screaming occupied, but still had at least one woman one time who didn’t get the message. Which I had to slam the stall door (she forced unlocked)in her face. To which she said “ oh I didn’t know anyone was in there, I didn’t see your shoes. You could’ve said something like someone is in here”. I was left beyond confused as to how she didn’t hear me or questioned why it was locked
umm it's very easy to test the lock 5:00 you just push the button while the door is open and try to turn the handle on the other side. what's more annoying is that you are easily able to lock yourself out of your own bathroom. for example when the door hits a wall and the button becomes pushed in and you don't notice that and you then close the door you're screwed
I have an older home (built late 1940s) in Seattle and the bathroom light switch is in the hall. My mother's even older house (late 1920s) has the same type of switches, and deadbolt locks on the bathroom doors.
I was in Iceland (having spent my entire adult life in the USA) over the winter break, retrieving my son from the university in Reykjavik, and I got to meet some of those bathrooms. The different toilets (they were all like the deep-flushers you described) were a bit strange, but overall I liked the design, and they never got plugged up. I did make a fool of myself about the shower water control, thinking that the two knobs were for hot and cold, when the one on the left was for temperature and the one on the right was for pressure (I think - unless I got it backwards?) But once I got some help with it, everything was good. I would have liked to have gotten to see more of Iceland than snow, but that's what happens when you go to Reykjavik at Christmastime.
