apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

oy, soaking tubs. Am I the only one who thinks these (beautiful as they are) are an OBSCENE waste of water?!? (and I think water availability will be our next collective natural resource crisis...)

Thank you thank you for posting the Japanese soaking tub - the one pictured looks like the size I have been imagining.

Patrick, any idea how much water they use? Compared to a regular size tub and compared to a shower. The one pictured is deep, but small.

Re city kitty - my cat 1) won't do it and, even if she did 2) is old and would probably slip.

Here's the old science class method to determining how much less water the typical shower takes than a tub-soak...

Before starting the water for you shower, plug the drain, then begin/take your shower as normal (well, as normal as you can, considering your feet will soon be in standing water...) Keep the drain plugged until the end of your shower. At the end of your shower, turn off the water. This is the amount of water your shower used, relative to how full you would have had to fill the tub for a bath.

I think typical results indicate only about a third of the water needed for a tub-soak is used during a regular shower.

Not sure at all of regular tub to soaking tub comparisons, but I'd start by looking at their regular capacities and accounting for water displacement when you get in it. Where's SiteGeek when you need him?!?!

(My biggest tub pet peeve is that Kohler tub designed to overflow into a surrounding trough. Arggghhh.)

I agree with Patrick about showers using less water, and I seldom (semi-annually, maybe?) take a bath, but it's a nice option to have. I think that a regular bath tub with a shower is a very good thing, and I enjoy mine.

If I were creating a bathroom from scratch, though, I'd be tempted to have an enormous walk-in shower that had one of these gorgeous soaking tubs adjacent to it, because I prefer that idea of sitting and soaking than lying down, posture-wise, especially when it comes to the idea of getting up out of it.

In Japan, people often leave water in their tubs for days and re-use the water for several baths. They wash up with soap and rinse off before getting in the tub, and once clean, then soak in the tub. This is like a jacuzzi in the US. So it's not clear that the soaking tub, when used as in Japan, uses more water than a shower.

it can be done! you can make your cat poo on the loo! check it out... zipzapzop.blogspot.com/2005_05_19_zipzapzop_archive.html

j--
Good point. Not sure that's the typical usage of the American-installed variety, though, but I'd rescind my own reservations about soaker tubs if that proved to be the case.

I agree about water conservation, especially in the West, and California. I have a friend who writes an interesting blog tracking articles about water and sustainability issues in the US Southwest. (tothelastdrop.blogspot.com)

However. Having said that, tubs are rather indispensable. Have you ever tried to get an 18-month-old to take a shower? No doing. And to even get her into a bath? Bubbles, and lots of them.

Re-using water in the tub... sounds like Little House in the Big Woods. (Liked the book; not the bath idea.)

Since 99.7% of the time we take showers (that's 2 people - 1 cleaning/day each - 1 bath/year), we couldn't justify the cost and space of a separate tub in our new bathroom. And the walk-in shower is going to be great! We also have the luxury of a 2nd bathroom that will be standard tub/shower combo. (midwest)

You know, the way you say that the Japanese use their soaking tubs is a perfect example of how when ideas come over here from other places they really take on a life of their own. Sometimes, in this case, possibly for the worse.

Dear Patrick:

Actually, true Japanese bath tubs use a lot less water than taking showers.

I am quite into the Japanese culture and I have a fiberglass soaking tub that uses about 20 gallons per person -which is a lot less than what the average person uses in a normal shower. Unlike showers where the person just stands under spraying water, the bath enables the person to get a thorough soaking along with deep skin cleansing -and also get an extended period of relaxation too.

I also have an in-line gas heater for the tub/shower and the energy efficiecy of the whole arrangement is quite good.

I might mention that the water useage of a tub is actually determined by the displacement after the person is actually sitting in it (Archimedese Principle). In a Japanese tub, the bather is submerged neck deep and about half the volume of the tub is occupied by the person and the other half is filled with water. Also, the temperature of a Japanese bath is less because the increased depth provides more water contact and the temperature of the heater can be lowered.

A true Japanese tub is smaller than an American tub and very water/energy efficient. In my household, we use the tub for taking long soaks and then use the shower just for rinsing off after we get out. In fact, our water and energy bill is quite low.

As an engineer who looks at things from an analytical viewpoint, I am really impressed by the efficiency of the Japanese approach to bath design and I believe they will become more common place as manufacturers adapt the design.

I hope this provides an explanation of your questions about water and energy useage of the Japanese style tubs.

-Danny