THE VIDEO SHELF · british plumbing
Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps
Tom Scott explains why Britain historically has separate hot and cold taps rather than mixer taps, tracing it to how water was stored in tanks. He notes why the hot tap is not safe to drink from.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN commenters treat it as the standard short answer whenever UK taps come up.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Tom Scott
- Topic
- british plumbing
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 2
- HN mentions in dataset
- 8
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2015–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
It makes a lot of sense having them separate. Tom Scott explains [VIDEO] Here in California showers and much other plumbing are required to have backflow valves so that hot and cold don't cross contaminate.
rogerbinns on Hacker News · 2015-03
In Britain's housing crisis is a human disasterShort video by Tom Scott on the subject for those interested. [VIDEO] tldw; Older homes in the UK had a water storage tank in the roof space that fed the water heating tank. This couldn't be classified as drinking water so wasn't allowed to be …
SimonPStevens on Hacker News · 2021-03
In Rents for the rich are going down, rents for the poor are going up. Why?
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.