The Kohler Converge shower fixture shown above has a hollow square hand shower on a hose that can be used alone or together with the wall mounted head. When I bought it at Costco in April of 2019, it met the current standard calling for a total flow rate of less than 2.5 gallons per minute (at a supply pressure of 80 psi).
But on December 16, 2020 the Trump administration changed the definition so this fixture now would count as having two heads, and thus be allowed to deliver 5 gallons per minute. An article by Timothy Gardner at Reuters on August 12, 2020 is titled Trump hair rinsing complaints prompt U.S. to ease shower standards. A second article by Sean Neumann at People on December 17, 2020 is titled U.S. changes showerhead restrictions – as Trump has complained old rule ruined his ‘perfect’ hair.
That silly change is predictable but was unnecessary. It also is bad psychology. The previous standard was met by including a plastic doughnut called a flow restrictor inside the showerhead. Anyone who had a problem with low flow could easily remove the doughnut with a hand tool like a screwdriver. The default was water conservation, which you could opt-out of, if that was necessary. Now if you want to conserve water you have to opt-in and add a flow restrictor. Yet another article by Alpha’s Path at Medium on April 25, 2019 titled Opt-in vs Opt-out psychology said to:
“Make the actions you want to encourage easier, akin to moving downhill; and make the actions you want to discourage more difficult, akin to moving uphill.”
Still another article by Michael E. Mann at NBC News Think on December 19, 2020 titled Trump’s toilet obsession is a metaphor for years of flushing climate progress down the drain told about his outrageous exaggeration that people were having to flush their low-flow toilets ten or fifteen times. I’ve never had to flush more than twice.
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