Denmark loves their 'wet' bathrooms in hotels, no shower door and a drain in the center of the room. I spent a lot of time in CPH and would stay at the Marriott because it was one of the few with American style bathrooms.

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array_key_first 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Europeans are good at building a lot of things, but I will never understand the "cosplay a small flood" style bathrooms.

It's just... inefficient? Why wouldn't we want to catch the water closest to where it comes out?

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randycupertino 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's to save money and labor time so housekeeping can just mop it all down easier and faster without having to clean a separate bathtub and no having to clean any shower doors.

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jonstewart 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

See also: washing machines. If you have three pairs of underwear and all day, Europe’s washing machines have you covered. Otherwise, you’re SOL.

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tgsovlerkhgsel 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I've never really run into capacity problems with European washing machines, but the run times are definitely real. Most of them have a well-hidden faster mode. Still not as fast as a US machine on fast mode, but not the mandatory-default-by-law three-hour program.

Which would be even longer than 3h if some EU bureaucrat didn't realize that making the default unacceptably long for everyone will result in nobody using it.

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veeti 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Thankfully it is just a matter of choosing the "Cotton" program on the dial, not the "Cotton (eco)" one.

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seanmcdirmid 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Isn’t this mostly drying time and the fact that hardly any driers in Europe are vented (so either heat pump based or condensation)? Or is this the uses less water type washing machines? Europe tends to have higher rates on water and electricity to make efficiency worth while.

My Bosch dishwasher takes 3 hours I guess due to efficiency, it seems reasonable. I didn’t go with a European washer dryer combo though (my laundry room has a vent and I’ve heard that heat pump tech still isn’t good enough).

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tgsovlerkhgsel 2 hours ago | parent [-]

No, this is just about washing machines, not washer-dryers or doing both in sequence.

Due to ecodesign legislation, I would assume that all machines that can be legally sold in the EU would count as "uses less water" in the US.

The dishwashers are another can of worms. My last one had an EU and a non-EU program, and you quickly learned to pick the "non-efficient" one if you actually wanted clean dishes.

	▲	ruszki 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		My experience with dishwashers is that there are bad and good ones regardless of country. I had terrible and great dishwashers in the US, Australia, and Europe (basically in all countries there). The same with washing machines.

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trymas 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What do you mean?

	▲	tgsovlerkhgsel 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		EU ecodesign rules require washing machines to meet certain low energy/water consumption standards in the "default" program. Washing machine designers implement this by making these programs ridiculously long. The EU has now capped them at 3h because they realized that if these programs grow even longer nobody will use them. Even regular programs in front-loading machines (at least in the European countries I've been to, these make up the absolute vast majority of machines) are longer than typical top loaders. Top loaders are faster but put more wear on the clothes and use more energy and water. A regular, "non-EU" cycle will typically take around 2h. The EU one will typically max out the 3h limit.

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Symbiote 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The drain should be within the shower area, with all the bathroom floor draining that way.

If it's in the centre of the room it's been done very badly. I've never seen this in Denmark, even in some very old apartment buildings.

	▲	seanmcdirmid 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I’ve lived in a newish apartment where the wet room drain was in the center. It didn’t seem weird at all. There wasn’t much separation between the shower and toilet and sink, though.

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thaumasiotes 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Denmark loves their 'wet' bathrooms in hotels, no shower door and a drain in the center of the room.

If you're renting an apartment in Shanghai, a cheap one will have a door to the bathroom, but the shower won't be a separate fixture. The entire bathroom functions as the shower (the hose or fixed piping is mounted on a wall), and there's a drain in the floor.

A more recent apartment will have a shower installation that is, say, separate from the toilet.

	▲	seanmcdirmid 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Higher end apartments will. Even newer apartments in Beijing will have wet rooms at some price point. Remember that the apartments are built in China unrenovated, and even new owners of second-hand properties are expected to redo everything from a concrete box, so it is 100% up to the landlord/owner on how the bathroom is done, and I’ve seen it done many many different ways.
	▲	shellfishgene 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This is standard in all of southeast Asia and often the middle east.