I have one of those at home in the UK, in fact I only recently changed the older unit that was getting long in the tooth. The house is old and an electric shower the only way to have a proper shower. I also have a shower extension, a rubber tube with two inputs you connect to the hot and cold taps in the bath tub and which outputs cold water if you hold it lower than the taps and hot water if you keep it above the taps, but never a mix of the two.
For those who don't know, the sinks and bathtubs in UK homes and businesses often have two completely separate taps: one for hot, one for cold. You're supposed to fill the sink with water from both and "wash" your hands (or your dishes) in it. No, you don't rinse them afterwards. It's just soap, it's good for you.
As an aside, I wonder if places like the UK with a lot of antiquated plumbing are responsible for more than their fair share of safecrackers? Every time I see a heist movie with someone crouching, grimly turning a dial an almost imperceptible amount I think back to the last B&B shower cold tap I used. A few degrees turn can often mean a large and uncomfortable temperature change.
Yes. The point is that it's not just soap but soapy water that has just washed off all kinds of gunk and dirt off your hands or dishes. It's a good idea to rinse it off. But, apparently, that's not the done thing in certain sectors of British society, e.g. see:
I wash up like a normal person: I fill a sink with hot water and washing-up liquid, and scrub the dishes in order of what needs the least attention. Glasses need a quick wipe and then they’re put aside, while the cutlery has a nice little soak at the bottom. You finish with the pans. If at any point the bubbles are not sparkling white, the water is dirty and needs to be refilled. I then move the dishes to the drying rack, without rinsing them off. In my opinion, this is the cleanest, most hygienic way of doing things, because everything has a little bath in the sink.
To be fair, dish washing turns out to be a very controversial thing. When I was doing my degree I lived in a shared student house with a British girl who was muslim, a Chinese girl and a British girl of unknown religion. The Chinese girl and I always insisted on re-doing the dishes after the second British girl did them the "normal" way as above. Then the muslim girl did them all over again with her own sponge to make sure they hadn't touched pork. But nobody picked up the used loo roll tubes from the bathroom. They piled up like abstract art :D
Don't you then have soap residue on your glasses, plates, and cutlery? I assume it's probably not a problem for your health to consume trace amounts like that, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't affect the taste of whatever you later eat using them.
Watching a roommate leave mountains of suds on dishes always made me cringe. Consuming detergent seems like a bad idea to me, and rinsing is so quick anyway. But I used the dishes anyway and never tasted any residue.
> Don't you then have soap residue on your glasses, plates, and cutlery?
Maybe a little, if the soap somehow stuck to it and didn't slide off while it was drying. But never enough to notice (at least, I never heard of anyone noticing - even foreigners who are horrified at British washing up have always talked about being grossed out by it rather than actually tasting anything).
For those who don't know, the sinks and bathtubs in UK homes and businesses often have two completely separate taps: one for hot, one for cold. You're supposed to fill the sink with water from both and "wash" your hands (or your dishes) in it. No, you don't rinse them afterwards. It's just soap, it's good for you.