DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:
This is something that's been bugging for a long time.

Lots of times on TV, there's a person in the shower, someone comes and
flushes the toilet and the person in the shower starts screaming and
freaking out.

Why does the person in the shower react that way? Is this some special
reaction that was invented for TV purposes or something? I decided to
take a hot shower and have a relative flush the toilet and the only
thing that happened was the water pressure dropped slightly, no big
deal. Nothing else happened. So why do all these people on TV freak
out?

My house was built in 1992 without water pressure valves in the
showers and multi-gallon per flush toilets. Shortly after this the
codes were changed to require both pressure equalizing valves and low
water usage toilets. I have two showers and two toilets which are
very close to one another in two bathrooms. Flushing either toilet
did have an adverse affect on the shower water temperature. However
if I flushed a toilet on another floor the affect was neglible. I
have since changed the toilets to 1 gallon per flush TOTOs and the
problem is fixed. However, I also have my washing machine on the
second floor and it does affect the water temperature on the second
floor showers when it is filling. My wife usually washes with cold
water.
Mark