In message , Ronald Raygun
writes
Mike Barnes wrote:

Ronald Raygun :
Mike Barnes wrote:

Ian Jackson :

I'm asking this because my wife and I both prefer the taps to turn the
opposite way to the 'standard', which is, when off, with the handles
jutting forwards, across the sink bowl. We much prefer the handles to
be parked folded pointing outwards (-o and o-).

Same here. I don't understand the "standard" - it makes no sense to me,
on any level.

Doesn't it? Then what would?

What the OP said makes sense and is exactly what I did in our downstairs
loo.

Of course you may feel that they ought to operate in the same way as
ordinary taps (clockwise off for both hot and cold),
[...]

No, I don't.

It makes sense to me to have the lever aligned with the flow when "on",
and across the direction of flow when "off". Many lever valves work that
way, and for good reason.

That makes sense, I agree, but more so for valves used only rarely, like
gas stopcocks, or connector arrangements for washing machines etc. For
valves operated frequently, ergonomic considerations may override this
principle.

I think I've misunderstood the description of the OP's setup, because
my memory is tainted with the tap arrangement I used to have once.

On mine, the axis of rotation of the knobs was horizontal (and indeed the
two knobs were co-axial). Taking the cold (right hand) knob, you would
rotate it clockwise for on, which meant pushing the top side of the knob
away from you. In other words, the lever would be horizontal facing towards
you for off, and would be vertical for fully on, though conceivably you
could pull the knob off the valve stem and put it back on 90 degrees out,
so that the lever would be vertical for off and horizontal pointing away
from you for on.

On re-reading the OP, it seems his knobs rotate in a vertical axis, with
the levers *always* horizontal, and the original arrangement has the
levers pointing towards him for off and away from wach other for on (i.e.
cold clockwise off, hot clockwise on). And he wants them pointing away
from each other for off. Not clear whether he wants them pointing towards
or away from him when on. If the latter, could he not just mount the
whole assembly rotated round by 180 degrees, and re-colour the buttons?
That way he wouldn't need to delve into the valve innards.

It's a normal mixer tap (the kind with a swivelling 'spout' in the
centre).

If you turn the whole tap around, you do make the hot tap cold, and the
cold tap hot, but you don't change the direction of rotation of the
handles.

And you are unlikely ever to want the handles pointing away from you
(towards the wall) - which they would (when off) if the virgin tap was
rotated. And if you re-positioned the handles, you would be back where
you started!

No, I think you've misinterpreted my original question, which was "Other
than turning in opposite directions, is there any real difference
between the hot and cold inserts", ie "Is there any reason why the cold
insert should not be used for the hot water, and vice versa?"
--
Ian