POOP SHELVES?! German vs. American Bathroom Differences | Feli from Germany
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- Опубліковано 4 тра 2024
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Have you ever been to a foreign country, gone to the bathroom, and felt completely lost? Like why does every toilet in Thailand have a trash bin and a water hose next to it? What are those weird-looking extra toilets in Italian bathrooms? And what's up with those German poop shelves?! 🚽Well, I can't cover ALL the bathroom differences in the world in one video so we're going to talk about the differences between German and American bathrooms because let me tell you, a lot of these things can be quite confusing the first time 😅
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 28, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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0:00 Intro
1:20 Light switches
3:17 Door locks
6:30 Toilets
10:06 Peeing & toilet paper differences
10:51 Stay anonymous with ExpressVPN!
12:54 Faucets
13:49 Showers
16:27 Shower Curtains
17:05 Floors/walls
17:29 Public bathrooms
19:05 Pay to pee
20:49 Share your bathroom experiences!
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I wanna hear YOUR crazy bathroom stories! 😅👇 Have you ever felt completely lost in the bathroom when traveling to another country? Or even just at a friend's place?
I wasted a bunch of hot water because in Mexico the hot water takes a lot longer to heat up but in the States the water takes like 30 seconds to heat up
When I worked at a mall in California the Asian’s would always 💩 on top the 🚽
….because in Asia people 💩 in a hole in the ground usually
@@YukiLuvsJesus Hahahaa oh gosh! I would say it depends, it can take a few minutes to heat up in the US sometimes too but that's usually in older homes
I heard the toilets referred to as "trophy shelves". And it was explained to me to create a "flying carpet" (use toilet paper on top of the shelf) to keep them clean.
I am female. In a Paris Restaurant : After using the toilet I went over to the sink to wash my hands. I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the faucet. Surprise #1: A male patron showed up (! Mixed bathrooms almost never happens in the USA) . He showed me a contraption below the sink that you push with your knee. That thing turns on the water. Makes complete sense. Once you know about it!
The first time I flew to outside of the U.S. was into Berlin. After the transatlantic flight, I was anxious for a restroom and did not know I would need to pay. The restroom had an attendant who spoke only German. It was obvious that I was supposed to tip her, but I had nothing but large travelers checks with me. We had not been through customs yet, so we had no opportunity to change currency. I had to leave without tipping. The attendant was angry, and she yelled so loud I could hear as I ran down the airport corridor. I was embarrassed, but why did they have an attendant expecting tips in a restroom inside the international terminal where foreign travelers would not have been through customs yet? Once I was able to get change, I was not allowed to go back into the terminal to tip her. That was thirty years ago and still bothers me!
@Kate Held I'm sure the German attendant is still angry !!😡
OMG, you reminded me of my first trip to Germany...during my first trip to Europe (with a friend), actually. Anyway, we'd taken the train from Brussels, Belgium, to Cologne, Germany. Something I'd eaten the night before wasn't agreeing with me so the minute we arrived at the Cologne train station I made a mad dash for the ladies' room. I was confronted by pay toilets and I had not yet exchanged any money....oh my, I had to run upstairs to the currency exchange and then go back down to the bathroom (in the nick of time). For some reason, though, the bathroom attendant started yelling at me and banging on the stall door and tried to open it with her key. I had to finish "my business" holding the door shut with one foot.
That kind of failure to think about things has been pretty common in Germany. For example, until a decade ago, the duty-free shops at Berlin-Tegel airport were cash only. Who wants to take a bunch of cash from the country you're leaving just in case you might want to buy a bottle of slightly discounted booze? The one time I shopped there, I saw it as a chance to get rid of some change and notes that would be useless once I left - only to get chewed out by the cashier for "too many coins".
@@simonbone In Hanover airport, you can pay in cash in Euro, US Dollar & if I recall Polish Zlotti (what ever their called).
Cash is king.
LOL, I would have just put a couple quarters in there. So many places in Europe I was at in the Navy accepted American cash iirc. I do remember buying something in Amsterdam airport when I had to fly home for Emergency leave after my dad died, I'm sure I paid in American dollars since I certainly didn't exchange any money. Very few times I actually exchanged money.
I had a bad experience using the "poop shelf" toilet when I was first stationed in Bad Kreuznach back in '77. One time the facilities engineers serviced the water system in our apartment building. They turned all the water of and then turned it back on. If you have ever turned of your home water system you may have experience that when you turn the tap on water spurts outbecause the is air in the pipes. Well, I used the toilet and as I was getting up I reached back to flush the toilet and the water came out in a strong gush. The water hit the "poop shelf" and threw all the poop all up and down my back side. Luckily this was at home and I cleaned up and changed clothes. Ever since the make sure I'm a safe distance from public toilets before I flush.
Hello Ernest! 🙂
Grüße (greetings) from Bad Kreuznach. 🙋🏻♀️
When I was stationed in Germany, shortly after you, I rented a wonderful little apartment and, with my landlord, converted the old tub into a shower. Conversation eventually turned to the toilet shelf. He told me that this feature eliminated splash-back. I took his word for it.
Yeah, stationed in Garmish 74-75, poop shelf in the barraks, Just got used to it, luckily no issues.
My first "poop shelf" was in USSR 1981 with the same horrible result as yours.
I thought it was only a Russian thing!
What a great story! Thanks for sharing
Having lived in Germany, the worst part of the poop shelf was that the water doesn't move all the poop off the shelf, resulting in the need to clean the shelf with a brush, which then got disgustingly poopy no matter how much you tried to rinse it off.
That's what I was picturing happening in my head while she was talking. Even though it's your own......Bluck! What if someone leaves theirs behind? LOL
Use a little vinegar, works on the mess, and the scale too.
I'm so glad you made this video. I went to Germany in 1993. The poop shelf definitely freaked me out more than anything else. On my return to the US, my family and friends had a hard time believing it. Now, 30 years later, I can show them I wasn't making it up! 😂
The poop shelves freaked me out too when I first saw them in Dutch hotels in 1999 (it is just too gross). Good for me, the apartments I rented in the Netherlands and Belgium had standard toilet designs (like in the U.S.)
I've visited Germany, but the only place I've seen a poop shelf was in a New York hotel.
Dumbdadumbdumbdummmb. You would rather have poopwater splash your butt..
I have no idea why it is, but I do have a suggestion. The German monarchy. Back in the day it wasn't uncommon for a monarch to have his stool examined to verify health. So it wouldn't surprise me if the "shelf" wasn't put in place to make for the poop inspection easier and it just became a standard feature.
However, the water usage in toilets differ and I believe the German design used less water, so that in itself may have played a role too. Less water in the bowl so less water waste.
@@superdave8248 Wait Americans don't inspect their poop?!?!
The shelf toilets are holdovers from when pin worms in children were very common, being spread in the schools like head lice.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_infection
Some U.K. hospitals had “hospital shelf toilets” for samples imported from Germany! Interesting explanation for German toilet design.
The first time I saw the shelf toilet and asked about it I was told it was so a person can check for worms. I guess this was the reasoning.
oh wow ok
Yup, I grew up on a farm in the midwest, and had pin worms as a kid in the early 60s.
Oo! The truth is always worse.. 🤢
On a trip to the Netherlands, back in the '90s, I stayed overnight at someone's house; eventually, I needed to use the loo and was surprised to see a 'poop shelf' staring up at me. I seriously believed that the toilet had been installed back-to-front!
It was standard type of toilet i many european countries till 60s but maybe they are still made.
The swirling action in toilets is a design feature to promote a cleansing action on the side of the bowl as as the flush progresses.
The dual shower curtain serves a functional purpose as well: with a single curtain, the water moving downward causes the air to move as well, which tends to draw the curtain towards the water stream. With a second curtain outside, it tends to greatly reduce that venturi effect.
*bernoulli effect
I had a friend who was an exchange student in Germany in High School in the 80s. Obviously many things have changed since then but he was most impressed by the water pressure "you could flush a watermelon down those things".
For sure. When I lived in Germany for half of my life, I never even once clogged a toilet. Here in the US, this happens all the time. Here you don't have a brush next to every toilet but a plunger.
From the video, it seems like you are wasting more water from that volume/pressure than a toilet bowl of water.
@@heiner71 I lived in Kochel am See for three months as an American learning German there and being in Germany for the first time in my life and I had to deal with a Flachspüler toilet also for the first time in my life. I don't know about yours, but mine hardly ever did the job the first time around -- I don't care what your water pressure is -- and having to use the toilet brush afterward is a big understatement. And as far as clogged toilets in the US? What are you flushing down? Towels? The last time I had a clogged toilet requiring a plunger once back in the US was at least six years ago.
If it was in the 80s your friend had probably seen a "Druckspüler" (pressure flush valve). These were common in old houses back then. Nowadays they are quite rare. And yeah, if you're not expecting it, the water pressure of 6 bar (87 psi) streaming into the toilet with the loud noise it makes can be pretty astonishing.
On the flip side, I met a German who did a high school exchange program. His host family greeted him with cookies, which he just couldn't stomach. So, when the family left on a shopping trip, he tried to flush the cookies down the toilet. Instead of going down like a watermelon, they did a lazy spin, and kept on floating. He had to fish them out of the bowl and throw them into the woods behind the house.
The best idea I saw in a German hotel bathroom was a full wet room with the shower drain in the floor - no need for a shower curtain at all. LOVE it - perfect for aging in place and easier to clean the bathroom.
Regarding faucets, I find dual handle faucets (the ones that have levers that turn from 0 closed to 90 degrees full open) far easier to use to set the expected temperature than a mixer tap. They are also easier to turn on without touching the handle with "dirty" fingers, as one can more easily bump them into the desired open position with the back of the hand.
I'm 100% a double handle kind of girl.
@@thebewitchinghour831 - Oh this invites SOOOO many jokes.
After my first trip to Europe in my twenties, I immediately bought a shower head with a handheld adjustable shower head - I love them! I get lots of comments on them - and you nailed it on how great they are for cleaning the shower!
Same here! We’ve had a handheld spray in our shower ever since.
My first normal international trip was to Belgium for work. After a very long trip where my brain was mush by the end I got to the hotel. I went to use the bathroom, looked inside, and saw no toilet. Just the shower and sink. And my brain did a complete blue screen of death.
As my brain rebooted and got working again I kept saying to myself "no. no. no. This is not a cultural thing. There is no way a hotel room in any country does not have its own toilet."
So I walked into the bathroom and looked around, and it turns out the toilet was hidden. The door to the bathroom opened inwards, and the opened door perfectly covered the entrance to a little side alcove where the toilet was, so you had to walk in and shut the door before you could see where the toilet was.
If I had been more awake it probably wouldn't have been so bad. But brain dead after a full day of traveling for your first time abroad, where you're all ready to just crash and sleep... and it looks like you got a hotel room without a toilet... just broke my brain.
Thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to keep that in mind should I ever encounter that situation.
In Finnish houses bathroom and toilet were traditionally completely separate rooms at separate parts of the house. Nowadays on new homes there is a separate toilet with the bathroom also but it is more like backup and not the main toilet. That makes the use of the term "bathroom" to refer to toilet strange to me. The bathroom is here with the sauna. Because it can be used for extended periods it would be inconvenient to have the only toilet there. On apartments they typically are combined.
I notice the poop shelf when I first went into the bathroom in a relatives house in Essen Germany. I immediately thought It was a bad idea. It caused the bathroom to get really stinky since the poop did not go in the water. Also bad splatter if you had diarrhea. Sometimes the water flow was not strong enough to wash the poop off the shelf. All in all a terrible experience.
I really disliked it - thankfully our newer toilets in Poland don't have them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many toilets in Ukraine have poop shelves. Between takeing a shit and not trying to puke in your pants from the smell is a challenge with in it's self.
Absolutely - my first hotel in Germany had me staring at that poop shelf wondering how to directly poop into the water. Fortunately toilets got more like I was used to over the years. Then there is the no stool at all toilets found some places in France and a lot in Asia. My elder daughter went into one of those in France, came right out and said she was going to find a spot in the trees instead.
Yuck! 🤢💩
Ugh! Enough said.
I once used a toilet in a fancy restaurant in England that had a living room-sized room that the toilet stalls were off, that had a fancy rug and sofa-chairs in the middle. The stalls also had stone walls and very sturdy, heavy, nice-looking doors that didn't even show any light at the bottom to my memory. This is the most luxury bathroom I have ever been to... and it was very hidden away, I believe it may have even been upstairs, but it was sign-posted and clearly for the use of customers. I have lived in England all my life and only once or maybe twice experienced anything like this, so definitely don't expect it, but I wanted to share because it was pretty amazing!
In America I've been impressed with two bathrooms. One was an expensive gym in a rich part of town. It had a living room in it too.
The other was my favorite restaurant, Cantino Laredo. Each bathroom toilet was a room. Like full drywall floor to ceiling with a real door (It was slated, but still -- not see through at all). Very fancy tile too. Excellent bathroom.
There is (or was) a department store in Pearl Ridge, outside of Honolulu that had a ladies room lounge like that. It was almost nice enough to serve afternoon tea in.
This gal is so sweet. I love her opinions on how we are so uncomfortable outside our own comfort zone. Different cultures make us feel uneasy .
For the luxury effect, some people in the UK are now installing Japanese style toilets in their homes. You need a degree to use them but you get a full service of your undercarriage on completion, including a wash and blow-dry. (You might also get a coffee while you wait.)
Brilliant! Clearly made up but it made me chortle.
I've been to a Japanese-ran Hotel next to Frankfurt Hbf, and they actually have the kind of robotoilet as well as pre-fabricated toilet room.
@@rogink The coffee part is humorous; : otherwise it is accurate..
@@rogink mostly true, actually 😂
That's a great idea, if the water tank doubled as a Keurig it would autofill and I could have my first cup of coffee whilst taking my morning dump.
There is a practical advantage to the two layer shower curtain. The spray of water from the shower entrains a flow of air with it. That moving air will do the whole Bernoulli principal thing, just like an airplane wing. It sucks the curtain into the tub or stall. That can be annoying, especially if the bathroom is cold, because it also causes a flow of cold air onto your feet as well as the cold curtain getting friendly with your legs and body. An outside curtain in addition to the inside one is usually enough to block airflow, preventing both the draft and the overly companionable inner curtain.
Much depends on the thickness of the plastic liner there! My mother-in-law purchased a particularly cheap one (about as thin and flimsy as a produce bag) that nothing short of preheating the bathroom to about 80° could prevent from attacking the unhappy bather.
Another bonus is if your shower curtain has an innermost curtain or inner liner that is machine washable, it is really nice to be able to take that off and throw it in the washing machine with your towel load. Keeps the shower curtain clean and mildew free easily, without having to try to clean it by hand.
Yes the single curtain annoys me a lot with this.
Honestly had never heard of it until now.
@@themourningstar338 while I understand, that a second outer curtain can be beautyful the single curtain in Germany normally can go into the washingmachine
My husband and I went to Austria in 2001 and the poop shelf surprised us. We spent a good half hour coming up with different names for it (log flume got the biggest laugh). It still makes me smile when I think of it. Also, the public bathroom threw me... the bathroom attendant stopped me and I got so flustered, I started speaking Spanish (my second language) which confused her as well as myself.
LOL, I've never had to pay to use a bathroom in my life, there again, I've never travelled to Europe, as there are enough locations I want to see in North America, some more than once! Thanks for the smile this morning!
The aesthetics of a two-faucet configuration in a bathroom is undeniably more appealing than a single spout/tap, in the view of many. It's a simple (or as inexplicable) as that! Love your channel!
I was always told that the "inspection shelf" was to check for intestinal parasites. Makes sense in older homes as they were likely more common many decades ago, assuming meat inspection has improved since the 1950s.
That's what I was told. The Germans like(d) to eat a lot of pork. In the old days, these could contain tapeworms which would be visible on the German toilet. Nowadays pork is tapeworm-free. But, after flushing there would be scrape marks left, so I always lined the shelf with toilet paper before starting.
Its not about parasites it is about general health.
I’m a plumber and a 2 handle faucet usually last longer without needing repaired and is usually easier to repair
I moved away from single handle faucets in bathrooms as a design choice as they look more balanced. Single handle faucets tend to open the hot side more often even when not needed increasing hot water usage not even intended by the user.
Thank you for explaining why there are toilet brushes in German public toilets. This was so confusing to me as I didn’t know if I was supposed to clean the whole toilet, the seat (as there was no paper to cover it) or what. And there wasn’t anyone I felt I could ask! One of life’s unanswerable questions is answered.
Hi Feli. I just found your channel by accident and enjoyed watching every minute of it. I love your voice and those eyes and your bubbly personality. Thanks for letting us know about German bathroom, etiquette, and stuff.
I went to Austria on a skiing trip with my school many, many years ago. We saw the shelf and my friend said “ Wow look! you can see whatcha done, how much you done and why you done it! I’ve never forgotten that remark. We laughed ourselves silly 🙃
😂😂😂
I was told by an Austrian guy, where they still have a lot of "traditional' toilets, that style was so people could check their poop before flushing as a check on their health. Parasites, blood, colour, etc. What I did find out very quickly is that you must lay down some toilet paper first so a mess isn't left on the shelf when you do flush!
YES! A common-sense answer.
That’s disgusting. I think I’ll just go to the doctor like a normal person, not try to diagnose my own stool. It’s not really worth the pungent smell of feces and having to scrub shit every time I use the restroom 🤢
@@lloydtxw If you read my post I said you lay down toilet paper first so no scrubbing.
@@lloydtxw It was also meant for little ampules that you get at the doctor so it was easier to collect a sample. Especially for old people.
@@mirandahotspring4019 if it drops into water and is sucked down, there’s no wasted paper. I use a bidet, there’s no need for paper and no need to touch or smell feces. The shelf is unnecessary and gross. And before you comment on wasted water, US toilets use siphon flushing to suction the water down and clean the bowl. Europe uses wash down flushing that leaves residue requiring scrubbing and extra flushing, wasting more water. Yuck.
8:00 The shelf was the result of the method of connecting to the sewage system (assembly above/on the pipe), and the type of sewage system (cast iron) which required a large slope to prevent clogging. Now we have slippery pvc pipes so it is possible to connect almost horizontally through walls
My father was stationed in Heilbronn in the early '90's and I was fortunate enough to be able to join him for a couple years there as a child. I never encountered a voluntary pay bathroom as you described, but coin operated stalls were everywhere and did take some getting used to. It is a beautiful country and I hope to be able to visit again as an adult and truly appreciate it.
Feli, great content. I want to address the commercial restroom divider issue though. There are a number of building codes, fire codes, ADA codes, venting codes, and general ease of cleaning issues that determine the toilet partition divider gaps at the bottom and top you have referenced in the USA. The gap at the bottom of the door is generally 12 inches or greater for three reasons. First ADA code says that doors must be solid to the floor below 12 inches or be above the 12-inch mark, we generally go above the 12 inches. The 12" or greater gap promotes ease of cleaning, and airflow from the HVAC system more effectively, and makes the doors themselves a little lighter so that the door hinges can last longer. Also, some toilet partitions are ceiling-mounted where weight is a huge issue. The larger gap at the top is driven by factors such as the Fire Code that needs 24" of gap to allow the fire sprinklers to reach inside the stalls. We also have to provide the visual/audio fire annunciator in each room. The large top and bottom gaps allow us to use one fire annunciator for the entire restroom. If the walls go full height, then each toilet compartment is considered an individual room requiring a dedicated fire sprinkler, annunciator device, and HVAC supply and return which gets very expensive. Higher-end public restrooms such as those in airline lounges, casinos, and hotels will do the full height walls and take the hit on the expense for the customer experience. I visited Germany in 2019 as I was inspired by your channel and was surprised to see what can be done building code-wise vs. the USA. In the USA we have extremely strict fire and life safety codes that dictate design that those not in the architectural industry may find baffling, but there is usually a valid code reason behind it.
Great details. I've also read that some states have codes that require a gap underneath the door large enough for someone to crawl under.
@@Trifler500 Having installed a "dog's door" made of lighter and flexible material would do the same.
@@Trifler500 I think that’s all the states. That gap is for safe escapes
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se Yeah, it's for safe escapes. I didn't know it was all states.
Handy box
Up to the 70's, most men's public restrooms in America had pay toilets. The standard charge was a 10 cent coin put in the mechanism to open the stall door. There was a little poem that was popular at the time:
"Here I sit all brokenhearted;
paid my dime and only farted."
No, they did not pay toilet were only used by a minority of businesses, and I was surprised the first time I saw one. What city had mostly pay toilets in businesses in 1960's I didn't know any.
It wasn't just the men's rooms. I remember needing a _quarter_ for coin-lock doors in public restrooms all the way into the early '80s!
That's a very, very ancient poem, but the more common version is, "Here I sit, brokenhearted, come to shit but only farted."
You would find them in bus stations and were probably discontinued because people would mess up the stall in resentment because they had a no-dime experience in the past.
Wrong. Public pay toilets have not been the norm in NJ during my lifetime. I’m 66. The exception to this are on boardwalks, which often include showers and lockers.
You forgot to mention that at gas station bathrooms, you often either have to have the code to enter the bathroom or they give you a key, which is invariably attached to the most unwieldy thing possible like a broomstick, a giant spoon, or a hubcap.
Those places often get drug addicts shooting up in the bathroom or people losing the key.
I have always lived in Alabama, USA and I've never actually seen this. I've seen it in movies and understand the reasoning -- but I can't ever remember having to get a key to use a gas station bathroom.
I've been to Europe several times and am always surprised by the differences in bathrooms. In a 5-star hotel in Rome, the bathrooms in the lobby were unisex: both men and women would enter the same room and just choose a stall. The stalls were a complete room with a normal door and walls. When done using the stall, you would wash your hands at a common row of sinks. As an American, I have to admit that walking into the room together with women, and washing my hands next to a woman, felt weird at the time, but also kind of liberating.
As far as showers go, I agree that the most common American configuration is a fixed showerhead, and both hot and cold levers on the sinks. But I prefer the European model, with a single lever on the sink and a shower wand. Also, the Euro shower has 2 controls, one for the temperature and one for the force of the water. That is SO convenient because you never have to adjust the temperature once you find your comfort zone. I wish American showers had that kind of plumbing.
I was very surprised by the floor-to-ceiling tiles in my dorm's bathroom when I studied abroad in Austria. It seemed stark and utilitarian at first, but I quickly came to appreciate how easy it was to clean and how it was basically impossible to get water on something that wasn't waterproof.
That makes so much more sense to me than the 3/4s of the way up is tiled in the bathtub/shower.
I'm in the US and in my wildest dreams I never imagined people scrunch their toilet paper (I fold it a bunch). That said on a Reddit post not too long ago I learned basically everyone whipes differently, sits differently, etc. so as a whole I guess bathroom experiences is one of those things that varies wildly without people realizing.
Yes, I am American and I fold and do so accordion style. I have always found scrunching is wasteful.
Agreed! Lol, that kinda makes me shudder to imagine!
I fold my toilet paper in fairly long folds. I'm less likely to get my hands dirty.
@@matthewnienkirchen8083 😂😂
I am in SEA toilet paper certainly is used for cooking (whipping of the grease) but only foreigners use it in the bathroom.
Hi Feli. Planning a European vacation and Munich is on our list to visit. I enjoy learning more about Germany prior to our vacation. As an American, I was traveling on business in the US and had to call the front desk of the hotel to ask how to turn on the shower. You had to pull down on the outlet rim of the faucet which diverted the water from the spigot to the shower head. Just goes to show we can be just as confused in our own country, but that's ok. The front desk attendant was very understanding and kind.
I've lived in Germany (briefly), the US, the UK, and Jamaica - but what springs to mind here are seemingly endless types of ways in the USA to turn on the shower. I've had to leave the bathroom and ask several times over the years. The worst [least obvious] 'shower activator' was the ring around the *spout* for filling the tub - 100% hidden - one had to grasp it between one's finger & thumb (around the flowing water) and pull it down! Yes, really. That was in San Francisco in 2017.
I have one of those in my home! The home inspector who looked at the house before we purchased it almost marked that down as an issue with that bathroom, because he couldn't get the shower to work at first. Then he remembered a rarer type of shower diverter he'd seen before, tried that out, and got it to work. 😂
4:55 you can very much still confirm that the lock works. With door still open, press the button. Then check if the knob/handle on the outside is able to be turned/pushed down or not.
My first visit to Germany was when I was young teen with my grandparents (my grandmother was from Germany) and as a 13 year old dealing with a "poop shelf" toilet might have been one of my most confusing and traumatic things. I was a kid. I was ridiculously embarrassed to ask anyone about how to use it. In an otherwise awesome summer in Germany, it freaked me out.
Many toilets from about 1920 had the tanks bolted to the wall, with a short length of pipe connecting to the bowl. My grandfather's house in British Columbia, Canada, built about 1901, had the tank up near the ceiling, and was flushed by pulling on a handle connected to a chain.
It was common here in Czech republic till 60s.
The "shelf toilet" was an interesting experience when I visited Germany in 1994. I was in Hanover for CeBIT, staying in a home. Which was so much better an experience than a hotel.
about the two taps at the sink (at 13:00): this originates from the UK, where it was common, and you still see it a lot there. the cold water was 'drinking water quality', but the warm water was in a tank on the attic, and not safe to drink. The building code (or similar) forbid mixing taps, because that could pollute the drinking water.
It's about cold/hot water handles not tap. Tap is still single and mixing, but there are two handles to regulate hot/cold water independently
@@imsnezhn8610 'tap' is correct for all types. the mixing thing is a 'mixer tap'.
I dislike the mixing tap. Prefer hot and cold water handles separate. The single one can be pushed up and forgotten to be pushed down to close or maybe kids or pets can leave the tap running and then before you know it a flood in your bathroom.
@@janverstraten5730 they are both mixers no matter how much levers they have or is it sink mixer, wall mixer or kitchen mixer. The difference is only in closing mechanism (cartridge or any kind of valves). Because right after the valve(s) two waters are combined to warm water (that's why it is a mixer). And the last pipe (spout) is used by both waters and may be contaminated by hot water. Only two separate taps can provide "drinking water quality" with no questions
@@frostflower5555 what you should prefer are overflow holes and self-closing taps. And water leak detectors or consumption control system. It's the only way to protect your bathroom from kids, pets or obliviousness. In the picture 13:08 there are two long levers and they can be easily turned left or right by kids or pets
The strangest toilet experience I had was in Sweden, when I didn't want to pay for a restroom visit while in Stockholm. There was a free men's room, but there were no urinals; the floor was a grate, and you were just supposed to... pee anywhere... *shudders* I had to leave and find a pay toilet.
These things used to be relatively common in Germany, too, under the aptly poetic name _Pissrinne._
I have seen very primitive men's rooms in the US, which were basically a trough on one wall. But never just "pee anywhere on the floor". The same floor you are walking on. No.
@@TheRetroGuy2000 I agree, the concept is disgusting, but it's a pretty rare day in the USA when one can step up to a urinal without standing in a puddle of someone else's pee.
I can't for the life of me, understand how anyone can "miss" when there's like 120 degrees of target area in both the horizontal and vertical directions.
That's hysterical 😅
17:33 - The good news is that some chain companies (Buc-ee's comes to mind) are paying attention and make their stalls more like rooms with vacant/occupied locks.
The light switch was on the outside of the bathroom in my parents house (built in 1950), in Manitoba, Canada. Most of the houses of this era were like that. Never seen it since.
Funny how you brought up the push-button locking doors. At my last workplace we had a bathroom door that was notorious for the lock not working on all occasions. You always had to check the door by locking it while it was still open and checking the outside handle before closing the door behind you as you enter the bathroom.
I lived in Germany for 9 years. I could never understand the lack of a shower curtain. I did though learn to love the hand-held shower. My house, in Georgia USA, has 3 showers. All have hand-held shower heads. I also have one for traveling. I don't travel much, but when I stay in a hotel, I literally remove the shower head and install my hand-held one. I also have Teflon tape and tools so I can install the hotel's shower head back on properly. Really people, if you've never showered with a hand-held shower head then you don't know what you are missing. And those shelf toilets, ack, the bad smells. You have to poo and then instantly flush or you get to smell your work of art.
The light switch outside the bathroom brought back memories of my first time visiting Germany in December 1991. I actually celebrated my 18th birthday there. It was also a little weird seeing the electric wire on the outside of the wall. I also recall my friend's bedroom having an inside and outside window which he said was for insulation. I don't recall being confused by the door lock, however. I kinda giggled a bit when you went over some of the American style locks. Downstairs they had one of those shelf toilets which i found strange.
Returning in 1996 and staying for a few nights in a cheap Munich hotel was definitely an experience. First of all there was a June heatwave and I couldn't figure out how to swing the window open so I left it slightly tilted at the top. The next morning I forgot my dictionary and asked for a wash cloth by explaining that I needed something to rub soap on and wash myself, auf deutsch. Die Waschlappen are different in Germany than the USA. Do Germans usually just rub soap on themselves because I had to ask my friend in 1991 for one as well?
Going from Weimar to Halle was like stepping back in time. Understandably, as unification only occurred less than six years prior, it was typical to see a house that looked like it was from the 1950s next to a fully renovated one. My friend's apartment had a toilet where the tank was almost above you and you pulled on a chain to flush it. The bathroom also only had a really deep clawfoot tub, no shower. Ah the memories!
Finally! You bring up what I was afraid to ask.
In the US pay toilets were around here and there when I was a kid. Never saw an attendant person but these were locks on a door or stall door that you had to put coins in to unlock. This was in the 70s. I don't remember ever seeing those after 1980.
same, mom said crawl under
I saw them once too in am airport. It was the 70's and they made them illegal.
Never seen em before myself
I was at a German traffic stop restroom. No toilet paper. You could buy one paper towel from a machine- so with diarrhea this was a creative challenge! I also remember living in Germany in the 60’s- when toilet paper could double as sandpaper! Explains the crankiness I often encountered.
Great stuff, Feli. I definitely experienced all of these things my first summer in Germany.
It was different, even slightly weird to me. But, by the end of my first summer, I did not want to come back to the states.
*If there is a single outflow of water, it is a "mixer tap" no matter how many handles it has: you don't have to turn on only one faucet at a time.*
Non-mixer taps have separate outflows for hot and for cold and, while common until recently in the UK, have not been used in new construction in the US since the late 1950's.
Exactly right.
I hate non-mixer taps; you can't wash your hands with warm water in the winter - only hot or cold.
I lived off post when I was stationed in Germany while in the Army. Yeah, that shelf was really weird. It's really embarrassing when a house mate informs you you forgot to flush. The toilet paper was weird too. It was wax paper, thick and smooth. Fortunately I heard my grandmother explain how they used pages from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. You hold an edge in both fists and crinkle it. There ya go. I'm 67 and will never forget my experiences in Germany. I was stationed in Heilbronn, by the way.
Perhaps the 'paper stock' was the true origin of 'scrunching', versus 'folding' for those more affluent (as opposed to 'effluent'!).
I have an older home (built late 1940s) in Seattle and the bathroom light switch is in the hall.
My mother's even older house (late 1920s) has the same type of switches, and deadbolt locks on the bathroom doors.
I had the same experience in Greece. Flushing did nothing, but the shower had a the shower head on a hose,and would reach the toilet. So you needed to wash the toiled bowl with the shower head after each use.
4:50 you can check if it is locked. Just open the door and push the button, then check the handle/knob on the other side. If you can’t move it then it means it is locked. It doesn’t have to be closed in order to be locked.
This is also the reason for the many times as a child our bathroom was locked with no one inside. Dad had to use that slot on the outside knob to unlock the door so we could use the bathroom.
The two things that made me think, 'oh wow, that is different' in Germany (1996-97), was some of the public toilets and how they kept them sanitary. The first one was the toilet seat wrapped in plastic sheeting, and when you flushed, a new plastic sheet was reeled out, and the old one was reeled in. The really neat one was when you flushed, the toilet seat would have a small arm that came out the back of the toilet, and the seat would spin around, sanitizing the seat with a solution, and there was a tiny little squeegee on the arm that wiped the liquid off the seat!
The Kansas City, Missouri, airport had the toilet seats wrapped in plastic sheeting for a while, some time from 2000 - 2020. (I don't remember exactly which years I used the restroom at MCI while picking up friends who flew in). It's possible the moving plastic sheeting on the toilet seats was there earlier, in the 90s, but I wasn't living in the KC area then.
This was a Swiss Enigeneered System, BTW
God I'd hate to be the person who has to maintain/clean that
We need that for the US. So many women squat when they pee and leave the toilet seat a mess and don't bother to clean it off.
I grew up in a 1925 row house in D.C.; the bathroom had a tiled floor, tile running up about 1.2m and painted plaster the rest of the way. Ours had an openable skylight over it for ventilation, no window. Hardwood flooring throughout, lath & plaster walls (typical for that time). We had hot-water radiators and a furnace which was converted to oil from coal. Cheers from Virginia's Southern Border!
I live in a small house built in the 1940's in Illinois and the bathroom light switch is outside the bathroom. There is an outlet that was added at some point above the sink for convenience.
After a trip to Europe I fell in love with the hand held shower head. First think I did when I returned home was purchase hand held shower heads and installed in my bathrooms.
Me too. And as a short person, when I discovered the kind that goes up and down on a pole, I was in heaven!
I have a few crazy-ish stories. I am a yank and went on an senior year of undergrad exchange program with université de technologie de compiègne). I stayed in a dorm room which had a bidet. I also did not have a refrigerator. This was during the fall semester. I kept my "cold" stuff setting on the sill outside of my window. The bidet was used to trickle cool my beer. Basically just crack the faucet to allow a small amount of water to continuously run. Beer got as cold as the water was. Further several bars I went to only had a ceramic "hole in the ground" with two foot pads for you to go #2. I was quite surprised at this concept.
When we built our home about 30 years ago we put the main lightswitch for each of the 3 bathrooms outside the bathroom. Now the switch also had a red light underneath so that if the light was "on" you knew that the bathroom was occupied. This was very handy with 7 people in the house.
We also had a secondary light/fan over the toilet with the switches for it within reach when using the toilet.
Excellent Video! But, I really gave you a Thumb Up for your looks and personality! And, how well you descriptions and commentary were! 👍🏼
I'm German-American and all of the strange stuff we did in my house as a kid made sense to me only after I moved to Germany as an adult. My grandma said the "poop shelf" was so that you could examine your feces. To see if you were healthy. New Subbie!
the shelf might save a dropped cell phone.
That's what I was told when I first moved to West Germany in 1989 as a junior in college. I found them "horrible" as a male since urinating tended to splash more than the American toilet. It has become an insult for some men to be referred to as a "sitzpinkler," a guy who pees sitting down (often implied at the insistence of his wife who doesn't want to clean his pee that has splashed onto the floor). Her video is funny because it is an actual debated topic in Germany.
I mean at least it has some valuable reason for the self if I did not know this I might have thought their toilets were absolutely bazaar
@@roseg1333 Yup, it was designed esp. for taking feces samples more than 100years ago, when public health had LOTS of issues like parasites.
However, that design is going away since at least 25+ years...the easier cleaning of the modern version finally won over here, too.
Well, no poseidons kiss is reason enough for me to always go for the poop shelves.
When I studied abroad in the UK I had another American friend who admitted months into our trip that she went to the bathroom with the lights off for the first few months because she didn't know where the light switch was. It was a pull string.
American South here (Alabama) -- we fold, not wad. Wadding would be so wasteful. I didn't know anyone would do that. The reason for the thin paper (we hate it too) is old pipes. Old pipes tend to get clogged -- so they use the very thin paper that breaks up so quickly. It's used for the same reason in businesses that have a lot of toilet going through.
My grandpa was first generation born American, his parents came from Germany. He completely renovated his house so many times (walls, support beams, bathrooms where there were none, etc). I remember, as a kid, my brother and I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE/HATE turning the light in the bathroom off on each other. Yes, he purposefully put the light switch on the outside! I never knew it was because this was how Germans did it. I now have a topic to talk to him about next time I see him in the nursing home. I'm sure he'll love talking about it lol 🤣
The light is on the outside of my bathroom as well. I never realized it was a common thing in Germany. I'm going to try and dig up the info on the guy who built the house in the 50s and see if maybe he was German lol. I remember he was a dentist but thats about it.
That's for security reasons. If you splash the switch with water when you are in the tub you could be electrocuted. So to avoid that they put the switch outside the bathroom.
My introduction to German shelf toilets was almost 60 years ago. Another feature then was the tank high up on the wall that was flushed by pulling down on a handle connected to a chain going up to the tank. And you had to make sure the toilet lid was closed or there was the possibility of a little something splashing out of the bowl.
Something always splashes out of the bowl. It's just not a large enough volume for us to be able to see it.
Oh yeah, I remember, in the aerly 60s this was the standard. Good ol' times....
The tank high up on the wall was how all toilets in the US were until at least the early 1900's.
Have you never watched The Godfather? US toilets had the tank and chain also.
@@ladyelainefairchild3546 Yes, but they went away in the US long before they did in Europe.
I was in Iceland (having spent my entire adult life in the USA) over the winter break, retrieving my son from the university in Reykjavik, and I got to meet some of those bathrooms. The different toilets (they were all like the deep-flushers you described) were a bit strange, but overall I liked the design, and they never got plugged up. I did make a fool of myself about the shower water control, thinking that the two knobs were for hot and cold, when the one on the left was for temperature and the one on the right was for pressure (I think - unless I got it backwards?) But once I got some help with it, everything was good. I would have liked to have gotten to see more of Iceland than snow, but that's what happens when you go to Reykjavik at Christmastime.
umm it's very easy to test the lock 5:00
you just push the button while the door is open and try to turn the handle on the other side.
what's more annoying is that you are easily able to lock yourself out of your own bathroom. for example when the door hits a wall and the button becomes pushed in and you don't notice that and you then close the door you're screwed
18:17 - the bathrooms at my office (completed in 2017) have the urinals situated so that if you're doing your business at the furthest one inside, you see the (backside) reflection of anyone sitting in the first stall through the tile's reflection. So you can, if timed right, watch your colleague wipe his ass. Needless to say, I never use those stalls and opt for the disabled stall when nature comes screaming.
Also, I'm now grateful to have lived in (West) Germany during the mid 80s in an OLD house in a village. The imprint the housing differences made on my young mind are lifelong. Even the one, detached bathroom we had with a shelf toilet was a learning experience.
All the bathroom variations that were described are very interesting to me. But I cannot fathom the basis of comments that state emphatically that you don’t need warm water to wash your hands. Warm water helps the soap dissolve the dirt and grime on your hands. To think that cold water is all you need to wash your hands seems extreme and perhaps a relic of the outhouse days in the woods. But I don’t really know where it comes from. Maybe it comes from Germany too. Thanks Feli.
I agree 100% with you. Here in Switzerland, the cold water is freezing cold even during summer months. My house doesn't have water boiler. Hot water is provided by the municipality in a closed circuit which is transferred via a heat exchanger to heat our bathrooms/kitchen water and in winter the radiant ceiling and floor heating. Houses and apartments in most of Europe usually don't have ventilation and air conditioning systems (VAC).
Hey fellow ohioan here (cleveland). Growing up our light switch for the bathroom was outside the room. Also the only bathroom in the house was through my parents room…… little weird admittedly but thats the way it was. To quote SerpentZA “stay awesome”. Recently found your channel and i LOVE it!!!!
I'm from San Francisco and many of our older houses, especially the Victorian-style ones, do have some of these European features, like light switches on the outside and turning bolt locks. It's also common for those houses to have the toilet and the sink in separate adjacent rooms, which is very uncommon in the US in general. Fully tiled bathrooms are also common here. I currently live in a very modern building, but I did grow up in an old one. As someone with a physical disability, I also really like those versatile handheld showerheads. Getting one was one of the best decisions I ever made. I highly recommend it!
When I lived in Germany, the “shelf toilets” in the houses I lived in were always a topic of discussion among visitors from the US.
Sign above toilet said, don't ask. We don't know.
Granted this is a very specific case, but this was the most unique "public" bathroom I had to use. I was in the Army and we were at NTC ( National Training Center ), Ft. Irwin CA. The set up they had was not your typical bathroom for us to use. No dividers at all for anything! Just a row of toilets and urinals down a wall. Now that was back in the mid 90's, they may have changed since, but that was quite the experience.
The light switch outside the bathroom is typically found only on older homes. I had seen one bathroom that didn't even have a switch, it was just on all the time. They said they just unscrew the bulb to turn it off. This place was really old, it was torn down when in the 80's.
When I came to the US for the first time I locked the door while it's open and tried the knob or handle from the outside first to know if it's locked.
One aspect of European toilets (probably other places, too) I loved was the bidets!
"Why wipe it dirty when you can wash it clean"
When I experienced a bidet again when I stayed at the Moana Surfrider in Honolulu, I bought the add on type of bidet for my personal bathroom. It washes, dries, feels a lot more sanitary, to me!
I have a bidet in my home too. It's not a hot water one. It doesn't sing to you like the Japanese ones do (Everything sings to you in Japan...) it just uses cold water. But I don't think I could live without one. I don't understand why this hasn't caught on in North America.
@@BeckBeckGo There are more people that have bidets than it might seem. It's not a subject that would be discussed over lunch or dinner.
I only have one bathroom in my home. I keep a couple rolls of toilet paper if a guest doesn't want to use the bidet.
I'm glad my bidet doesn't sing! That would become annoying & kinda creepy.
Bidet is a french word and tradition. They were numerous in the old times and houses but now are disappearing for it was mainly designed for the maison closes aka bordels ..
I remember when I went it Italy and saw the toilet brush in every bathroom. My reaction was one of resentment! I felt that it was an imposition on me to be expected to clean up a mess caused by an inadequate toilet.
fresh water is a good deal cheaper in the us than most of the world so the rest of the world is more likely to use rather low amounts of water where it cqn be conserved
When I lived in Germany, as a military dependent, it wasn't really on my radar. Fast forward to being a new father, and finding (this was in the 1980s) that men's rooms rarely had changing tables -- I remember having to change my son's diaper on a restroom floor. It is better now, but I was wondering what the situation was in Germany.
We are from the US, and one of my friends uses the toilet and often times he fills it almost completely. When visiting Germany, he used the toilet and "blasted" excessively. He could not believe it when getting off the thing! The pot was fully filled and it clogged immediately. Thankfully, he was in a restaurant with many people, so he left it behind and said nothing about it when leaving. Sad.
Women's bathrooms didn't have changing tables either. Lol.
Simple life hack for German shower curtains: buy TWO curtains - a nice one for the outside, and a practical, easy to clean one for the inside, and mount them on the same hooks. Works perfectly, and you avoid moving the one curtain in and out again all the time.
Most shower curtains sold here contain a separate liner curtain for that purpose.
American cloth shower curtains intended for the outside do not come with the inside liner. You buy it separately. If you get a plastic one you could leave it outside and flip in inside to take a shower, or get a liner.
@@emjayay I see them online with liner included. That is how i bought mine
For push-button door locks, I've always simply tested them before going inside to make sure the outside handle can't engage after the push-button is depressed and that engaging the inside handle disengages the locking mechanism.
Two points -- One night at the bowling alley on my league night, I went into the stall and couldn't get the lock to unlock. I tried lifting it with my foot to level the door and everything. The alley worker couldn't get it open either. I was trapped in the stall and it was my turn to bowl. Thank goodness for our high gaps because as gross as it was touching that nasty ass floor, I had to crawl under to get out.
My second thing is that I absolutely hate with burning passion, single handle faucets. Those things are a pain in the ass to change worn out washers in and having to change that single worn out cartridge is the worst. I had to go and buy a completely separate cartridge puller tool (about $12) just get my mom's cartridge out. And God forbid if you don't line up the cartridge just so when you put it back in, the cold and hot come out reversed. Double handles. Screw driver, wrench, new washer....done. Once in a blue moon you have to change the inner workings but it's usually just a worn out washer. Since then, I had my mom's kitchen faucet replaced with two handles and she's happier about it also.
The first home I owned had the light switch on the outside of the bathroom. That house was built in 1959 so not new construction.
I totally agree about mixer taps. My current house has Two handles for water and I rather dislike it. This was fun learning the differences (and similarities) between German and American bathrooms, thank you!
In my house, built in 1996 in Oklahoma, the master bathroom has one of those toilet rooms with its own door so someone can still use the sink or shower while the toilet is being used. It annoys me to no end that the lightswitch for it is on the outside. And, on the inside wall where the light swtich should be, there is a phone jack! WHY?!?! The people who built this house were crazy!
One of my cousin's built a house around 1992-93, and that's how they did their master bath! It had the little 'water closet' with just the toilet, light switch on the outside, and a freaking landline phone on the wall next to the toilet! It was so bizarre (and yuck), and he never had a good explanation as to why they built it that way. He just kind of shrugged and blamed it on the builder.
Because you wanted to have a good excuse to get off the phone when the telemarketer called you🤣🤣 ☎️ 🚽💩
@@themourningstar338 I think the logic with the switch is that you are already in the bathroom with a light on, so you can see the switch on the outside of the toilet room and won't have to search for it if you go in there and close the door at night.
In usa, ive had 2 handle fawcets that mix the water.
Ive also seen separate hot and cold in usa.
My dad put in a mixed faucet in our bathroom and kitchen.
I was born and raised in the USA. I have always folded tp. I dont understand the scrunchers. The thin tp in public spaces are the companies trying to pinch pennies.
The only unusual experience I had in Germany with public bathrooms was when I went in one with my dad and the was an older lady in there [something totally foreign to me]. My dad said she was the cleaning lady and that we had to pay her before we left. She did seem somewhat animated when it looked like we might not pay, she clearly wanted her money. I'm not sure what dad paid for the 2 of us but it seemed to make her happy.
I live in Serbia and our light switch for the bathroom is also on the outside so maybe it is a European thing and since most of the time the light switch comes with a little light on it to indicate the light in the bathroom is on (it is also the same switch for our boiler and heating in the bathroom) so maybe it is also made this way to indicate that someone is inside.
I was definitely perplexed by the poop shelf when I first when to Germany. This is the first time I found it mentioned. I always had to put toilet paper on the shelf first so that the poop wouldn't stick.
Unfortunately the newer more efficient US toilets now have less water in the bowls, such as the ones in my home now. Which means that I have a toilet brush and cleaner next to all my toilets.
When using the antique, high water tank toilet w/shelf at a relative's place in Höf, after doing my business and the "Aal" [eel] laying there on the shelf, I'd say "Achtung, fertig, los!" and hit the high pressure flush lever and it would fly off the shelf and down the tube in a blink of an eye. Always good for a chuckle.
Many urinals in the US do not have dividers. I know the public library near my house has urinals without dividers. I don't remember any urinal dividers in any schools I attended. Public toilets are usually required to be a shape called, "elongated." In private homes these would take up space in the bathroom and be something to bang your shins on, on the way to the bath or shower.
I don't know what state you're in, but here in Ohio we have dividers in between each urinal.
Even when I was in elementary School we had dividers. And that was back in the 80's. With those urinals that reach the ground.
When I saw the poop shelf for the first time, I immediately thought of an old German novel I read where someone's grandmother would carefully inspect his feces every time he went. In intercultural training at German companies in the US, I used to use the Flachspüler versus the Tiefspüler as an analogy for the difference between German and American mentalities. American engineers used to complain that in project meetings German engineers would harp on mistakes made three years ago that the Americans had already dealt with and flushed away. This contrasting Flachspüler versus Tiefspüler mentality was one way Germans and Americans drove each other nuts in the workplace.
Yes, I have to say that over the years I have found that the German obsession with fecal matter can be extreme and even perverse.
The tempoary quarters for military famlies were the 3 story high high with 8 bedrooms. The restroon had a toilet and sink. The bathroom had only the tub/shower, with the knobs on the side of the tub.
At 18:04 the 2-inch gap at the front door of the public restroom stalls freaked me out the first time moved to Northern California. One time I was washing my hands in the sink, looked at myself in the mirror, and saw my boss taking a dump inside the stall. We made eye-to-eye contact through the 2-inch gap. Gross !!! 😬
Ahhh... the shelf. Ran into these 30 years ago, and had to give a tour of my hotel room to my buddies to prove I wasn't crazy. Still a topic of conversation, 30 years later. Thanks for the chuckle.
New Jersey here and every one of your "commen in the USA" bathroom traits are virtually ubiquitous here, you totally nail it.
Not sure if other people mentioned this about shower curtains, but adding an outer curtain helps reduce the inward suction that sometimes happens with the inner curtain. I think it has something to do with convection & how air of different temps likes to move around. I noticed a fairly strong up-draft between my curtains when i'm running a hot shower. This displaced air is likely caused from the temperature difference of the inner curtain (hot) & outer curtain (cold). It's really nice to not have your curtain drift inward & stick to your body while you're trying to clean yourself.