若旦那の悩み:節水vs.節円・見かけ An Innkeeper's Dilemma; Conserving Water vs. Conserving Money / Appearance

February 7, 2012: 青い目のおもてなし This American’s Omotenashi

The automatic-stopping part in question; Shiny, new (non-stopping) faucet in foreground, old, auto-stop one in background

亀清旅館のお風呂場のシャワーは一年半前に8台とも節水シャワーに取り返ました。ボタンを押せば、シャワーが30秒ぐらい出てから自動的に止まるというやつ。高かったけど、シャワーの流しっぱなし問題を防げて、節水になって環境にもよいとの事で、「進化した」と思いました。

が、上山田の温泉成分が強いか、シャワーは2台が止まらなくなってしまいました。管財やさんと相談したら、シャワー本体の部分の交換は無く、普通(節水じゃない)シャワーは1万円台という手ごろの値段だし、新品はピカピカで綺麗だし、取り変え様に言われた。

確かに、節水タイプは3万円ぐらいするのでいくら節水しても2万円分の節水はないだろうし、一年半前に買ったシャワーは温泉の成分でもう黒くなったし、取り返った方が良いか…

しかし、せっかく進化したから戻るのは嫌!シャワーを分解してみて、自動的に泊まる部分を把握して、その部品を管財屋さんに取り寄せしてもらった。2500円ぐらいしたけど、取り付けてみたらシャワーが直りました!

という事で、亀清のお風呂場の蛇口は見かけが良くない(温泉の成分のせいで黒くなっているから)けど、中身がしっかり節水になっている。

(今度はお風呂場の照明器具が調子悪くなった。一歩進んで、一歩…)

A year and a half ago, we changed out all of the shower faucets at Kamesei Ryokan's onsen baths to ones that stop automatically. Every once in a while, the showers were left running, wasting water. So in the name of water conservation, we bought all new, rather expensive faucets.

I was pretty proud of this small but important bit of progress.

Lately, though, a couple of the faucets stopped stopping. Apparently the onsen water's high mineral content seeped into the faucet and gummed things up.

When I consulted with the plumbing supply people, they suggested switching back to regular faucets. New ones are 1/3 the price of the cost of the automatic stopping ones, and would have a sparkling new appearance. The current ones have already turned black thanks to the onsen's minerals.

No matter how much water the automatic-stopping ones conserve, they would never save enough money to cover the difference in cost of the faucets. And new ones would look much better. Hmmm.

But, no! We made this step of progress and I don't want to go back! So I took another look at the faucets and disassembled one to figure out the part the does the automatic stopping. I had the supply store order the proper part. After it came, I tried installing it and, voila! The faucet stops automatically again.

So Kamesei's showers may not have a shiny appearance, but internally they are perfectly sound.

(Next dilemma: the bath's lighting fixtures are on the fritz...)





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