Green Stocking Stuffers: Tap Saver

12_6_2007-1.5lrgtapsaver.jpg Green Stocking Stuffers is an occasional series that will run throughout the holiday season, focused on inexpensive, small gifts that enable a greener home.

Our first Green Stocking Stuffer is a device that can help conserve water during daily bathroom rituals, like shaving and brushing teeth. Everyone knows that it's wasteful to let the water run, but when shaving your face, it's messy and difficult to fiddle with the faucet, especially if you have one of those old-fashioned, but newly fashionable, faucets with a separate handle for hot and cold. Shaving cream, water, and bits of beard go everywhere.
That's why the $9 tap saver is so great. It puts the water control in a much more logical place: where the water comes out of the faucet.

If you've got chrome bathroom hardware, it's actually quite unobtrusive—if you didn't know it was there, you're unlikely to notice it. Still, we'd welcome a wider selection of metals and finishes, for those who want everything to be matchy-matchy.

It's quite simple to use: flick the metal bar down to let the water through; flick it up to stop the flow while you brush or shave. In our highly unscientific experiments, we use about 25% of the water that we would otherwise. And because it's located over the sink, any errant shaving cream or toothpaste that gets on the mechanism is easy to rinse off: no more messy bathroom countertops.

Water savings and cleanliness: for $9, could you ask for more?

Comments (7)

this is wonderful! that balance between scaulding and freezing is often hard to find. keeping it would be fantastic. i wonder where one can buy such a thing.

posted by damova on December 6th 2007 at 10:44am
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i have a related problem/question.
we live in a smallish 6 unit vintage building and had a new common water heater installed in the summer. since then, our hot water takes forever to travel up to the units, requiring us to leave the water running for 2-3 minutes per use. really wasteful and frustrating (we keep jugs handy to fill up for drinking water - but it's still a pain).
the plumber/installer said we'd need a water pump installed which is odd because we never had this problem with the old water heater.
before we waste another $500-600 on a pump, has anyone had any experience with this?
thanks

posted by Johnp on December 6th 2007 at 12:14pm
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johnp, probably you should post your question in the open thread section (if that is still part of the new web design).

posted by damova on December 6th 2007 at 12:37pm
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Damn, I was so excited, I thought this woul repair our dripping faucet, but the site says it does not...any ideas on repairing a faucet without replacing it? The landlord is redoing the kitchen when we leave in about 6 months, so he probably won't replace the whole fixture, but I might be able to get him to agree to an easier solution, if there is one...The dripping is driving me crazy! (And ofcourse, wasting water...)

posted by Rosie on December 6th 2007 at 12:38pm
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We've had one of these in our kitchen for years. I really love it and it helps a lot in saving water. However, when I went to buy a new faucet for our new house, the salesman told me that if you have newer (plastic?) pipes, that this could actually cause a bad problem by backing up the pipes (or something like that). We've never had a problem, but right now we're in an older house that probably has all copper pipes. Something to ask a plumber about?

posted by SFGail on December 6th 2007 at 1:13pm
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Rosie,

I'm no plumber, but i think i've heard that replacing the washers in a leaky faucet help, because they let you fully close the taps. Should be easier than replacing the whole faucet (even though i dont' think that's that big of a deal, either)

posted by mh330 on December 7th 2007 at 6:07am
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The device that I think is best for water savings is a foot pedal operated sink. I've worked in labs for years now and at my last job, we had foot pedal sinks. Washing dishes, you only have the water on exactly when you need it. It doesn't entirely handle the perfect water temperature issue, but I'm still including them in my "someday when I own my own place" list.

Beyond the water saving is the cleanliness aspect - you're not constantly touching the faucet with your hands. I think these would be ideal in a public bathroom, or food service environment.

posted by sciencegeek on December 9th 2007 at 5:33am
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