European Bathrooms

[temba]

This Aussie experienced exactly that in a thatched cottage in Dorset @Twitcher . Had no idea it was in a cupboard. This was pre-sitting days in a week’s paid accommodation and owner hadn’t shared this vital piece of information. However, it certainly has become one of my questions on sits!

[Joe_and_Emma]

I think a lot of this is due to bathrooms being a late addition to many homes in Britain at least where many homes often just had an outside toilet and then baths would be run in the kitchen as it was also likely that homes didn’t have hot running water and boilers.
Also there were not a lot of electric appliances, certainly not in the bathroom and given the danger of dropping an electric appliance like a hairdryer into a bath it was determined that they wouldn’t be needed.

What I have noticed with central Europe is the tendency for apartments to only have showers and they also put washing machines in the bathroom so in those homes you will find a power socket you can use.

In some bathrooms you do see shaver sockets which are a lower voltage and these will only power shavers and electric toothbrushes. You rarely see proper full voltage power sockets in bathrooms in Europe and that’s probably down older homes, people being more used to using their bedrooms to get ready in.

[Samox24]

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[pietkuip]

@Joe_and_Emma

Europe is the tendency for apartments to only have showers and they also put washing machines in the bathroom so in those homes you will find a power socket you can use.

Here in Sweden such appliances in bathrooms must be connected to the grid by permanent wiring, without plugs.

And nitpicking as a physicist: shaver sockets have the same voltage (of about 230 volt) but cannot supply enough power the heaters in a hairdryer. The power is limited by the size of the transformer. The purpose of that 1:1 voltage transformer is to provide galvanic insulation from ground.

[Karen_E]

@Twitcher. Been there, done that. Talk about learning the hard way!

[Kelly]

One thing this entire thread reminded me about…not just the differences in European and north American bathrooms but how much I WISH our country had spent the money to bury cable lines! Could you imagine a Paris skyline with cable lines?! I’d take blow drying my hair in the common area over having to see cable lines any day but maybe that’s just me?

[geoff.hom]

Thanks for all the info, @andrealovesanimals. That reminds me of an Airbnb (in the US) that was a vintage Airstream trailer. It had a small bathroom with a toilet and sink, but that doubled as the shower. I was told it still worked fine, so I just had to try it. I’m glad I remembered to put the toilet paper roll away before turning on the water!