Suicide Shower
In reading up on faucets for my previous post, I came across a term, suicide shower. Suicide squad shower sounds like a torture method from a B-grade gore movie or embodies a gruesome image of a mass suicide by jumping.
The real meaning of the term is not any less disturbing. In Latin America and some parts of East Africa, suicide shower is a way of heating up water for a shower without the conventional water heater.
Suicide Shower is a larger shower head that heats the cold water inside the head with an electric heating coil. You turn on the water, the water fills the head, completes the circuit, and you get hot (usually lukewarm) water. If the water flow is low it will come out boiling hot, too high and it’s only lukewarm. Controlling the flow to the optimum level can take some time and in some hotels there are detailed instructions on the back of the bathroom door.
Why it is coined the term “Suicide shower” is pretty obvious - water and 120V of electricity never sounds like a good combination. One of the main safety precautions that even kindergarten children know by heart is to never touch electrical appliances with wet hands. In fact, suicide shower has resulted in many deaths by electrocution.
A blogger described his experience with suicide shower:
“... I turned off the water, and the heater kept going. I could hear it growling inside the shower head. The water left in the head began to boil, hissing and bubbling inside the shower head. Something was seriously wrong. ... Steam started squealing from the seals, like a kettle boiling on full blast. Up until this point, I’d been standing there naked, dripping wet, and confused as to what was going on. But I figured this thing might actually explode, so I grabbed my towel and got the hell out of the shower. ... I could see it, glowing red, raging inside the plastic shower head. Black smoke started streaming from the holes in the plastic, and the heater raged on, squealing a more and more high pitched death knell. ... I told my landlady what had happened, and she said, “Oh, that happens sometimes, we’ll get you a new one.””
So, those who can take a shower without worrying that it could be your last one, know that you are privileged and lucky.
Source -https://journals.worldnomads.com/will/story/1533/Argentina/The-Latin-American-Suicide-Shower
http://justinwashere.com/the-suicide-shower/







