Tappan Pushbutton Plumbing

[veg-o-matic]

As demonstrated by Laura Petrie.
This is from retrorenovation.com and I would gladly sell frontal into slavery for something so cool.

veg

Tappan push-button plumbing - 1963 - Retro Renovation

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for something we’ve never seen before, I was ecstatic to find this “Tappan Ultraflo push-button plumbing” innovation. It was featured in a copy of Popular Mechanics (Sept. 1963) that I picked up at Ron’s place last week. According to the story, mysterious unseen solenoids...

retrorenovation.com

 

[maytagbear]

Maybe--

until the electricity, for one reason or another, goes off!

Good to see you, Veg.

Kindly kiss the Honey for me.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[cornutt]

There was an episode of "World's Worth Bathrooms" on H&G a few years ago where they reno'ed a bathroom that had a system similar to this (I'm pretty sure it wasn't the exact same system). Of course, they ripped it out. At first I was sad about that since I thought it was kind of cool, but the homeowner explained that the valves weren't thermostatic and that the solenoid settings needed constant tweaking to maintain proper temps. He talked about turning on the shower, checking the temp, and then having to go down to the basement to adjust it before getting in the shower. No doubt the system could be made to work much better with today's electronics and pressure-balanced valves.

 

[cadman]

That is something to think about...you change the temp and have to wait for the commanded mixture to make it to the tap. More of a hurry up and wait!

And the thought of changing mixtures via electricity while standing in the shower may raise an eyebrow.

A friend recalled installing one of these systems in the early 60's in a new construction, and I KNOW I've seen pics of such a system out there on the net...but I know it didn't have as many solenoids. More like hot, cold, and warm.

Absolutely no reason you couldn't wire a couple washer valves up sequentially and control them via low-voltage relays. One set would offer HOT, COLD and WARM. Warm could be fed to valve 1 of a set with valve two receiving a preset temperature via a temperator (like used to keep toilets from sweating in the summer). Now you really have some possibilities!

Cory

 

[davek]

I would want 1 degree increments when it comes to the shower. I want it to be hot, but that can cross a line in a hurry. For the others, I think that hot, cold, and warm would suffice. There better also be one regular faucet somewhere in the house to get water if the power is out for a while.

There's a Kohler commercial running right now with a digital control shower (with about 6 heads!) that someone is enjoying a little too much. You find out at the end that it was the installer "testing" it. I want that shower. The perfect shower would be about 108 degrees and have all the subtlety of a "no touch" car wash.