Hot on Left, Cold on Right?

Convention -- only place I can see would be potentially down the road if selling an anal inspector could ding it.

Personally, I'd follow convention while in the process, but as you say, it would function w/o doing so.

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Depends, no one will know about it now. But what about the future when maybe the house is sold or you aren't around to explain the unconventional installation?

I'd go with convention, even if it means more sweating. It could cause confusion later on.

I feel your pain. This reminds of the time I had my utility sink replaced, long before I knew how to sweat a pipe. A plumber buddy ordered the parts, including a faucet that was plumbed from the top (a basement install).

After we busted up the old concrete sink, installed the fiberglass sink against the block wall, and ran the pipes to where the new faucet would go, he opened the faucet box. Imagine his surprise when he found a faucet that had to be plumbed from the bottom!

It took a gazillion fittings to extend the pipes along the top of sink, down around the side and along the bottom to the faucet. Somewhere in there he had to cross the pipes to make the hot and cold match up. What should have been a quick and easy job, all done from an standing position, took a lot longer and required sweating a bunch of fittings in tight quarters and under the sink.

I don't know but reminds me of a coworker that bought a new house and hot and cold switched to toilet. Toilet worked OK but he got a hot flush ;)

Sooner or later, someone (you may be dead by then) will remove the hoses to replace them, or to replace the washing machine. When they naturally reinstall them to the conventional locations, it will be a problem. Do it correctly. The extra parts are not THAT expensive.

I went to a function at a local High School where all the toilets were plumbed with warm water. I don't know why, but I do know that it felt nice while sitting down. You could tell the difference just sitting there.

nope. do what works for you.

THAT particular 'mistake' could have been done on purpose. It keeps the tanks from sweating.

dpb wrote: ...

BTW, if choose the easy way out, I'd recommend clearly marking "H/C" to minimize confusion later. Maybe paint hot handle red/cold blue or just a fixed label.

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If they simply hooked it to the hot side for that, then they did it wrong. If sweating is a problem, you can mix in a small volume of hot water to make the water 70-80 degrees, rather than the 50 degrees in the cold side. Using straight 120 degree hot water by itself for that is a huge energy waster.

Painting hot faucet handle red and cold handle green should make some future owner who screws up later look pretty stupid.

Jeff

Yea, I find conventions which allow others to have a reasonable expectation of what they will find too boring. I find driving on the left side of the road whenever I like (in the US) really breaks the monotony and keeps everyone guessing.

You must be the one I see on the wrong side of the double yellow line every day when I go to get my mail.

This is a good idea in a humid environment. I have mixing valves feeding all of my toilets too. It eliminates condensation on the tank and bowl and the resulting dripping on the floor.

Boden

Do it right. I have two examples of why from personal experience.

1. Me and wife lived with parents for a short time after we moved. He had washing machine on back porch that needed draining every use in cold weather. Connections backward and I hooked it up one morning by convention. Ruined an entire load of my wife's uniforms that required the delicate setting.
2. Did a basement replumb replacing all pipes. Somehow I got the laundry tub ones backward. "I'm the only one who usese, I'll remember"...nope - after almost burning myself twice when expecting cold water I redid it by crossing the pipes coming from the ceiling (too cramped up there to reverse them right).

Harry K

Thanks for all the replies. I'll cross the copper lines to keep the "hot on left, cold on right" standard.

A strip of red/blue tape around the lines to help mark the connections, also. It's a laundry...

i do that too sometimes on two lane roads. I also do NOT build my house for the next guy.

steve

That IS the north american standard. Many places in Europe it is reversed - and in Africa some places it's one way, other places the other.

When I was in Zambia in the 70s it was hard to know which was which in the hot season, what with exposed plumbing on the outside of masonry walls!!!!!! BOTH taps gave hot water, even with the geiser shut down. (City water flowed to a gravity tank up among the rafters under the tin roof, and from there down the sunny wall to the kitchen and bath)