Water is too hot.

[Flood]

A woman came up to me to complain that her eight year old son burned himself.

Oh, how tragic! Did a drink get spilled on him?

No. It was in the bathroom. He went to wash and turned the sink all the way in the hot position before shoving his hands under the water.

The woman demanded our district manager's name and number so she could file a complaint that our water is too hot.

The consensus of the store is that if her son isn't old enough to know not to turn the water to as hot as it goes when washing his hands, he shouldn't be operating a bathroom sink unsupervised.

[barainga]

Ive never seen a hot water come out scalding hot,

[BrenDAnn]

Because heaven forbid the mother take any responsibility. I have never heard of water coming out that hot, especially at a restaurant, unless it's in the kitchen sinks or whatever. The mom (or dad if he was with him) should've been watching the boy to tell him not to crank it all the way to the hottest setting, really.

[Flood]

I've never had it get that hot in our bathrooms and I tend to wash my hands with the water set all the way to hot. It takes about a minute for the water to start getting uncomfortably hot, and if you stop it, it goes straight back to cold in no time flat.

Only way I figure you can get it hot enough to burn yourself is if you turn it on before you go and leave it running the whole time. Our sinks don't automatically turn off.

[Pedersen]

It could easily be hot enough to cause mild scalding. Keep in mind that that also qualifies as a burn. It also depends on the sensitivity of his skin.

While it shouldn't have been a problem, under the right conditions, it could have been.

And that, right there, is why I'll say that the parents should have taught their child better, or supervised the child better. Poor kid didn't deserve that.

[Dark Psion]

At least she didn't complain that the water was too wet.

I am sure some one has.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Had one where a woman complained that the water in the tap was too hot and it had burned her. The sink has one of those infrared sensors and is fixed to one temp setting. 80 degrees or 18 degrees below body temp.

She was told this and she claimed that she was still burned.

They went and checked the system and went looking for her to inform her that all the taps in the ladies restroom was at 80 like it should be.

They eventually found her. Soaking in a 104 degree hot tub.

[rose_metal_nz]

Um, had to be devil's advocate here, but it IS possible to have hot water "too" hot. Twice now I've had that in rental properties; the temperature for the hot water was set far too high, and was not only really freaky (turn the tap on, let it heat up, HOLYBATSHITITBURNS) but also cost a chunk in power.

I'm on the fence a little about whether to "blame" the parents for the burn/unsupervised.

Doesn't say anywhere the kid was unsupervised, and even so, I'm pretty sure that "normal-hot" hot water shouldn't have burnt him.

Unless, of course, the lady is exaggerating in order to lay a complaint Would anyone here be surpised?

[Moosenogger]

Young children are notorious for having more sensitive skin and lower thresholds of pain. Water that's too hot for him would probably just sting a bit for an adult. I'd say his hands were probably red and irritated after soaking in hot water, but he'd probably be fine. I'd like to know why mom didn't notice the steam starting to rise from the sink.

[siead_lietrathua]

we have to have "water hot" signs in our bathrooms at work because of how our water is. its not a gradual buildup to heat, its within 2 seconds at the max temp it can force out. and will cause scalding quickly. >.<

[Hyndis]

With anything that is potentially hot you should always be cautious. I do love hot water, but at the same time I don't just dive right in, I first hold my hand near it, then a fingertip, and then my whole hand if its fine.

If its too hot I can feel the heat without getting wet at all.



This is almost like a case of a kid not knowing fire burns.

At a very young age I can understand, but this is one of those things that is learned very quickly! Pain is a good thing sometimes.

[Bandit]

we have to have "water hot" signs in our bathrooms at work because of how our water is. its not a gradual buildup to heat, its within 2 seconds at the max temp it can force out. and will cause scalding quickly. >.<

And this is why I say that "Behind every warning sign, there is a clueless idiot with a lawyer."

Sorry to hear that - I *always* test the water before sticking an important body part into the stream.....

B
(Yeah - learned that the hard way many, many moons ago)

[EricKei]

That woman definitely needs to supervise her kid...But yeah, I have seen times where the water, both in commercial settings and home ones, is unreasonably hot. In the latter case, it's usually thanks to someone fiddling with dials they don't know as much about as they think they do...In theory, 120F water, which is scalding or close to it, it potentially hot enough to seriously burn or even kill a small child, and even burn an adult.