Distilled water is not needed for iron, and other life lessons

I would like to respectfully disagree. I do think if you are not familiar with the person it can be taken as patronizing.

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but we’re not talking about prolonging the life of an appliance, we’re talking about a guest saying he can’t iron unless he has distilled water.

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Did you read my whole post, or just the first sentence? :wink:

You didn’t mention his age, but he sounds young with low self-awareness.

His little crack about your/our generation creating the need for recycling (or whatever it was), was just rude and thoughtless.

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I probably didn’t read any of it :slight_smile:

I had a chap who moved into the living room and had to be woken to be told to go to bed. In 8 days he went out twice. I naively thought that I had to put up with his lounging and unpleasantness.

Now all my postings say the living room is off limits. People are invited.

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In England addressing someone directly as dear is almost always patronising.

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I’ve read it again, there seems to be 3 points of view:
The guest: iron will only work with distilled water, fancy not supplying any
jkamm: iron will last longer with distilled water
the host: iron will work with any old water.

The guest is wrong, as you can do ironing with any tap water
jkamm is right, an iron will last longer (just like a kettle, washing machine, dishwasher) on distilled water, and the guest is a PITA (but not wrong), but no mention of tap water being viable, just a suggestion for guest to buy some distilled water…because that’s the only water to use?
The host is right, chucking rainwater in would get the ironing done, who cares if the iron dies 3 months earlier than usual, it’s only been used 4 times in 6 years.

It’s like a guest saying “I can’t have a 2 minute trip in this cab, one of the windows only opens halfway”, and then a fellow host saying “what a fool, but he’s right, windows are designed to go all the way down” :slight_smile:

Easily, my most tedious post ever.

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Well, maybe a teeny bit, but you have to remember that our Jaquo is a Northern Lass and we call everyone dear (or actually more likely “Luv” …)

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Both me and t’other half are both English and call each other dear - and I’ve never patronised him (well not in that way) and if he patronised me he’d get a thick ear. It could be a generational thing I suppose or the fact that we’ve both lived away from the UK for many years.

Dear, sweetheart, darlin’, precious, petal, flower and (yes @Malagachica ) luv. We shall leave other endearments for another day but you could always watch a video of David and Kylie from Corrie to learn more. (Pumpkin and Hunnybunny)

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Agreed. :joy:

202020

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100% different to call someone dear if you’re close to them.

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Re: dear and other patronizing statements. It’s almost impossible to determine intent and tone on the internet. The relationship of the people involved in the discussion is also relevant. Culture can play a role. Same as 90% of the time “Bless their heart” in the American south is snide. 10% of the time it’s empathy.

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Yes indeed. In the southeastern USA, we call almost EVERYONE hun, honey, sweetie, dear, mam, sir, and the ever popular fall favorite pun-kin.

Bless your heart——
A young woman complains to her hairdresser that her boyfriend who is 20 years older won’t buy her a Mercedes. Hairdresser says, “Well bless your heart, men are strange creatures”.
Translation “ clueless, selfish chick— Try standing on your feet all day listening to people whine and barely being able to afford a used Hyundai”.

A young woman at emergency room, frightened, damaged and bruised, she reports EX-boyfriend broke into her house. Nurse hugs her and says “bless your heart, no one should go through that” no translation. Heartfelt concern.

Edited to add: baby as in Store clerk “ is that all for you today baby?” Smiling endearment

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Distilled water is pure H2O and actually corrosive. I worked in a large research facility and the distilled (de-ionized) water had special plumbing.

Hard water is bad for irons and coffee makers. Large coffee chains like Starbucks may even use reverse osmosis filters to remove the gunk and the add back in beneficial minerals. I have hand built those systems for the Barnes and Noble coffee bars.

So filtered water is a good idea in hard water areas, but truly distilled water is not needed.

If the guest is not complying, print them a copy if their itinerary which includes the house rules and calmly explain it to them.

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I have a Rowenta iron and the manual specifically says to NOT use distilled water. If your water is too hard, they say to use half bottled spring water and half tap water.

I resent spending money on anything. With all due respect to people from Scotland, they say that a Yorkshire person (which is what I am) is a Scotsman with the generosity squeezed out. That’s how much of a skinflint I am.

So, a new iron every year or two, even though I am hard up, isn’t going to truly break the bank. And I’m not going to buy spring water or use distilled water to prolong its usefulness.

Life’s too short… :slight_smile:

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I had a Rowenta iron too. It lasted less years and months than a much cheaper brand, and it single handedly nearly wrecked my wedding gown.

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That’s rather harsh @AlexSJ

Different hosts, host in different ways. As along as @lauras0323 is clear in her listing about what access she is offering, then it is absolutely fine for her to be upset when the guest ignores this.

She offers access to her kitchen to prepare meals. The guest sat there for five hours. Personally if they were my rules I would have said something rather than sitting there seething but different folks, different strokes.

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Nowt! Iron from the Sally Ann, you spendthrift! :wink:

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