Your article (Pass notes, 9 January) presented the idea of four-minute showers. In September 2021, at a time of water shortages, I wrote to Yorkshire Water suggesting that they adopt a measure that I saw several years ago while working in Australia – the water supplier had given each householder a three-minute hourglass egg timer to stick to the wall of the bathroom shower. The Aussies then practised “beat the egg timer” while showering. I suggested that this would save both water and energy in these difficult times. Of course, as a follically challenged older man, I might have to donate some of my minutes to my wife to deal with her more luxurious tresses. I received a “that’s interesting” acknowledgment from Yorkshire Water.
Mike Elliott
Leven, East Yorkshire
• Four-minute showers? When in the navy, we had a problem with the evaporator on our ship, which produced fresh water. To economise when showering, we were told to to rinse, switch the water off, lather and shampoo, then rinse again. Water use was around a minute and a half, and did the job perfectly.
John Huntley
Letheringsett, Norfolk
• All this anguish over how much time one spends in the shower? What’s the matter with the good old-fashioned strip wash? In my youth my family had neither shower nor bath, but we kept ourselves clean. Now in my 80s, I still use this method. It doesn’t require lots of hot water, can be done quite quickly, and there is less risk of slipping and injuring oneself.
Peter Butler
Rushden, Northamptonshire
• Four minutes, pah! Shower on, get in and get wet. Thirty seconds. Shower off. Now wash with shower gel – you’ll use far less without the water washing it all away. Shower on to rinse. Thirty seconds. So shower running for a minute, tops. Trust me, if the bathroom’s cold, it’ll be less than a minute. Granted, for those with hair, it might take a bit longer…
Michael Sheldon
Birch Vale, Derbyshire
