TheBanyanTree: Bathing-- Art? Or science?

[Dale M. Parish]

Normally, I take a hot shower, but sometimes, I come in hot and tired and want to take a long soak in a hot bath.  Especially when it's time to cut toe nails-- a good scalding makes them so much easier to cut.  I used to know just how to set the temperature so that I could just barely stand to put my feet in the water when it had reached the right depth.  That's the displacement depth-- enough water so that when I was immersed up to my neck, legs folded down, the water would just come up to the top of the overflow drain.  I'd take the wash rag, fold it just so, and drape it over the bottom intake opening, stuffing the rag in so that it would stop the overflow, and I could enjoy the tub full up to the top after I was immersed to my chin. 
 
Alas, we traded that fiberglass tub for a larger cast-iron model.  I'm having to relearn all over again.  

The cast iron tub has a much higher coefficient of heat than the fiberglass one had, which means that the first half of the hot water goes into heating the tub, not me.  If I turn the water on hot enough to heat the tub first, then I can't stand to get in it until it's nearly full and the tub soaks enough heat out of the water to bring it down to the temperature where your toe nails hurt after they've soaked a few minutes.  Why toe nails and not fingernails hurt in water as hot as you can stand it, I've never figured out.  But mine do.  

I'm learning that if I turn the water on hotter than I can stand it at first, let the tub fill up about a fourth, then pull back on the hot, I don't have to wait too much longer for the water temperature to be drawn back down by the tub to the point that I can put my feet in without scalding them.  What I'm having trouble learning is how much to let off the hot water so that when the water gets deep, it doesn't cool off too quickly.  Several times, I've thought I had it just right, but before I was ready to end the soaking and start the washing, it was much too cool.  Not good.  

Maybe what I need to do is to invent a tub heater.  Why not?  They have heated toilet seats and heated car seats.  Only problem I see with that is the safety factor.  Electric heat in a cast iron tub would probably not be a good idea.  Oh, well.  I'll figure it out sooner or later.

Hugs,
Dale

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Dale M. Parish
628 Parish RD
Orange TX 77632