Talking of copper pipe, by comparison french tube has much thicker walls than UK tube which is micky mouse and liable to split when threatened by an ice cube.
1mm rather than 0.7mm - though the 12mm pipe I took over to work with was 0.7mm to the relevant EU standards so perfectly legal even it technically didn’t meet French normes.
1/2" BSP fits just fine to 14mm pipe (and I think 16mm) as long as you use the right olives.
1 Like
But in the UK there are far less 13th century uninsulated stone homes 
It would be unusual to find a HOT supply to the washing machine, WM’s are generally only fitted to a COLD supply in France. It is therefore possible that the hottest wash programmes on your ‘UK’ machine will not function correctly.
1 Like
I wonder if they have solar heating washing machines in France? Saw these available a while back. Still wondering if its possible to connect a cold feed machine to the hot feed solar supply? We should be using solar heating much more which is why passing regulations can quickly go out of date as things change.
1 Like
What can I say except no
UK washing machines are usually cold water supply only.
Why would the hottest settings not function correctly on a cold supply? The heating element should raise the temperature to that required and 90C max seems to be the norm.
I think a lot of washing machine detergents are designed for cool water washes in any case - I do all my washes (in a Bosch Series 4) on the “Eco 40/60” settings and have never felt the need to use anything hotter.
YMMV of course depending on what you need to wash!
Thank you thats what I was expecting and it seems the same in my house in France but I forgot to check the Washing Machine water supply .
Yes my WM is cold supply only and thats what I would expect its rare to see a hot water supply but I know you can get some that do have this
1 Like
I leave mine in the dirty laundry basket and they get magically washed, ironed and put away somehow 
3 Likes
If you discover how that happens let me know, I could do with one of those magic laundry fairies. 
3 Likes
Priceless, same thing happens here, but I’ve got an inkling how. 
I think they can be found but are very very expensive and take a lot of maintenance 
3 Likes
Strange. The cable thickness is a function of amperage/current not voltage. Since US appliances use 110V and we use 220V they need twice as much current for the same wattage (W=VxA), so their cables should be thicker (twice the cross-sectional area, so 1.4 times wider copper core).
I wonder why they thought ours were thicker. More insulation because of the higher voltage, perhaps? More likely to have an earth wire in the cable? As I said, strange.
Perhaps because they were/are a graphic designer…
That said, UK plugs and flexes can look enormous compared to elsewhere.
??? What is this ‘ironed’ of which you speak?
4 Likes
Similarly, mine get washed, dried and then screwed up into a creased ball before being put away. What am I doing wrong ? 
2 Likes