Wasted Luxury?

While the article by Katherine Salant on luxury tubs and showers (“Scrub the Whirlpool Tub and Go for a Super Shower,” Feb. 8) attributed a lack of “time to luxuriate” as the reason for the growing unpopularity of such devices, it failed to note a more realistic cause: their sheer wastefulness.

A larger hydrojet spa tub can drain an average water heater without raising the temperature much above tepid for its 100-gallon-plus capacity (which then promptly goes down the drain), and the conservation qualities of a six-headed shower, even when used by couples, is questionable at best.

Like it or not (and effects of El Nin~o notwithstanding), we live in an arid region, where just having enough water (remember a few years back?) can be a luxury. Low-flush toilets and flow restrictors are not only mandated by law, they make sense.

DON GRAY

Santa Monica