The standard direction to TURN ON on the tap or faucet is ANTICLOCKWISE.
If you wish to TURN OFF or CLOSE the tap or faucet, the direction is CLOCKWISE.
This is also applicable to most jars, water bottles, containers, etc. So the next time if you forget, you can try turning the cap of your mineral water bottle…. it should be the same direction unless your tap is ‘special’*
To many, it may be common sense or a no brainer, something that we tend to assume that everyone knows. But it is not always the case. Let me share my experience and a video on this ….
Once, there was water disruption at my home. I did not realize there was water disruption till I turned on the tap in my bathroom to realize that the tap was dry. That day, there were some other worries occupying my mind. So I absentmindedly turned on the tap. After a short pause, when I realized the tap was dry, I wanted to turn it off. But I forgot which was the direction to turn off the tap!
Naturally I relied on our trusted Google to find the simple answer to this seemingly simple question. And I could not find it- what I found was about how to open broken taps and pipes to fix it. That is why I decide to write this article.
Because I took a guess and it was WRONG. I went to sleep with the tap still dry. And I woke up the next morning with the sounds of water overflowing my bathroom sink! Have no idea how many hours the water was running.
*IMPORTANT: Please note that the OPEN= ANTI CLOCKWISE || CLOSE= CLOCKWISE is common design. BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. Like the tap in my attached bathroom for some unknown reason worked totally the opposite way- I suspect there was some mistakes done during the installation. If you have these weird ones in your home, you gotta take note of which one so that next time a water disruption occurs, you would be able to know the correct direction, then know that particular tap works the opposite way.
