The price made up for itself in 3 months in my house lol.
The wife hated me when I got it too, but at least I don't have paint bubbling walls anymore and they aren't taking $1 showers every day twice a day. Don't forget to turn off your bathroom fan to get it extra warm and humid then close the door after getting out and still not turn it on...
Being able to shit in the nice toilet is a nice side bonus so people aren't hogging the good bathroom for an hour at a time.
Check your state's website for free LED bulbs, shower heads, air sealing, even furnaces if you're low income.
Who the hell showers for 6 minutes or longer? I get wet, turn of the water to soap up and then rinse myself. The whole thing takes like 5 minutes. And the water is on for half that time. You people have issues.
It helps to use more than one type of soap (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash) and then also have to shave your lower extremities. I have an exfoliation cloth I use that I don't get quite clean without. I'm pretty sure that's not even a high maintenance routine when it comes to women.
Easily 15 minutes for me, 30 if I take time to enjoy (distract myself with) the warm water. That's not counting all the stuff I do after the shower. I have pretty bad ADHD though so time tends to melt away for me in general.
Sorry mate, best I can offer is less frequent showers and keeping an eye on the dirty bits a la mila kunis and ashton kutcher. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my hair doesn't tolerate daily washing anyways.
It's because they get distracted like above or just use it to 'relax'.
Tubs really need to be larger so people can lay in them. Even then, it still takes about 15 gallons of hot water to submerge someone. If I ever get even marginally richer, it'll be one of the first things I do. A properly sized tub you can lay down in. Making your knees hurt from having to stay bent or having your entire torso stick out of the water sucks.
People shit on Shower bath shower, but Faye had the first 2/3s right. Get the quick gross shit off, plug the drain. Let it fill while you shower then fill the rest if need be. The water will stay hot longer and you can actually lay back and relax.
Edit: The main thing is people feel like they use less water when they shower. But it does nothing when you stay in that long. Seeing a tub full of water is way more visceral. I just invite people to plug the tub next time you start showering and see how much you actually use up in those 30 minutes.
Most low flow shower heads are 2.5 gallons per minute. It'll only take about 15 minutes to fill your tub enough to submerge yourself.
Meanwhile women also like their showers at roughly the temperature of the surface of the sun to scrub away all that self imagined sin and yuck so it's like 3:1 gallons hot to cold vs 2:1 for normal people.