:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/brooke-ice-bath-091824-1-28b52ecb438f4df8b679348b9ac9e959.jpg)
Brooke Hickethier’s unconventional bathing method is literally a cross between a hot tub and an ice bath.
Born and raised in Phoenix, the Arizona native is no stranger to the heat, having lived in the desert her entire life — but ever since she became a mom and moved into a newly built home, she’s had to confront a sizzling situation she’s never dealt with before.
In a video that’s gone viral on TikTok, Hickethier explains to her followers that she has to fill her bathtub with ice cubes because the water coming out of the faucet is far from temperate. In the clip, she even inserts a thermometer into the tub that ticks up to 103.8°.
The Arizona mom tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about her wonky water situation in her family’s Phoenix home, and the “quick solution” she created so her 2-year-old toddler can bathe comfortably when the temperatures get uncomfortably high.
@brookehickethier
Hickethier’s home isn’t the only residence in town with the hot water problem, she further explains.
She remembers thinking “this is a typical Phoenix thing,” before posting the video on TikTok believing it “would just reach local people” who would relate. “But now, people are like, ‘Oh, that’s not right. That doesn’t seem very good.’ ”
She considers, “So, maybe it is something that I need to bring up [to the town].”
But in the meantime, she is doing what she can to make her water work.
While Hickethier and her husband can make do with uncomfortably hot showers, the same can’t be said for their toddler and his baths. (Pediatricians recommend keeping bathwater for young children at 100° or less.) It’s physically impossible to fill the tub with cool water within the “few seconds” it spews out, which is why the mom says they’ve “had to put ice cubes in the bath for him” ever since he was born.
“I think it has something to do with the depth of the pipes being buried … the water that comes out from the groundwater is hot,” Hickethier explains of her new home’s setup. “So in the height of the summer, it heats up the pipes which then heats up the water that’s coming through.”
As a result, Hickethier says they “only get a few seconds of cool water that comes out before it’s hot” during the peak summer months that she says typically stretch from June to the end of August. Temperatures then can reach up to 118°, she notes.
The day she filmed her TikTok, Hickethier recalls the outside temperature being 111°. “Once it gets over 110°F, it just feels like your skin is burning the second you get into the sun,” she explains. “So we mostly stay inside all summer.”
Despite having air conditioning, the water is clearly problematic for taking baths and showers. “We typically just have to take hot showers and put it on the lowest setting possible and it’s still very, very hot for summertime showers … which I hate.”
But the same just isn’t possible for her toddler and his baths. So Hickethier has come up with a hack to temporarily solve the problem for now.
@estherruthphoto
“I figured I’d get all the ice cubes we have and see if that works,” Hickethier explains, noting that she fills up about half a mixing bowl with ice that she collects from a big container in their home and shovels it into the tub water.
Since they don’t fill the bathtub up all the way, Hickethier says the cubes “cool it down enough for him to be able to sit in it comfortably” — and to her surprise, her son “loves” it! “He has so much fun pouring them in and playing with them when he’s in the water,” she says.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
While she awaits actual help from her town, Hickethier says her post is serving as inspiration to other Phoenix residents or those facing similar water issues in hot-temperature locations as something “silly that we have to do in order to beat the heat!”
