Hot water

[Cdn_Gringo]

We have a 12 gallon electric water heater (placed in the utility room of the house), and while it does get the full 12 gallons of water burning hot, if we run it just for a certain period of time, it of course does not get that hot, and you could potentially feed the water just via one line to the bathroom and not have water coming out of the faucet that's too hot. This might take a bit of controlling, but if we don't need a lot of hot water, we do this occasionally.

Best to control the water temp inside the tank by using the thermostat is there is one. Warm water sitting in the tank will encourage the growth of bacteria. Since we all sing in the shower, it's easy for these beasties to get ingested accidentally. Water in the tank needs to reach at least 160 F and stay at that temp for a period of time that is a function of the tanks volume to kill anything that's living in there.

For a small tank, where the entire volume of water is replaced in short order, you can apply power an hour before everyone showers and for an hour after everyone is done. If at some point throughout the day you use all the hot water, a tank of that size needs to come on for another hour to make safe the new water from those super clean Tinacos/Cisternas.

 

[malko]

Best to control the water temp inside the tank by using the thermostat is there is one. Warm water sitting in the tank will encourage the growth of bacteria. Since we all sing in the shower, it's easy for these beasties to get ingested accidentally. Water in the tank needs to reach at least 160 F and stay at that temp for a period of time that is a function of the tanks volume to kill anything that's living in there.

For a small tank, where the entire volume of water is replaced in short order, you can apply power an hour before everyone showers and for an hour after everyone is done. If at some point throughout the day you use all the hot water, a tank of that size needs to come on for another hour to make safe the new water from those super clean Tinacos/Cisternas.

Would chlorine not kill off the bacteria ??

Case : water arrives from street pipes to either my tinaco or my cistern ( also to the pool, but not revelant here ).

1st case is tinaco. I use some chlorine, and scrub it clean twice a year. During the summer time the water gets hot----- well lets say warm, must from the sun light.

2nd case is underground cistern. I scrub it clean much less often, shamefully....... as it is massive, and underground, and i have visions of people finding my bones in there 30 years from now.
I use 2 swimming pool " pastilles" of chlore in cistern, a month. Water pump fills tinaco ( if needed ) and eletric water heater with that water.
Is there a risk of bacteria ? I just assumed there wasnt
I also only run the heater from time to time ( say 2 or 3 hours a day, only in december and january )

 

[monfongo]

I'm guessing he doesn't have a hot water source at all.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

Sure chlorine can be effective but not everyone ensures the correct levels of chlorine in the system all the time nor does everyone regularly clean out their water storage systems.

The point being if bacteria gets into the hot water tank and is not killed before being delivered to a faucet, you could get sick just from inhaling the mist produced by a shower head.

 

[mountainannie]

Wow, I truly admire those of you who dare to use such device.

I'm also dazzled at the fact that unless one is in a land far, far away, there isn't a logic reason any expat would live under such conditions.

The day I have to put myself to live under such miserable conditions here, is the day my butt will hit the door on my way back home.

Most ex-pats live in middle-class homes in middle-class neighborhoods where hot water lines/tanks are installed. Some who rent have tanks that are not working and do not want to invest in new ones. Do not judge from one poster that life in the DR is lived under miserable conditions unless you are living in the USA with a full time maid.

 

[bigbird]

Most ex-pats live in middle-class homes in middle-class neighborhoods where hot water lines/tanks are installed. Some who rent have tanks that are not working and do not want to invest in new ones. Do not judge from one poster that life in the DR is lived under miserable conditions unless you are living in the USA with a full time maid.

....and to add to that it is a very common practice to NOT install a hot water line in the maid's bathroom. Some people convert the "habitación de servicio" into a very tiny spare bedroom and may wish to add hot water for the "maid's" shower.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

Rental property or not, your safety and that of everyone else should always trump the cost. Cost to install water lines and buy a new heater here are much cheaper compared to the costs of doing the same work in North America or Europe. If the property doesn't meet your needs or is not completely safe, it's time to move. Landlords who won't fix a broken water heater don't deserve your rent and will have to fix it anyway before someone new will agree to move in. If there never was hot water, then that's on you to address as you knew the situation (see first sentence again).

Those who take shortcuts and create situations that can be potentially fatal, are being quite shortsighted and these people who know better or should know better, get nominated for a Darwin Award. Without a working ground fault interrupter, there is no situation where electricity should be in the vicinity of water and even then, your life could well depend on that interrupter working as it is supposed to when it needs to, next week or many years into the future. In a bathroom, kitchen or near a swimming pool it's the same.

 

[mountainannie]

Rental property or not, your safety and that of everyone else should always trump the cost. Cost to install water lines and buy a new heater here are much cheaper compared to the costs of doing the same work in North America or Europe. If the property doesn't meet your needs or is not completely safe, it's time to move. Landlords who won't fix a broken water heater don't deserve your rent and will have to fix it anyway before someone new will agree to move in. If there never was hot water, then that's on you to address as you knew the situation (see first sentence again).

Those who take shortcuts and create situations that can be potentially fatal, are being quite shortsighted and these people who know better or should know better, get nominated for a Darwin Award. Without a working ground fault interrupter, there is no situation where electricity should be in the vicinity of water and even then, your life could well depend on that interrupter working as it is supposed to when it needs to, next week or many years into the future. In a bathroom, kitchen or near a swimming pool it's the same.

I completely agree. It takes a long time for those from the US who are renting to get used to the fact that Dominican landlords are not going to do anything to improve the conditions in the apartment.. as in "what you see is what you get" - if the hot water line breaks - you pay to fix it. Also for gringos - we often have in mind the cost of US plumbers to install the lines etc when in fact - as you said -the price to make improvements in the DR is really quite modest.

It took me YEARS to learn this. Five years - actually - living with a broken hot
water tank, trying those stupid electrocuting showers -- and then DUH - paying about 10,000 pesos to buy and install a new hot water tank. Caveat emptor, though- there are tanks that are sold there where the interior bladder breaks quite easily. I had a new one that was installed in a new apartment - and also a new puppy being housebroken - and thought that puppy was a fault - but no? really? A Gallon of wet on the floor? My neighbor assured me that she, too, had had two water heaters that broke. So buy a good one!

Finding a new apartment in a good location at the right price and breaking a lease - at least in SD when I was there - is not so easy.

But investing a few hundred bucks to make the place habitable? worth it.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

I agree. If you want something you are usually on your own to bring about that result. Sometimes a 50/50 arrangement can be worked out but not always. Worth trying before you absorb the entire cost yourself.

 

[malko]

And dont forget to oversee the plumbers work !!!!
For most of us it is a given to have hot tap on the left, cold on the right ( as in 2 seprate taps, not a faucet " mixer" )....... well apparently not in the dr.
You can easily end up with hot on your right and cold on your left......
But you will say to me that some taps have a red/ blue or H/C...... well yes, but that does not matter to some dominican plumbers.....
I even have a toilet that flushes hot water :bunny::bunny:..... praise the Lord it is a guest room that has been used twice in 10 years.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

I even have a toilet that flushes hot water

That's classic. smh

 

[Wishing you well]

Most ex-pats live in middle-class homes in middle-class neighborhoods where hot water lines/tanks are installed. Some who rent have tanks that are not working and do not want to invest in new ones. Do not judge from one poster that life in the DR is lived under miserable conditions unless you are living in the USA with a full time maid.

So, you were miserable for five years, no hot water because of 10K Pesos and want to judge me?

Again, I truly admire those who dare to live under such conditions - as far as the maid, yes, I have one of those and a big water heater with power every day, all of the time.

I would not be miserable for 10K Pesos, no here, no in the USA, not anywhere.

 

[banzai]

In Ripley's category...I reserved a room at a newer hotel in Huntington, West Virginia (USA) several years back, when checking in the receptionist advised me that the toilets on that floor flushed HOT water due to a plumbing error. **** happens!