Korean Job Discussion Forums

afsjesse · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Location: Kickin' it in 'Kato town.

I live in Rural Gyeongbuk and live on the 5th floor of my building.

I have a 2 bedroom apartment and rarely use my ondol. With the cold weather here, I'm a little worried about the pipes freezing. My parents told me they shoudln't since the people beneath me use theirs.

I only use it maybe every 3 days for 2-3 hours at 15C. I am quite warm however. And when I do use it, its only in my livingroom and bedroom. The other rooms are cold.

I also have to haul my own gas in, so if I go on vacation and put in on 10C for 9 days im worried I mght run out of gas and my system will implode.

What are the chances of my pipes freezing? When Im at school, i turn it off also.

Advice?

Illysook · Joined: 30 Jun 2008

Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius. So, no. Your pipes will not freeze if you leave your ondol at 10 degrees. I don't think that I would turn it off when the weather is below zero. Even if you do have downstairs neighbors, you are probably asking for trouble.

afsjesse · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Location: Kickin' it in 'Kato town.

Should I hear the whole apartment? Its huge!

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Leave your bathroom sink running at a slight trickle and you should be all right.

I_Am_The_Kiwi · Joined: 10 Jun 2008

now i've always wondered about this.

I live in a large apartment complex, my gas heater unit is out in the laundry room, which is NEVER heated and there is a vent in the heater cupboard that goes directly outside. now its around -9 today as it has been for sometime, and no pipes have frozen, running into the heating unit is a water pipe that is used for the hot water - and this hasn't frozen, nor is it heated at any point until it gets into the heating unit......interesting.

sojourner1 · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:19 pm Post subject:

afsjesse · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Location: Kickin' it in 'Kato town.

So how does that keep my Ondol pipes from freezing if I live the bathroom sink running?

I know ondol is hot water being pummped in. But I'm clueless to this. I just got home and set the darn thing to 10.

Perhaps i'm overly cautious. I just dont want to bur through the Oil in a week.

Zulethe · Joined: 04 Jul 2008

I used to live in Alaska where freezing pipes where a definite concern. With your situation, there is absolutely no way your pipes will freeze. You are on the fifth floor of a building with internal plumbing. No worries, shut everything off and enjoy your vacation.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

The ondol doesn't have anything to do with the water trickle, actually. This same thing works in homes without ondol. What it does is keep a slow-moving exchange of water in your pipes. Water coming from the ground (from below freezing level in the dirt) is well above freezing, and will melt the ice in your pipes as it trickles through into your house (or at least keep it from freezing completely over.

Bigfeet · Joined: 29 May 2008 Location: Grrrrr.....

Like someone said, I wouldn't worry unless you have a lot of exposed, un-insulated pipes.

Sapa · Joined: 05 Nov 2007

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

sojourner1 · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:44 am Post subject:

Heck yea, pipes are uh freezing. Everything I seen and heard about today is froze up. We're talking whole towns; thousands of people are inconvenienced by a very cold Winter due to primitive conditions in what is supposed to be a developed country. It is developed, but illogically designed and built.

Even the pipes going to and from your hot water boiler will freeze if it's not located in a heated environment and in Korea, it's usually not. Strange and foolish as that is. Shocked

My hot water froze, but the cold water still works. WTF? Is that odd or what?

Pipes to the hot water heater located in a freezing sub 0 cold place are burst with a small pond around it. It's KO'd. I better not be receiving a repair bill for this one. That would be bullshit since the Koreans set this up in the most stupid illogical way.

Why not put a hot water heater in the house on a floor with ondol or heated area? Talk about daft.

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Sapa · Joined: 05 Nov 2007

I know what you mean, my washing machine and everyone else's in our building are now frozen and unusable. Why don't they put the damn things inside? What if it is below zero for the next 2 weeks? They live here, surely they know that Korea can get a little cold in the winter?

Straphanger · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Chilgok, Korea

Yeah uhhh... and don't leave anything on the floor of your veranda while your washer is running unless you make sure the drain is clear by pumping a bucket of hot water down it first. And I mean a BUCKET. If you don't, you'll have a nice slick veranda, even in the modern buildings.