Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blade]

Came home home last night to cold apartment. The heating didn't come on like it normally does. Soon after dialing up the thermostat it began to get warm again(ondol working fine), but when we tried using hot tap in the bathroom nothing happened. The cold water runs fine but we just can't seem to get any water hot/cold to flow at all from the hot tap. All of the taps in the apartment are same and we have no clue. We would call somebody but our school is on vacation at the moment, so there is nobody for us to call.


Any ideas?

[nobbyken]

Maybe the pipe inside the wall has frozen?
Keep the place as warm as possible and look for any area of hot water pipe on a terrace or something that may be exposed to sub-zero air. Kettles of boiling water may help.

The cold tap to our washing machine on the terrace froze last winter for several weeks. Pipes seem to freeze more when the temp goes below -10C like it has been this week.

[hisnhers]

That sucks. I've had the same problem a couple of times this winter (including yesterday morning). I've talked to my school and it seems to be that the pipe is frozen. It happens on very cold days. Is your apartment building old with a poorly insulated veranda? I have to leave a tap dripping in the hot water position on cold days with the heat on (at least a little). Fortunately mine thawed out in the afternoon yesterday.
It really sucks taking a freezing cold shower on a cold day. Talk to your school on Monday and see if they can insulate the pipes somehow.
Sorry it happened on Christmas.

[wylies99]

This is one of those super cold mornings where it could be frozen pipes. You may have to leave the tap running at night.

[blade]

[InDaGu]

Consider yourself lucky - right now I have no water at all, hot or cold. I used bottled water to brush my teeth, but I hope I don't need to go to the bathroom multiple times.

[nobbyken]

[Troglodyte]

OP, is it possible that your landlord came in your apartment during the day while you were out? He (or she) might have turned off one of the water valves for some reason. It doesn't seem likely but I just throwing the idea out there just in case.

Do you even get a drip from the hot water taps? If so, you can just let it keep dripping and eventually that little water flow will help melt any ice in the pipe (if that's the problem).

[blade]

At about 8pm this evening the mains pipe to the water heater burst, but luckily for us, a Korean friend was over dinner at the time and he was able to get somebody round to fix the problem. The reason the heating was on all day turned out to be due to the ondol circuit being on a separate circuit to the hot water supply.

[nobbyken]

Bummer, but I guess all fixed pretty quickly.
Do you have hot water now?

[tatu]

Probably too late to help you but our hot water goes out semi occasionally. There is a valve at the boiler that we have to open and let the water drain out into a bowl. We tighten it back up and that fixes the problem. I think it gets an air lock in there. Happens every 3 or 4 months.

[fake_blood]

oh shoot! I came home from a weekend trip after and found that I have the same problem!

I've had the ondol on for about two hours now and only various sections of my floor heat up, and I get no water (hot or cold) out of any of my taps.

The news says the cold snap will let up tomorrow...so hopefully a combination of that and the ambient temperature from my neighbors pipes will thaw mine out.

Would leaving an electric blanket on my floor overnight (on) help speed up the process?

and in terms of preventative measures, is leaving the tap dripping enough, or do I have to have the ondol on too?

[nobbyken]

A dripping tap should keep the water moving and prevent a frozen pipe (OK as long as the water doesn't freeze and cause a blockage in the outlet pipe!).

Your 'Ondol' will be a separate circuit, and like radiators in the West it will be a closed system (no water goes in or out, unless you bleed it) so the water needs to get pumped round and heated to stop it from freezing.
Having it at a minimum should prevent freezing.

[fake_blood]

well, pipes still seem to be frozen.

my co-teacher, upon calling a few servicemen to see if they could come take a look got quotes from 150,000-200,000 to fix the problem. seems a bit steep, so I think i'm going to buy one of those space heaters/radiators and try to thaw out the pipes myself first.

question: would I want to direct the heat towards the exposed pipes coming out of my floor/boiler??

[nobbyken]

Depends where is more frozen.
Seems that some parts of your floor are gettting hot water, so you could try and continue with the ondol to thaw your floor.

As for the pipes to the taps, depends where they're frozen.
Once the ice starts it turns water in contact with it into more ice.
Ice expands and sometimes bursts pipes.

We went without the cold tap to the washing machine last year for about 3 weeks as it froze in the concrete wall. The water inlet to your abode may be frozen outwith your place, or it may be an internal problem. A plumber would be able to figure quickly. It may be a small problem, or not.
If you can figure out where the tap water is frozen, that's half your battle.

Unfortunately, not leaving heating on when away in the winter time is not something done in Korea.
We got a call from neighbours below in my first winter in Korea. They guessed that we were away for the weekend and asked if we had forgotten to leave the ondol on, which we had.