Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hossenfeffer]

I just moved here and I'm having a problem with the hot water in my apartment. The problem is that the water only stays hot for about thirty seconds then gets gradually colder. Is this normal?

I brought this to someone's attention and they smiled and said that I had to press a button to turn on the hot water heater and that once I did that everything would be okay. Needless to say this doesn't work either.

What I'm wondering is....do Koreans just not take HOT showers or is there something wrong with my hot water heater?

Any comments would be appreciated. I hate cold showers.

[cdninkorea]

If it's not the thermostat, which you said it isn't, then it isn't normal. I've never heard of this, and I suggest you contact the building manager or your school director (assuming you're a teacher and your housing is supplied through your school).

Good luck.

[Kimchieluver]

Your boiler is too small or too old. What you do is either, get your boss to buy a new/bigger boiler., or wait till the hot comes on, splash yourself all over, turn it off and then lather. After lathering hopefully the water will remain hot enough to rinse all the soap off.

[mytime]

If you live in an old-style apt, it might be that your boiler is running low on oil

[riley]

Jesus, I remember that joy from my first place in Korea. I had to keep the water at about half pressure to get a decent shower. My company wouldn't do dick for me. My sympathies to you in this cold weather.

[vdowd]

When I moved to a new job in Daejeon (after already 3 years in Korea in another town with wonderful hot water), I was told that I just did not understand the thermostat. Thus moving to Daejeon - I was withiout heat or hot water for 2 1/2 weeks in mid February - cause I must be too stupid to use it correctly.

I finally made them come and look at it - seems the prior teacher had turned off the heat and the pipes had frozen. When they fixed it, I no longer had to sleep with every item of beding or clothing on my bed and my lips were no longer blue.

Just last week, I mentioned that my hot water was not working - again I must not understand after 5 years (2 at this apartment) here, how to use the thermstat - after 2 days, they looked at it - the pump was not working - that was why I got hot water 1 out of 4 times, lukewarm after 3o minutes 2 oout of 4 times, and hot water 1 out of 4 times - MAKE THEM SEND IN A QUALIFIED PERSON (ENGINEER) TO TEST IT.

You're are not crazy or stupid. The reason it took only 2 days this time is because I said, "No hot water tomorrow, no teaching", It helped that this school hates children to be exposed to the smell of cigarette smoke on the teacher - I explained that I could not possibly come to work if I smelled like cigarettes.

Hope this helps.

[ChopChaeJoe]

I have the same problem unless I keep the water at about 75% pressure and also not all the way over on hot.

[hossenfeffer]

thanks everyone for the advice. I will try the suggestion of turning the temperature down a little (I do have it all the way up). If this doesn't work I'll have to speak to someone at my school about this.

[Hyeon Een]

Last winter I had a dodgy boiler.

It 'broke' at least once a week. This meant that the heating and the shower were screw... not working. Once or twice a week I'd turn up to work looking pissed off and they would know "Oh, boiler no good?" and they'd make a call. And it would be 'fixed'. And it would be 'good' for one or two days then break again. It sucked. This started in the cold spell in November last year. They 'fixed' it many times (by smacking the thermostat a little) and every time it broke a day or two later.

After a month of this, on about the 6th time I'd called them out they told me "Oh your boiler very old. You been apartment three months more than. You must pay for fix." Suddenly they'd found the problem and now it was my responsibility to pay. Despite a solid month of frequent complaints and slapdash 'fixes'.

Anyway I told them to go **** themselves and that I'd been complaining about it for ages (i had a whole government office backing me up on that) and they fixed it again for free.

Anyway make them fix it. Living with no heat and hotwater sucks. It's not standard Korean culture, it's homeless-korean-whojustbrokeintoahouseandwantshotwater-culture.

Tell them to get you a new boiler in fact. Living without hot water sucks. You'll be more miserable in about a month's time if it doesn't get properly fixed soon.

[two roads]

When I first moved into my apartment someone from my school (a Korean) showed me how to operate the heat/hot water. I thought that I understood what they were saying, but apparently I didn't.

After about four months, not sure why my apartment was so warm, I copied down every single character on the controls and showed it to a Korean who spoke really good English (could've passed for a native speaker). He explained to me what everything on the controls meant. I discovered two things:

1. I had the heat on in July.

2. I was not doing the right thing to get hot water.

If there is any chance that you don't understand the controls, it might be helpful to find a Korean with really good English skills to explain it to you, in case you misunderstood anything the first time it was explained.

[dogshed]

I drew a picture of my controller and copied all the writing. The English teacher could translate the buttons but she couldn't tell me what they do. For example she translated the top button as "temperature". I asked, "what does the temperature button do?" and "What happens when I push the temperature button?" She couldn't tell me.

I ended up posting the model number of my controller on the tech forum and some nice person found Korean instructions and translated the for me.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=69817&highlight=controller+boiler

Here's what I know about mine. I set the top temperature knob to 15 degrees C and the timer to zero. I think this causes the boiler to come on and off with a thermostat to keep the temperature at that setting when the top "temperature" button is selected. Sometimes I'll turn on water at the sink and it will come out warm or hot. I think this means I turned on the water while the boiler was trying to heat the floor.

I'm not sure what the timer is timing. I leave it at zero.

The bottom temperature knob is maybe to set the temperature for hot water while you take a shower. I keep it in the middle. I push the "hot water" button before taking a shower and then after my shower I can push the temperature button if I'm staying home or I can push the vacation button while I'm at work to supposedly save money.

I've found if I turn the faucet control on too high it will tend to use the hot water faster than the boiler can keep up. Also once you get the right temperature and pressure don't adjust it too much. You can end up with what the airplane people call a pilot induced oscillation. The water from the sprayer is too cold so you turn it to the hot side. When the hot water gets to your sprayer you turn it towards the cold side which slows the water running through the boiler then that water that went through the boiler slowly hits you and you turn it towards cold. Now it's too cold and you start all over again.

-Jeff

[smurfystew]

I have been in Korea for over a year and this finally made me post. I am having the same problem at my office tel. Last year I lived in an office tel and I had no issues figuring out the temp setting on my boiler. Now it seems when I get in the shower it is blazing hot for about 30 seconds and then it's ice cold. I will also try some of these suggestions. Right now I am just soaping up, turning the shower off, and then turning it back on. The adjussi at my apartment came and had a look and he just assumed I didn't know how to use the damn thing.

[JeJuJitsu]

[andy202]

I also have an unpredictable variety of temperatures to shower in and so does the other western teacher at my school. It won't and can't be resolved to your satisfaction because your employer has set it up this way as part of your Korean experience.

[brianthestrider]

Yeah my shower is a bit dodgy but I'm trying to figure it out for myself first to be honest. Hoping to not be a pain to my director as they've already been so nice to me. Needless to say I'll tell them if it messes up longer-term.