hot water question

sadotter

I don't get enough hot water in my apartment, and my landlord isn't being very helpful. I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar problem, or has any advice.

I live on the top floor of a three-story brownstone in Carroll Gardens, and there are five other residents in the building, the landlord being one of them. When I shower I get moderately hot water a decent percentage of the time. Certainly not scalding hot water, but just barely hot. Some of the time, though, I get about three minutes of hot water, and then it quickly gets drastically colder. And occasionally, I get no hot water at all.

Here's what makes it interesting: When the building heat is on (i.e., the radiators are giving off heat), I have plenty of scalding hot water.

I've asked my landlord what's up, and she says that the hot water heater just isn't powerful enough to supply the building with unlimited hot water. Furthermore, she says this is a problem common to brownstone apartments in Carroll Gardens, and there's nothing that can be done. She says she called a plumber at my request last winter to come check it out, and he said there's nothing he can do. Her recommendation is that I coordinate with the other building residents, and arrange a staggered shower schedule. She says she's been in there for thirty years, and that has always worked. I find that kind of hard to believe, though, because this is consistently a problem no matter the time of day. Maybe it used to be better in the past, but the hot water heater has deteriorated over the years?

I still don't understand why I get extremely hot water when the building heat is on, though. I guess it has something to do with the boiler that heats the water for the radiators also heating the shower water. Then why can't this boiler be used to help heat the shower water even when the heat isn't on? I guess I just don't know enough about the guts of these kind of buildings to grasp what's going on. Would a larger, more powerful/efficient water heater help?

I haven't taken actual water temperature measurements, though I've thought about it. I've considered taking daily readings and keeping a log, so I have written proof of my complaint, but this seems like a bit of overkill at the moment, and I haven't actually done this yet.

I'm curious if anyone else has this problem, and what you've done about it. Can you explain what's going on? Is this a violation of the apartment habitability clause, by not supplying a constant supply of hot water? I have a cordial, pleasant relationship with the landlord, and I'd like to keep it that way, so I wouldn't want to resort to legal measures - I'd rather arrive at a mutually satisfying solution.

hercules q. einstein

That would drive me nuts. I think your landlord just doesn't want to deal with the expense - I really doubt the plumber said there was nothing he could do. He probably told her she needed a new hot water heater.

I also live on the top floor of a brownstone. There are 5 people in my building and I have never had a problem with hot water (unless someone flushes!). Actually I have the opposite problem - good hot water but very little heat coming out of my radiators.

I would tell your landlord nicely that you want to have a good relationship but that this is unbearable and you want something done or you will have to take steps to ensure she provides a reasonable amount of hot water. It's not your responsibility to have staggered showered - that's a ridiculous suggestion on her part.

Good luck. I'm moving out next month because I'm tired of my landlord making excuses of why I have so little heat.

fruitbat

I had a similar experience a year and a half ago in my former apartment--we'd get hot water some (but not all!) of the time. Most of the time it was sort of tepid. It didn't seem to be connected to the building's radiator heat, however. We went back and forth and back and forth for months with the landlord, with him insisting he'd fixed it and us continuing to take warmish showers. I finally started keeping track of the water tempreture and let him know I was doing so, and within about 8 hours he'd located and fixed the source of the problem--supposedly, a leak or broken valve somewhere in the plumbing was preventing hot water from getting to our place.

New York State info on hot water regulations is here: http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/pubs/html/orafac15.htm

Good luck finding a workable solution!