hOW HOT SHOULD THE WATER IN MY NEW APT. BE?
 

For the first time in about 30years I'm living in general population. An apartment to be exact. I recently signed a one year lease but very much doubt if I'll make it that long. Aside of all the normal annoyances that go with apt. living I'm having a bit of a time with the managment company in general. They seem to be having problems keeping resident managers on site.
My biggest issue is the lack of hot water. The water is barely hot enough for doing the dishes or even taking a shower. I stopped taking cold showers right about the time of my last devorce and I don' see a need to start now. The apt. comes with water included and feeds from a common water heater. Meaning the apartments are not individually metered.
Anyone know what the standard is for water temp.? Or where I can find data on this?

Sorry to hear about your problem. It does of course not help in the least, but in Sweden I think the lower threshold is dictated partly out of necessity for killing of certain bacteria, so the lower limit is around 60 degrees Celsius.

I would expect the water to be at least 120*. Most hot water heaters have a "normal" setting at 140*, but it's a common energy saving step to drop that down to 120*.

Call your local building department (and possibly health dep't.) and ask them if they have any residential hot water standards. Typically around 130-140 but with new energy-saving initiatives I've seen guidelines recommending as low as 115. YMMV.

Washington State has a max temp for apartments at 120 or 125- I don't remember which.
Most new water heaters come with the thermostat set at either 120 or 140.

It's time to sneak into the mechanical room and bump the thermostat up a bit. Your neighbors will appriciate that, too.

The problem is that management will see a bump in the energy bills, and turn it back down. At least you get a hot shower for a month or two until they figure it out.

120-140 is the range.

I have been told that 125 is optimal for killing germs/bacteria and still low enough to prevent scalding

I would check local code for lowest temp as it relates to sanitary issues

If you're really clever, you can modify the knob on the t-stat so when it reads 120 it actually spits out 130 water. A lot of maintenance guys aren't sophisticated enough to actually check the output temps with a thermometer. Some are, some aren't. I'm guessing most would just twist the knob until it read "120" or whatever and then go back to their office for their nap or continuing study of the Playmate of the Month or whatever.

Landlords are notoriously cheap and (typically) hire the lowest quality guys out there. Use this to your advantage. Not that I'm advocating mischief of course - "for informational purposes only". :)

He He your my new best friend! I don't know why I didn't think of that. The laundry room houses the water heaters so access will be a breeze. I'm actually surprised the water heaters don't have coin slots like the washer and dryers. :cool:

Coin slots?

Two suggestions:

(1) nylons (ask your wife/girlfriend/whatever for an old pair). Stretch the nylon across the coin slots, insert the coins, push the thing in and 9 times out of 10 the nylons will prevent the coins from dropping in and you'll get 'em back. We used to do that in college. You could do an entire week's worth of laundry for about 50 cents (inevitably you lose a couple of the quarters but hey. . .)

(2) electrical j-boxes. The metal kind. Find a construction site and a lot of times you can grab the metal "knock outs" where conduit attaches to the j-boxes. A lot of coin machines accept these as the same weight&size (approximately) as quarters. YMMV.

Again, "information only". I'm not advocatin' nothin'. :)

If these were the "coin drop" devices like a slot machine then that technique would work fine. Or you could drill a tiny hole in the coin and loop some high test fishing line thru the hole. (Information purposes only) These are the "stand the coin on edge in the slide" type. It's easier to pick the lock on the coin drawer and pick out what you need. always good to grab a couple for the car wash too.

It should be above 130 F. 140F better.

Lower there is a risk of Legionaires bacteria growing in the tank.

Many are turned down to save energy (but use a LOT more water).

To a landlord, lukewarm water is a lot cheaper than hot water.

Hey look, you answered your own question!:D

As a landlord, however, it is important to me to have content residents. It is far cheaper to supply ample hot water than to have a new resident want to move out. I screen people thoroughly, then do whatever I can to make them want to stay for a long time. The result is having a nice community of people that all get along pretty well.

Being a landlord got much easier when I decided to rent only to nice people.

And the coin slots I used to have would not even take canadian quarters. Don't even try an electrical slug. The nylon trick wouldn't work. Neither would the drill-a-hole trick. By the time the coin was in far enough to push the start lever, it would'nt be lined up to come back out of the slot. i laughed whenever I emptied the coins and found drilled coins or small bits of nylons.

Down here I think the managment companies take full advantage of the people who accept a lower standard of living and are happy to just be in a country that has indoor plumbing or paved sidewalks.

How times have changed. At my school, we don't use quarters for laundry. We have a card that we swipe (the same one that unlocks the doors for our dorm so we can only get access if we live in that building) at the washing machine. Our accounts our automatically debited then for the amount of the washing/drying. We can even monitor it online to see when our loads are done, or if there are any washers/dryers open when we want to go put a load in.

You're right about things having changed. Back in my day we could get better grades just by having a pen thats the same as what the teacher used when he/she filled out our report cards. Or by having the sense to sign the "signature card" ourselves. That way we wouldn't have to bug our parents when thier signature was required for those official communications.