Hot Water, No Hot Water? Oh Yeah, And No Cold Water Either..

I'd sure like to know what is going on with the water lately.. I've noticed that the 'cold' water stays around 82 degrees regardless of how long you let it run, and most recently the hot water can be scalding-hot during the day but [recently] barely warm (91-92 degrees) at night.

Not too long ago on a Friday evening, I think it was back in June I started to fill a dishpan to wash some dishes. I waited for the water to get hot but after a while I realized that there was something wrong and there was no hot water. I wasn't too concerned and I figured that maintenance would take care of it the next day. A day passed, then two, and finally either Monday or Tuesday evening we got the hot water back. During this time there was no communication from management whatsoever.

A day or so later there was a 'notice' taped to the front entrance door stating that there wouldn't be any hot water for a period of time (I think it was the following day) because Concord Steam had to do some repairs/maintenance. Great timing, I thought to myself..
Hodges Management (our previous property managers) used to keep us well informed and we were frequently getting notices through the mail or on our apartment doors when something was happening. Now when something (like the hot water being off temporarily) happens a note is taped to the front and back entrance doors and if you don't go in/out during that time (like some of us) the notice is useless.

I never bothered to inquire as to the reasons for either the hot water problem or the fact that we were left without any hot water for close to 4 days. At that time I'd just been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, my blood sugar was close to 600, and my vision was getting so bad I had to stop driving for a while because my glasses were practically useless. I was hoping the water problems were fixed, and after my last interaction with management (regarding the 'forced' pest treatment) I had no intention of pushing my already borderline depressive state over the edge.

Since then the hot water has been back to it's usual state of 'burning hot', which is better than not having any hot water at all (but seems like a waste of energy). That was until I recently noticed that the hot water seems to be available only during the day.

Generally I like to try to give others the benefit of the doubt, especially when I don't have all the facts. So like with the heating system during the winter season I get the feeling that being an old building, the controls might be hard to regulate. If that's the case with the heat, the same could be true for the hot water, right?

With no communication from [current] management (as opposed to the excellent relationship we had when Hodges Corp. managed the CATCH properties) and no desire to deal with property management unless absolutely necessary, I'm left to theorize from only what I experience on my end. -- Up to a point..

If the trend of having hot water only during the day continues I'll be forced to deal with it. And I also need to find out why the cold water is so warm this year. I know it gets warmer during the summer months, but in the eight years I've lived here I don't ever recall the 'cold' water being this warm! I could always run the water until the water in the pipes (heated by the building's interior heat) was replaced by somewhat cooler water from underground. Something seems different this year..

The problem is mainly when washing lettuce. When the coolest water available is 81 degrees it makes for some limp lettuce!

What's strange is that every once in a while the water is considerably cooler! It's not in the morning when you would expect it though..

Another effect of this is the amount of water wasted while people are either running the faucet waiting for the water to get hot or cool. 

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And now it gets even stranger....

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I just stopped writing to use the bathroom, and while washing my hands I let the water run to check the status of the hot water. The hot water is back! (FYI: it's 1:40 AM)

So what is going on? It can't be a simple case of people using the hot water. Each time I've run the water long enough so that (if the system is adjusted correctly) it should have recovered in a reasonable period of time, but the temperature stayed constant (within 3 degrees). I've used multiple reliable thermometers (including a laser-type), taken multiple readings to check for errors and/or fluctuations, and shot video to document it.

Could it be that at exactly the same times I've not been able to get any hot water an unusually high number of residents were all using it at the same time? Every time? Highly unlikely, and the odds are astronomical.

At the end of the day the only thing that matters is that all too often when I've needed hot water it hasn't been available. And this summer the same goes for cold water.

I know things happen, and the building is 100 years old, but I seriously miss the days when I could count on Hodges Management Corp. to let us know what was happening, and to greet me with a friendly smile when I went to their office, instead of feeling like a bother and if something's wrong at the Endicott it's none of my business.

I'm sure that the majority of the residents of the Endicott have enough to deal with making it from day to day, I know I do. Making things harder than they have to be with a hard, uncaring take it or leave attitude is uncalled for and unnecessary.