Water temperature in thailand

[Doronazl]

Im curious to know why the water system works this way

Nearly every hotel or condo or house i lived in here always have this problem 

Takes ages to get hot water in the shower and when it finally comes u get hot water flow for a minute and then it gets cold again

In some places its matter of seconds of hot water and then cold again, endless cycle

What causes this? 

Moreover, the actual watet pressure is very weak in most places

 

Im wondering when i take the step and build my own house here, what do i need to do to avoid those things? 

Big water tanks? Bigger heaters? 

 

[Crossy]

Decent size tank => water pump => shower heater.

 

Most of the issues I've seen have been rooted in poor water pressure, get the pressure up using a tank and pump (don't pump from the main) and all the problems go away.

 

[Peterw42]

Most condo blocks/hotel have water storage on the roof and the public supply water is pumped up to the tanks and the pressure is gravity feed. Most houses have a pump that adds pressure to the public supply. Surprised you haven't noticed that most places have an electric instantaneous heater in the shower/bathroom.

If you are building you would probably include gravity storage tanks and a pump to add pressure, There are not many storage hot water system options so you would probably have instantaneous at each outlet where hot is required.

 

[GalaxyMan]

Here in Samui, the delivered pressure of water varies greatly from time to time; sometimes there's decent pressure, other times not. When we built our house, we got around this problem by installing two water tanks totaling 3250 liters. Sometimes there's no water for days from the water authority, sometimes it's a week. We use a pump to deliver water into the house system so we have constant pressure and adequate at all times.

[jadee]

Hi, so in my bathroom where I live I just have a wall water heater - quite a cheap one made by Sharp, about 2,000baht - it works fine - just heats the cold water as it comes out and is great for showering. It terms of water pressure, the condo has water tanks on the roof, so I guess that's why the pressure is okay. 
However, I've found the hot/cold issue described by the OP in some hotels and condos where I've stayed and I think it happens when there's like a central furnace/heater for the building and you have separate pipes - one for hot, one for cold.
I recently stayed at a really nice condo near Pattaya that I booked off Agoda and the shower was just like you described - it was so bad that it was almost unusable - the hot would get too hot and then adding in cold made it too cold - so unfortunate as the condo was otherwise lovely. 
I think if you're building your own place, you could use a wall water heater as long as you have pressure. 

[digbeth]

For typical home use, There's two kinds of electric wall mount water heater, colloquially called 'warm' water and 'hot water' heater

 

the warm water heater you just mount the shower head to the heater and use directly, there's usually knob to adjust water temperature at the heater.

 

The 'hot' water heater is meant to be used with mixer tap sometime this kind of heater is called 'multi-point' for use with multiple location within the bathroom, where you use the tap to mix in cold water and adjust temperature at the tap. Often there is nothing to adjust at the heater and can be hidden out of sight

 

Both kinds of heater need to 'sense' water coming in to turn on, if the flow is too low (pressure) it turns itself off. This can happen more often with mixer tap and 'hot' water heater as you adjust the temperature... it could be too hot one minute, as you turn down the hot side of the mixer tap, there's suddenly not enough water pressure to the heater and it shut itself off, and now the whole thing's cold....

 

 

 

[worgeordie]

If you are building a new house,I would recommend a Solar

water heating system,not cheap,but no electricity bills*,and

hot water throughout the house,Kitchen ,bathrooms,hot &

cold water at every outlet,I installed mine 30 years ago and

very pleased I did,      *for heating water.

regards Worgeordie

[sometimewoodworker]

28 minutes ago, digbeth said:

For typical home use, There's two kinds of electric wall mount water heater, colloquially called 'warm' water and 'hot water' heater

That is a rather idiosyncratic claim and it incomplete. I don’t call, and I don’t know anyone who who does, my point of use showers warm water showers. Only if you get an under powered one (3500W in the north in the cold season) are the just warm.

 

You have missed the storage tank heaters that though not very common are not unusual.

28 minutes ago, digbeth said:

the warm water heater you just mount the shower head to the heater and use directly,

Or you can add a rain shower fitting like this

or this

 

28 minutes ago, digbeth said:

Both kinds of heater need to 'sense' water coming in to turn on, if the flow is too low (pressure) it turns itself off. This can happen more often with mixer tap and 'hot' water heater as you adjust the temperature..

This is why almost everyone uses a pump to both give a good pressure but more importantly a constant pressure.

Edited March 20, 2020 by sometimewoodworker

[digbeth]

9 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

That is a rather idiosyncratic claim and it incomplete. I don’t call, and I don’t know anyone who who does, my point of use showers warm water showers. Only if you get an under powered one (3500W in the north in the cold season) are the just warm.

If you walk into Homepro and ask the sales people for water heater, they'll ask you if you want 'warm' or 'hot' water heater 'hot' water meaning for use with mixer tap. Maybe not if you ask them in English, but to the Thais, they do make a distinction between warm and hot water heater type

 

other kinds of heater aren't quite wall mount either

[Fruit Trader]

2 hours ago, Doronazl said:

Im wondering when i take the step and build my own house here, what do i need to do to avoid those things? 

Big water tanks? Bigger heaters? 

If you are looking for that five star power shower drenching in all bathrooms, one way is to store hot water and pump hard.

 

 

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

If you can afford when you set up new house you could do as I do.

Main water goes to 2 holding tanks, I filter 1micron then carbon before entering tanks. I filter again 2 micron on leaving tanks.

Hot water is via solar unit on roof 300litres. We never run out hot water. This is connected to main bathroom including double spa, kitchen and dishwasher.

Water very hot impossible to put hand under hot without mixing cold.

Other bathrooms have wall shower units being to far from solar unit. We don't buy drinking water small tap at sink with 5 filter system I brought at home pro works great.

We can bypass tanks if power fails.

Wasn't cheap but glad I spent the 80k at time of building.

????❤????????

[Greyhat]

My favourite is the sink taps. Their temperature depends on the weather.

[canopy]

3 hours ago, Fruit Trader said:

If you are looking for that five star power shower drenching in all bathrooms, one way is to store hot water and pump hard.

I prefer a multi-point LPG gas water heater in that case. It is demand heated and thus more efficient than heating a tank all the time with electricity and more importantly there is no cap to worry over when the water tank empties.

 

I also think thermostatic mixers are important. Someone can flush a toilet, open a faucet full bore, or the demand pump adjusts the pressure dynamically and shower temperature remains perfectly constant. I have hans grohe and works well.

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by canopy

[sometimewoodworker]

5 hours ago, digbeth said:

other kinds of heater aren't quite wall mount either

All 3 that i mentioned are wall mounting units.

[CGW]

7 hours ago, Doronazl said:

Im wondering when i take the step and build my own house here, what do i need to do to avoid those things?

As you may have gathered there are a lot of variables! A lot depends on where you are located and the quality of the water, this time of year it's impossible for me to have a cold shower, in the depths of winter it can be difficult to get a hot shower with an 8kw "water heater"

Fruit Traders pump and heater is indeed "5 star" for most.

[Chazar]

6 hours ago, digbeth said:

There's two kinds of electric wall mount water heater, colloquially called 'warm' water and 'hot water' heater

both nonsense  terms and many Thais  use  this  dumb terminology.  KW  rating would be  better 3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 etc however I find 3 is  more than ample as water temps are already at around 30c  anyway before the heating

[JulesMad]

Cold water is NOT really cold in Thailand; in my previous home I never had hot water as the water was warm enough, even in winter...

[KhaoYai]

Depending on how much you want to spend - install a full hot water system using an air source heat pump + thermostatic showers.  My unit's input is 1kw and it puts 4kw out - how? Magic ????

 

Seriously - very happy with my system but you've really got to want hot water as you'll have to add full plumbing for the hot side.

[musicscene]

11 hours ago, worgeordie said:

If you are building a new house,I would recommend a Solar

water heating system,not cheap,but no electricity bills*,and

hot water throughout the house,Kitchen ,bathrooms,hot &

cold water at every outlet,I installed mine 30 years ago and

very pleased I did,      *for heating water.

regards Worgeordie

You installed Solar heating 30 years ago? Wow you were way ahead of time. Well done for your foresight 

[Damrongsak]

I had a solar hot water heater in Loei 42 years ago.  It was a plastic washtub that I covered with an old side window from a bus.  Sure beat dipping water out of the big concrete urn in the wintertime.

[CGW]

5 hours ago, JulesMad said:

Cold water is NOT really cold in Thailand; in my previous home I never had hot water as the water was warm enough, even in winter...

Where was your home?

[Mayhem11]

Living in Chiang Mai, we have shower mounted Toshiba water heaters. The temperature of water depends on the season. In summer it is very hot. In winter Nov-Dec not so hot. There is some tricky adjustments to make to get a hot shower. Great for power bills.