Hua Hin

[worth]

Hi. Moving to Hua Hin soon. Not sure if our home we're renting has a water tank. While we are waiting for a reply from the agent could any one give us a clue?

If you have no water tank, what can you expect? Does the city turn off water occasionally, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly? Any advice?

If you have a water tank on the property are there any considerations?

Thank you kindly.

[hhfarang]

Hi. Moving to Hua Hin soon. Not sure if our home we're renting has a water tank. While we are waiting for a reply from the agent could any one give us a clue?

If you have no water tank, what can you expect? Does the city turn off water occasionally, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly? Any advice?

If you have a water tank on the property are there any considerations?

Thank you kindly.

Lots of questions there, and lots of potential answers depending on where the house is and how it was constructed. Most homes here have a water tank. I can't imagine one without one unless you are in a remote village and even then they use ceramic or cement pots to collect rainwater (large pots like a tank). There are two types that I know of, one is the above ground kind that can be made of some kind of polymer or stainless. You will immediately know if you have one of these because you will probably be able to see it quite easily. The other kind is an underground cement storage tank. This is a method preferred by many builders and if you have one there will be a removable cover revealing the tank and a float valve to shut off the flow into the tank when it is full. Both come in varying sizes.

Now, to the availability of water, we are in a drought right now so they do shut off the city water occasionally (usually overnight, but on no set schedule) but if you have a big enough storage tank you will never know it. If they shut it off for longer periods, or if you are renting a home that does not have city water then you can expect to pay a lot more for trucked in water unless the community has it's own well. Trucked water is still cheap but a lot more than the water provided by the municipality. Some communities with their own well or that have only one meter for the community charge a premium to the home owner or renter that goes to the developer or organization of homeowners who run the community.

We have two underground tanks and the only consideration may be a filter of some kind. We have a big (meter and a half tall) "silver bullet" filter that filters out the gross sand and dirt... doesn't make the water drinkable by any means but makes it clear coming out of the taps, shower and in the toilet bowl. You can go further with a very fine charcoal and whatever filter that will make the water drinkable. These are usually installed in one location (like under the kitchen sink) whereas the big filter like we have is installed between the tank and the house so that all water coming into the house is filtered somewhat.

[thaibear1]

verry correct what say hhfarang. We in Bo Fai close the airport have frequently such many earth in the water after raining that you could change often your filter, so we just wait 1 or 1 1/2 day and it come again clear (not drinkable) water from the tap. But I never felt the water was interrupted here, may the underground tank is such large, I guess he serve for 2 days easy.

Edited May 17, 2010 by thaibear1

[stgrhe]

HHfarang said the most, however, if the home you are renting is fed from a well be forewarned that the water is likely to be very hard, i.e. with a high calcium content and possibly also high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

There are some reasonable good filters available for TDS for between 20 and 30 thousand baht including installation, the higher price with automatic back wash. To reduce the calcium, if it is too high, is a bit trickier but can be done.

Once you have moved in take a sample of the water and send it for analysis. I'll cost something like 500 baht.

[cheshiremusicman]

We live some 10Kms south of HH and when we first moved into the Kao Toa area the municipal water supply was VERY intermittent, but as previously stated, if you have a sufficiently large storage tank (ours is some 6,000 litres) you will not notice the problem - unless of course you are using this tank to water your garden. We have another 6,000 litre tank just for the garden and the pool - which of course requires topping up on a regular basis because of evaporation etc.

Our water from the tank does not suffer from discolouration, but this having been said some of our adjacent neighbours do have this problem and we do not have any form of filtration in the pumped line. It goes without saying that all the water from the tank(s) is electrically pump driven - Water costs are extremely low compared to what you would pay in the UK. We pay about 300Baht per month and we use around 4,000litres of water per day to keep the garden and lawns in good order in the dry season + the minimal amount that we use for the house.

If you have to ship water in by bowser it will cost you about 450Baht for some 6,000litres delivered to your tank(s).

A new ' Mains water pipe' was installed some 18 months ago along the Phetkasem road which runs from Pranburi to HH and this seemed to improve both the 'pressure ( which is normally very low) and the regularity of the supply. At the present moment yet another new water supply pipe is being laid on the opposite side of the Phetkasem road from HH towards Pranburi ( well that's what I presume it is it being some 12" in diameter), so things are definitely getting better supply wise.

The water that we receive is what I would call 'fairly soft' - you have no problems getting a good lather from soap etc and we do not get any form of 'scum' showing in the handbasin etc that one normally associates with a 'hard water supply'.

Hope this info is of some use to you.

[worth]

Thank you. These answers do help, yes.