Hot Water not very Hot.....(Condo)

Hi,
I have read bits and pieces about similar issues on this forum, but still wanted to post my question. I live in a 10 story condo building, with 4 suites per floor. Ever since we moved in almost a year ago there has been difficulty in getting hot enough water to our fixtures.
The bathroom is not bad, but the kitchen and laundry are really bad, sometimes needing to run the hot water for close to 10 minutes to get hot enough water. Or have hot water at the kitchen sink but none at the washing machine (3 feet away??).
I have informed the property managment company (I am on the strata) and they have informed the strata that the booster pumps need to replaced, at a cost of close to $4000 each. My building is 28 years old so I can understand that things wear out.
Issue is, only the '04' suites i.e. 404, 504,604 etc have this problem, the other suites in the building (the other corners) do not.

I am thinking there is a cross over somewhere, in this type of situation how likely is the problem to be a cross over rather than the booster pumps or the hot water recirc pump??

We have friends on the 10th floor in an '04' suite who say they never have a problem with the hot water......argh!

Any insight into this one would be great.......

Cheers
Condoboy

A stab in the dark: Someone should check the return line isolation valve for the lower half of the "04" line. Make sure it is fully on.

A crossover is possible. It would all depend if any work has been done in any of the 04 units lately or if the bath/shower faucets with pressure balancing haven't failed somehow (letting hot and cold crossover into each other)

So many facts left out. I guess you are new, either new to plumbing or new in your building.

Although you are asking good questions, the answers will only come from oldtimers in your building who know about the common area plumbing. The original builder too. And people who worked for him. And former condo owners who looked into this long ago. It's not rocket science. Sooner or later, someone will have figured out how the pipes are configured behind the walls.

Whenever someone turns off the water for the entire building (which almost never happens), you can learn something about the plumbing that you couldn't learn until the entire system is off. Someone must have been observant at those times.

A building your size must have a janitor. The current one or one of the former ones must know a lot.

Talk to a few people, post again what they tell you. The HW problem will be easy to solve when you know what is connected to what. Think of "The hip bone connected to the thigh bone" and build a "skeleton" in your mind.

Hope this helps!
- David

water

Your situation is such, that there could be any of a dozen, or more, possibilities ranging from bad, or closed, valves to Mixet tub/shower valves bypassing. You could also have a mixture of problems. Only a good plumber on site can give a definite diagnosis. The fact that two fixtures near to each other have different temperatures means nothing, because they could be on different distribution systems, especially in a multi story building.

Thanks for the quick replies, yes I am new to the building so just trying to figure out what is what. The problem I discuss apparently has been going on for two years, so I hoping to get the problem identified and fixed...

You have given me some more ideas of questions to ask our plumbers, but I will keep on investigating and post as I know more...

Thanks again
Condoboy