This is our apartment's backup hot water heater.
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| It's located above the toilet in the bathroom that's in the kitchen. |
Why do we have this contraption and why am I posting photos? Because we have officially entered the Moscow-2-week-hot-water-shutdown period of 2014!
Yep, every year the city turns off all the hot water completely for 10 days (repeat, TEN DAYS, NO HOT AGUA) to clean the pipes. So all the apartment owners spend heaps of money to install backup boilers, and ours in particular only works in the bathroom that's in the kitchen (our "guest" bath). No hot water anywhere else (not the kitchen sink or dishwasher and certainly not the main bath).
Why can't the city simply levy a tax and use that money to put more workers on the job, so it only takes a single day to clean all the pipes and then no one needs to install and maintain an extra hot water heating system in their personal apartments? Because This Is Russia. And this is how they do things.
Yep, every year the city turns off all the hot water completely for 10 days (repeat, TEN DAYS, NO HOT AGUA) to clean the pipes. So all the apartment owners spend heaps of money to install backup boilers, and ours in particular only works in the bathroom that's in the kitchen (our "guest" bath). No hot water anywhere else (not the kitchen sink or dishwasher and certainly not the main bath).
Why can't the city simply levy a tax and use that money to put more workers on the job, so it only takes a single day to clean all the pipes and then no one needs to install and maintain an extra hot water heating system in their personal apartments? Because This Is Russia. And this is how they do things.
This year the added bonus is that Scott's parents are here visiting so ALL FOUR OF US are now sharing the tiny bathroom, shower, etc in the kitchen. THANK YOU, MOTHER RUSSIA!
It also happens to be my last week in Russia because I'm leaving with Siena and Beau when Scott's parents leave. And last week the elevator broke. We are on the 8th floor.
At least, as Scott said, his parents are getting "the full experience." :-)
It also happens to be my last week in Russia because I'm leaving with Siena and Beau when Scott's parents leave. And last week the elevator broke. We are on the 8th floor.
At least, as Scott said, his parents are getting "the full experience." :-)
OMG OMG OMG. Thank goodness you are LEAVING!!!!!
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