I'm in Lithuania and every year there are a few days when the city disconnects hot water to people (different areas on different days, so like not the whole city all at once) in order to do some tests on pipes. They check to see if the pipes can handle another year of service and fix any leaks or weak points so that they wouldn't burst in winter for example. They do these tests in late Spring – early Autumn and during them the affected area is left without hot water. The company that is responsible for this claims that all Europe do it the same way, that it's unavoidable. I want to ask you if that is the case where you live?

Edit: thank you all for answers. This seems to be another fun Soviet "gift" that will be expensive to get rid of. But now I know that it's not in "all of Europe" and I will be able to ask about it in the municipal election debate or something.


13 comments

  1. No, we don’t have regular cut offs like that. Water only gets cut off for maintenance as necessary, but it’s not recurring like you describe.

  2. Hot water is always heated at a local water heater on the property. We only have a cold water network. It is rarely down for routine maintenance – usually there’s been accident if it is shut off.

  3. Is water in Lithuania heated at a communal source? Here in the UK everyone has a water heater in their home, so no, we don’t have hot water turned off.

  4. Poland, in my town hot water is disconnected for a few days, usually just after the end of heating season, this affects mainly blocks of flats, because private houses are not connected to town’s heating infrastructure.

  5. At least in Berlin, the operator uses testing methods which are able to be used during operation.

    Now one thing could be the case: Do you really get hot water or is it steam to condense in a heat exchanger at your place and heat up the cold water supply there?

    If so, they might be mandated to do full pressure tests with water instead of steam at above operating pressures to validate the safety of the pressurised steam network.

  6. Yeah, legacy of soviet onion.

    Pipes are slowly replaced with moden one, but it would take years and years to do that fully

  7. We used to in Sofia, and it wasn’t for just a couple of days, more like a couple of weeks. Can’t say it was for testing of pipes specifically, more like for maintenance of the entire infrastructure due to how old it was. The central heating company has been carrying off a number of renovations in the past years so it no longer happens for where I live.

  8. I’ve lived in 5 different European countries and they never cut off the hot water. Unless it is region dependent, this I cannot say.

  9. If you live in a commie block house, and if your hot water supply relies on a local industrial source, then yes. About a week of cold water due to maintenance, usually in summer.

    (and usually in the least opportune moment)

  10. Communal heating on that scale is not a thing here.

    Water supply is occasionally cut for maintenance, but it affects the whole water supply service, so cold water. Having hot water or not is always down to the homeowner’s responsibility, as you need a water heater on your property for that.

  11. No, most houses only have cold water supply and I can’t remember it being cut off for last 10 years here.

    There are locations in the bigger cities where there’s communal heating, but I have no idea about that. I only know communal heating is disliked nowadays because they’re expensive and since they can’t change energy contracts it’s an easy monopoly for the supplier

  12. yes, this is in legacy soviet places. in Bucharest they do it as well

  13. Not every year, but certainly once in a while. This is indeed unavoidable for disctrict heating, especially after the system is of a certain age.

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