Hot water supply

Do you prefer to have cold or warm shower? For me, I prefer to have warm and nice shower all the time.

I have a long story about my experience in getting my hot water supply in Miri, Sarawak. Continue to read if you are free.  

In Kuching, we always have a water heater for the bathroom. However, the owner of our Miri rented house prefers cold shower. After convinced him, we had installed a gas water heater (Miri has gas supply to most of the area) so that the whole house will have hot water supply.

KingFisher Water Heater

After spending RM1600 to install the KingFisher gas water heater, there were no hot water for shower still. We did make several complaints and they said the problem must be the water pressure. "You MUST install a water pump!" they said.  

Again we discussed the matter with the house owner. We got someone to install this Hitachi water pump after he agreed. The plumper said, "The water pressure in Miri is quite low, that's why most of the houses installed water pump." (Sounds like water pump business is pretty good in Miri.) 

Hitachi Water Pump

Surprisingly after spending another RM1500, the water pump didn't do the magic at all. It still couldn't solve the hot water supply problem. The water supply is now stronger but coming intermittent with lots of noises. (The technician from the gas company did tell us that the intermittent problem is bad, have to solve soon else the whole water pump will get spoil.) 

Well, this plumper refused to come over to check as he has received our payment. He claimed that it was the water supply from the water board or gas company's problem, not his. He is staying TOO FAR away to come over for such service blah blah blah. He sounded unhappy, totally different from the tone he used to be before he fixed the water pump for us. Wonder whether I was too soft spoken?! (What happened to his after sales promise? Seems like after they received the money, they all pushed the responsibility to others and refuse to do after sales service here, it's pretty sad huh!) Anyway, he refused to pick up my call after that. (I just didn't 'play' with him. He forgot that he received cheque from us, not cash. We can stop the payment if we want and make him come back to 'complain' instead. Well, we just let it be. Who knows this type of people can do what kind of revenge/damage to us.)

So we had to boil our own hot water to take bath everyday--including my confinement month even though we had spent so much money for the water heater and water pump. Luckily there is one electrical plug in the bathroom which eased our daily job. (Felt sorry to our guests who came to stay with us during my confinement. We failed to provide the best accommodation for them as there were no hot water supply in their bathrooms too.)

Hubby and I felt that it shouldn't be water board's problem as we had already installed the water pump and our neighbors have no problem like us. So we called up the gas company to get them to check. The technician came and said our gas supply has no problem at all, everything is fine. 

Next thing we have to check is the gas water heater then. Hubby tried by changing the water heater's battery, yet still no improvement. It was pretty frustrating. Practically, I had get used to the 'boiling water' life and gave up on this matter. Fed up to see how ugly the business people's face before and after sales.

However, my cute hubby just kept pushing me to make more calls to get technician to solve the problem. Since I have 'nothing to do' at home, I called up the one who installed the KingFisher gas water heater for us.

Two technicians came after a few days. After knocking here and there, they said it was the battery problem. Our battery is flat, that was why the heater couldn't work. I told them the battery is new, they didn't believe me. Just told me to change the battery and claimed that they didn't have new battery with them. 

They left without believing me that the battery is new. I told them that ever since we installed that thing, we never get any hot water too! (I was trying to say, check something else, definitely not the battery problem.) They just said, "Change the battery and see how it goes. Any problem, call again." (Their job must be quite boring as the acted like a Frankenstein) 

Called my hubby who was still at work. He also claimed that the battery is new and urged me to call again immediately. In the end, I got the technicians to come back. 

This time, both of them brought new batteries along. After changing the battery, the result was still the same--the water heater just didn't work. Then they started to open up the cover, checked this and that, took a long time to find out it was actually the circuit board problem. They changed the whole circuit board and finally, the heater works! 

One of the technician apologized to me (I didn't show my anger nor frustration throughout both sessions, proud of myself huh) and I thanked them for coming back. Ya. Really appreciated that they came back without any delay. 

Finally, after waited for 9 months (sounds like pregnancy), we have HOT WATER SUPPLY now. I just couldn't imagine that getting hot water supply is so difficult here. Anyway, Yippee!!!