If there is no hot water in your apartment, first find out whether the whole building is affected: then the cause is planned work, a heating network test or a fault in the heating substation, and the house manager deals with it. If the neighbours have hot water but yours is not coming through or runs barely warm, the fault is usually in the apartment: in the mixer tap cartridge, a valve or your own electric water heater (boiler). Below is the order of checks and the right solution for each case.
| What you see | Possible cause | Who deals with it |
|---|---|---|
| No hot water in the whole building or area | Planned work, a hydraulic test or a breakdown | House manager or the heat supply company |
| Hot water comes, but you have to run it for a long time | Weak or non-working circulation in the riser | House manager |
| Lukewarm water runs from the hot tap, for neighbours on the same riser too | A faulty mixer tap in one of the apartments lets cold water into the hot pipe | House manager, then mixer tap repair |
| Hot water is not coming through at one tap only | Cartridge, blocked aerator or filter | Mixer tap repair |
| The apartment has its own electric water heater and the water is cold | A tripped fuse, thermostat or heating element | Water heater repair |
| The hot water riser is rusting, leaking or its valve will not close | Worn-out riser | House manager, riser replacement |
In summer Rīgas siltums carries out hydraulic tests of the heating networks area by area, and on those days there is no hot water. In 2024 the company explained that a test takes one day, the water temperature may drop as early as the evening before, and the supply is restored on the evening of the same day if no faults are found in the network.
Work inside the building, for example repairs to the heating substation or risers, is organised by the house manager. Look for notices in the stairwell and on the house manager's customer portal; in buildings managed by Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks this is e-parvaldnieks.lv. If there is no notice and the neighbours have no hot water either, report it to the house manager.
The house manager also has a temperature obligation. The rules on sanitary maintenance of residential buildings require the hot water temperature at the outlet of the heat exchanger to be kept at no lower than +55 °C at all times. If the water stays lukewarm throughout the building for a long time, send the house manager a written request and ask for the heating substation to be checked.
In an apartment building, hot water circulates constantly through the flow and circulation pipes so that it comes out of the tap straight away. The hot water supply system is the building's common property, and circulation is provided both in the heating season and in summer.
The building code LBN 221-15 requires that in new and rebuilt buildings hot water reaches the draw-off point no later than 20 seconds after the tap is opened. Older buildings are subject to the standard they were designed under, but 20 seconds is a good benchmark.
If you have to run the water for several minutes, the cause is usually in the building's system: the circulation pump in the heating substation, furred-up circulation pipes or unbalanced risers. Circulation can also be disrupted by a hot water towel rail replacement done without a bypass in one of the apartments. If the problem is only in your kitchen far from the riser, the cause may be a long supply pipe in the apartment.
What to do: measure how long you have to run the water, ask the neighbours and describe it to the house manager in writing. Repairing circulation in the riser is a job for the building, not for one apartment.
In a single-lever mixer tap, a cartridge mixes the hot and cold water. If the cartridge or the non-return valves of a thermostatic shower mixer are faulty, cold water at higher pressure flows into the hot water pipe. Then lukewarm water runs not only for you but also for the neighbours on the same riser.
Close the hot water valve
Find the hot water inlet valve in your apartment and close it. If the valve is very stiff, do not force it.
Open a hot tap
Open the hot side of one of the taps. If the water quickly stops running, there is no crossflow in your apartment.
If the water keeps running
Cold water is getting into the hot pipe through one of your mixer taps. Close the tap supply valves one at a time to find the culprit.
Open the valve again
After the check, open the inlet valve and make sure it does not drip.
If the faulty tap is yours, mixer tap repair or a cartridge replacement costs from €25. If there is no crossflow in your apartment, report it to the house manager: the apartment causing it on the riser can only be found at building level.
If your hot water comes from your own water heater, check whether it is switched on, whether the indicator light is on and whether a circuit breaker or residual current device has tripped in the fuse box. Also look at the thermostat setting.
Do not unscrew the water heater cover, because there are electrical connections under it. If the RCD trips repeatedly, do not keep switching it back on: disconnect the water heater and book a water heater repair. It costs from €45, and water heater cleaning from €35. The price depends on whether the heating element, thermostat or safety valve has to be replaced and how much limescale has built up in the tank.
Replacing a riser section in an apartment costs from €100 per riser within one floor. The riser is common property, so the owners' meeting decides on it and the house manager shuts it off. Read more in the article who pays for riser replacement. For all jobs we agree the price before the work starts.
| Service | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mixer tap repair | from €25 | cartridge replacement, leaks, crossflow |
| Water heater repair | from €45 | heating element, thermostat, safety valve |
| Riser section replacement in an apartment | from €100 | for 1 riser within one floor; materials extra |
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