Hellobee Boards

For us it would depend on what season it is. We live in New England, so in the winter, my hot shower is the only time I really get warm! I could only go a couple days without hot water in the winter and I'd just skip showers and be dirty!

In the summer I could go longer and deal with cold showers.

We went about a week when our hot water heater died.

It started out that we'd get maybe 2 minutes of hot water, then it would all be cold. Eventually, we lost those two minutes.

Three months. I voted stone age.

We were renting and the landlord was doing non-permitted construction which punctured the water line and then destroyed the six month old boiler/water heater. It was a combo system and we were out of both heat and hot water from August-October.
We had to get a court order and put a lien on her property before she got it fixed.
It was awful.

I don't think I've ever been without hot water except during chosen homelessness aka camping.

@Caly: oh yeah, it was when I was back in high school. If it happened today - HOTEL FOR SURE! Even if it was a hotel out of state

We've had to do 2-3 days before in our old condo when the hot water heater died, but anything more than that and I would be out of there!

I voted two-three weeks- *but*- we kinda cheated. Ours went out last summer and we live in the southwest, literal desert. So, if we showered in the evening, about 5-7pm, the water would be hot for a shower. I'd wet down, turn off water, lather up, turn it back on to rinse, quick shave and done. My DD got hosed down outside!

In the U.S., I've never gone without hot water. I did though spend awhile living in an area of the developing world where there was no hot water (or heat!) and it did drop below freezing every night. It was pretty unpleasant at first but after awhile just became a fact of life, and I almost forget what a hot shower was like...

I grew up in souther california and we had a lot of damage from the 1994 northridge earthquake. We were out of hot water for a while...maybe a couple weeks? Not sure. Power as well. I was in 6th grade so it didn't bother me as much as it would have now. I actually thought it was cool that we had to 'camp out' and all the neighbors were playing outside constantly since schools were closed due to damage.

About a month. We had a gas leak in our multi unit (5 unit) building on the upper east side and the city locked the gas. And getting the gas unlocked post repair was a NIGHTMARE. Red tape and excuses and bureaucracy. I had to shower at my gym on the way to work. Oh and this was in February in NYC.

When I studied abroad, I stayed in an old dorm that only had hot water for an hour every morning and an hour every evening. Everyone clamored to use the shower room at that time. If you missed it, it was freezing cold water. I stayed there for two semesters.

The boiler system was intermittent as well. It would blast on high for about 15 minutes every two hours or so. We had to open the windows (even in the night) when it started or it would be like a sauna.

I was in the peace corps for 3 years and didn't have hot water the entire time. You get used to it! One year was in a very rural, high-altitude area and we would go weeks without running water, and when we finally got it again it was ice-cold. Those showers sucked, but also felt sooo good because I'd get so grimy. The other two years were in a high-altitude cloud forest, and it got pretty warm some days so cold showers felt pretty good, ha.