You know that feeling of waking up to a cold house, finding out the boiler’s broken, and the dread you feel at the prospect of having to face a freezing cold shower on a gloomy Monday morning?
Well, we fix that - and so could you!
At Heatsy we’re a full boiler and heating service provider, we install new boilers, issue gas safety certificates, provide your annual boiler service and carry out all types of heating upgrades, but boiler and heating repairs are our bread and butter.
While most other boiler installers and heating companies are trying to use your broken boiler as an opportunity to sell you a new installation, Heatsy’s approach is different, we go into every job with the mindset of repairing first.
Unless we’ve been specifically asked by you to survey and quote for a new boiler, we’ll always offer you the most affordable price for a repair that will probably cost thousands less than a new boiler installation.
With our many years of experience and vast expertise in boiler repairs, we’ve come across a few common situations that really don’t need a boiler repair engineer to visit because the boiler isn’t broken.
No, we don’t mean to patronise you but it’s a very common call out for a boiler repair that could easily be fixed at home for free.
It happens every year, the summer draws to a close, the weather starts to turn colder so people switch the heating on at the timer only to realise that the radiators are cold.
They rush to the phone to call a boiler repair engineer; the repair engineers turns up and in 5 minutes realises you’ve forgotten to turn the thermostat up - Do’h!
It’s a very common mistake that is easy to make and could save you a repair fee if you notice your heating isn’t working.
Again, we don’t want to treat you like you’re silly, but we get called out probably at least once a month to a boiler repair only to find the customer has either run out of gas from the pre-paid meter or accidentally hung something on the gas meter handle and it’s turned the meter off.
If you notice your boiler isn’t working, before calling a boiler repair engineer have a quick look to see if the gas cooker is working or if the handle on the gas meter has been turned off.
If they’re all good and the meter handle is up, then call a same day boiler repair engineer to come and see why the boiler isn’t firing.
Never try to open the gas or undo anything, just try another gas appliance to see if that is working, if it’s not then you might have an issue with the gas supply and a boiler repair engineer probably won’t be able to help straight away. If you smell gas call 0800111999, if you can’t get gas to any of the appliances and you have money on the meter, you’ll need to call your gas supplier.
Low water pressure aka low system pressure in the boiler is another very common boiler repair call we get, yet it’s relatively easy to fix and doesn’t always require a boiler repair engineer to attend.
Most modern boilers will be installed on a pressurised system, I won’t go into too much detail about the different types of boilers, but a pressurised system basically means you do not need tanks in the loft to keep the heating system and boiler full of water, you fill the boiler up via a valve attached to the mains water supply.
Because the valve needs to be manually opened if the heating system or boiler develop a slight leak the boiler could fire with no water inside, which would be bad. To prevent this boilers, incorporate a water pressure switch or sensor that will disable the boiler if the pressure falls below a set point and usually give you a boiler fault code i.e., on Vaillant and Vaillant ecoTec boilers you’ll normally get F22 or F75 error code if the pressure drops below 0.5b.
Exactly how to repressurise the boiler depends on many variables, some will have built in filling loops, Worcester use a small key, Vaillant have two little valves below the boiler, and some have a silver flexible hose with one or two black handles, the hose could be below the boiler, in the loft, or somewhere in between it’s impossible to say.
But, before you call a boiler repair engineer, check the pressure on your boiler, even if you can’t fill it yourself straight away, you’ll only need to pay a small fee to a boiler repair engineer to come out and fix the boiler and they should show you how to do it for if it happens again.
If your boiler has a display and you notice it’s completely blank, or you have a digital programmer that is completely blank, it might be just a blown fuse.
First you can check at the consumer unit, all the switches should be in the ‘up’ position, if you notice one is down, flick it up and try the boiler.
If the switch instantly flicks back down or continues to trip you will need to call a gas safe registered boiler repair engineer to inspect the electrics of the heating system. Don’t keep trying to re-engage the switch.
If all the switches are up, you could also check the fuse in the spur that turns the boiler off. Fuses sometimes blow through wear and tear but, it could be a more serious problem so you might want to call a boiler repair engineer to check everything over.
Always replace the fuse in your heating system with a 3-amp fuse
Another very common boiler repair call out we get in the depths of the British Winter is for frozen condensate pipes.
This one is a little harder to diagnose without doing some checks, but some boilers will make a gurgling sound and others will give a common fault code, if you think the pipe is frozen, and you can safely access it you could try pouring some hot water over the pipe to see if it helps.
If you get a frozen condensate pipe every winter, it might be worth calling your local boiler repair engineer to see if there’s anything they can do to help, you might need the pipe changed or insulated.
So, these are our top five tips to check before calling a boiler repair engineer.
If you do need or would just prefer to call a boiler repair engineer, Heatsy would be honoured to help.
We have over 20 years of experience in the gas and heating industry, with boiler breakdowns and heating repairs being our specialty.
We’re fast, reliable, and honest offering a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week emergency boiler repair service across London and the home counties.
We work on all ages and all models of domestic boilers and have a first-time fix rate of over 90%, if you need your boiler repaired quickly and safely with a 12 month guarantee by a 5-star rated company with outstanding customer service, Call Heatsy.
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Please remember, we’re heating experts so if you need your boiler repaired, a new heating installation or if you’re struggling with anything we’ve discussed here feel free to get in touch with us now so we can see how our solutions might help you.
Thank you for reading.
