What to do if your hot water system or central heating isn’t working
We’ve teamed up with our heating servicing, repairs and installations contractor Aaron Services to provide some quick fixes that you can try if you find that you’ve got no heating or hot water.
Important: if you think you can smell gas in your home, immediately turn off the supply at the gas meter, open your windows and doors to ventilate the area and call the National Gas Emergency Service Provider, National Grid, on 0800 111 999.
We know it’s important for your central heating or hot water system to work and, when it isn’t, it can be a major frustration and inconvenience.
There could be several reasons why these systems aren’t working, but, fortunately, there are a few checks and quick fixes that you can do at home to sort the problem before having to arrange for an engineer to visit.
Follow these simple steps, kindly provided by our contractor Aaron Services, and see if you can get your central heating and hot water working again.
If you have a pre-payment meter, first, check if you’ve got enough credit.
Are other gas appliances, such as your cooker hob, still working? Check your fuse box – have the switches tripped? If so, reset them.
If you have, the time on your boiler may have reset, so re-programming it may solve the issue. Have a read of your boiler’s instruction manual – or visit the manufacturer’s website – for instructions on how to do this.
If the pressure gauge of your boiler is at one bar or less, a lack of pressure could be the issue. Your boiler’s manual will explain how to top up the pressure.
Turn your thermostat to 21 degrees or higher to see if your boiler starts to work.
If your boiler was installed before 2004, it’ll probably have a pilot light. Check that this hasn’t gone out. If it has, check the boiler’s manual to see if you can relight it. Newer boilers will need to be reset following the steps outlined in the instruction manual.
The videos below, provided by Aaron Services, will help you to identify the issue you’re experiencing and talk you through the steps to hopefully fix it.
You can usually tell which type of boiler you have by taking a quick look at it. With Combi boilers, there will normally be five copper pipes coming from the bottom of the boiler, as opposed to three with a System boiler (which have a separate hot water cylinder).
Combi boiler
System boiler
If the above doesn’t help you to resolve your issue, please call us on 0800 111 4013 to report a repair.
Important safety notice
We carry out an annual safety service on your central heating appliances to protect you and your family.
It’s vitally important that you allow us access to your property to complete the service and ensure your heating system is operating as it should.
For more information about gas and heating servicing, click here.