A boiler that has stopped is not always a boiler that has broken. A useful proportion of no heat calls turn out to be something outside the appliance, and the rest are diagnosed faster when the householder has already looked.
WS Gas Solutions repairs boilers across Blackpool. These five checks take about five minutes and are worth doing before the call rather than after the engineer arrives.
Power, and the switch nobody remembers
Boilers are usually fed from a fused spur or a switched connection near the appliance, and that switch gets turned off during decorating, cleaning or work in the airing cupboard and never turned back on. Check it, check the fuse in it, and check the consumer unit for a tripped breaker or RCD.
If a breaker trips again immediately after resetting, stop and say so when you call. A circuit that trips repeatedly is a different problem from a boiler that will not fire, and it changes who needs to attend and what they bring.
- Check the switched spur next to the boiler.
- Check the fuse in that spur.
- Check for a tripped breaker or RCD, and say if it re-trips.
Pressure, and how often you have topped it up
Most sealed systems sit around one to one and a half bar when cold, and many boilers refuse to fire below a minimum. If pressure is low, the gauge is telling you something, and topping it up is a temporary measure rather than a repair.
The genuinely useful fact is how often you have had to do it. Once in two years is unremarkable. Every fortnight means a leak or an expansion vessel that has lost its charge, and saying so on the phone points the diagnosis in the right direction immediately.
Controls, condensate and the code
Check the programmer is calling for heat, the room thermostat is set above the current temperature and has working batteries, and any smart control has not silently reverted to a schedule nobody set. A surprising number of no heat calls end at a flat thermostat battery.
In cold weather check the condensate pipe where it runs outside. A frozen condensate shuts the boiler down and often shows a specific code. Finally, note the code itself before resetting, and reset once rather than repeatedly, because repeated resetting clears the evidence.
- Programmer calling, thermostat set above room temperature.
- Thermostat batteries and smart schedules checked.
- Condensate pipe checked in cold weather.
- Fault code noted before a single reset.
What to say when you call
Give the make and model, the fault code, what you have already checked, whether there is hot water as well as heating or only one of them, and how often the pressure has needed topping up. Those five answers determine what comes on the van.
Hot water working but no heating, or the reverse, is one of the most useful distinctions there is: it separates a diverter or circulation problem from a burner or gas supply problem before anyone has left the yard.
Related pages
Questions customers ask
Why has my boiler stopped with no fault code?
Often it is not the boiler. Check the switched spur beside it, the fuse, the consumer unit, and whether the thermostat has flat batteries or has reverted to a schedule. These account for a good share of no heat calls.
How often should I have to top up the pressure?
Rarely, perhaps once in a year or two. Needing it every few weeks indicates a leak in the system or an expansion vessel that has lost its charge, and that frequency is one of the most useful things you can report.
I have hot water but no heating, what does that mean?
It usually points at circulation or a diverter rather than at the burner or gas supply, because the appliance is clearly firing. Saying which of the two works narrows the diagnosis considerably before the visit.
Power, pressure, controls, condensate, code. Five minutes of checking either solves it or makes the visit half as long, and both outcomes are worth having.
WS Gas Solutions repairs boilers across Blackpool. The contact page reports it.
