You need to have your boiler serviced on an annual basis in order to keep it in a safe working condition. This will help ensure that you, your family or tenants will always be kept safe. Servicing your boiler annually will help reduce breakdowns and reduce the amount of money you spend on your boiler to keep it operational. 

A lot of people still don’t truly understand how hard boilers have to work in order to provide us with the warmth and hot water that they do. They are absolute work horses, and it is very common for them to become uneconomical if they start to either burn too much or too little fuel whether it be gas, LPG or oil. Modern day boilers can modulate their heat outputs to meet our systems needs and if they aren’t set up in accordance with manufacturers instructions you will get a lot of deposits within the heat exchanger, and this can severely shorten the life of your boiler. With incorrectly calibrated or installed boilers there is a high risk of carbon monoxide that can be produced which will lead to putting your lives in great risk. 

Yes, we do! Are you a dedicated heating company if you don’t have a reminder scheme!? 

Our Boiler Reminder Scheme reminds you of your annual boiler service about 4 weeks before it’s due. We can set reminders for most things that we install helping you to stay on top everything plumbing, heating and boiler related. Whether it be a boiler service, landlords gas safety, water filter changes, system flushing and many more. 

It’s very easy and simple. All you need to do is book a boiler service with us and we will do the rest for you! 

Firstly, do not operate anything electrical including lights, plug sockets, electrical devices or even torches. You need to locate the Emergency Control Valve (ECV) which will be found at your gas meter. There will be a valve with a handle which requires you to turn it a quarter turn. This will isolate the gas supply to your property. You can open the windows on your property to help ventilate it and dispose of the gas that has escaped. If you are struggling to locate the ECV then give us a call on 07891 736 232 and we will be able to help guide you to safely isolating your gas supply. 

Exit your property and ring the Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 

There can be a few reasons why your system or boiler pressure is low. It could mean that there is a leak within the system somewhere which is allowing water to escape. Other reasons could be that the system or boiler pressure has exceeded 3bar and it has activated the pressure relief valve. Once these have activated, they generally won’t seal shut again. Things that can cause a system to over pressurise can be linked to the filling loop being left in the “open” position or that the expansion vessel has deflated or has ruptured causing water to leak inside of it. 

Every system or boiler can be different in terms of topping up pressure. Your system may have a filling loop or filling link connected to the underside of the boiler. It is usually best to have a look at the user instructions to see where this is placed. On most modern boilers you will generally find the filling loop to be on the right-hand side underneath the boiler. Some systems will have an external filling loop which will generally consist of two isolation valves, a non-return valve and a flexible braided hose which is meant to be disconnected after each time you top up the pressure. In order to top up your system pressure successfully you will need to locate the pressure gauge so you can monitor how much pressure you’re allowing to enter the system. 

When topping up your pressure you want to be aiming for 1.0bar to 1.5bar. It is always a good idea to top up the system pressure when it is cold. This is because if you top up the system pressure while it is hot you wouldn’t have allowed for the expansion of water there is already within the system. This could mean that you top your system pressure up to 1.0bar and when the system has cooled down it will still low in pressure. You don’t want to fill your system too high either otherwise you could cause damage to you’re the system or boiler. If in doubt, always call a professional to help assist you. 

A good rule of thumb to follow is four times a year. We advise that our customers check their system pressure weekly to avoid any disappointments. 

Yes! Every time you top up your system pressure you are introducing fresh water which contain air bubbles. This then reacts to the metals within your system creating a chemical reaction and causes them to corrode forming iron oxide which we all know to be rust. Where the rust is submerged under water, it turns into a sludge like deposit which can then cause increased fuel consumption, restricted flow through pipework, blockages, breakdowns, weak spots and much more. This sort of work can become rather costly so it’s advisable to avoid this wherever possible. 

Leave this to the experts and call either a Gas Safe Registered or OFTEC Registered engineer. Your boiler could be showing a fault code because it has recognised an issue when it’s trying to fire up or it could be for the fact that it has picked up something else wrong within the system. This could be due to either low system pressure, a partially or fully blocked plate to plate heat exchanger or combustion chamber, blocked condensate and many more. Servicing your boiler regularly will help to avoid most of these issues. Some fault codes can be intermittent so they can be trickier to identify. You can try resetting your boiler as this will sometimes get it going again for a limited amount of time. We ask you kindly to never try and repair your own boiler. We have seen many cases where people have felt competent to do so and in turn, they’ve caused more damage and more costly repairs. 

This question depends on a lot of factors like what materials have been used, how large or small your system is, what type radiators you have and many more. We recommend flushing your central heating system every 5 years on average but with having the water quality checked annually with a service. This will help ensure that the water quality within your radiators and pipework is maintained well and the inhibitor levels are kept to an optimum level thus helping your system be more efficient. If you are noticing cold spots on radiators or radiators are getting hot at the top but cold at the bottom, then we advise speaking to a professional. Sludge and heavy metal deposits within central heating systems means higher energy consumption and can also create blockages within pipework in radiators which can lead to expensive repairs. 

A chemical flush is the use of system cleaning chemicals which help break down sludge and heavy metal deposits. They work by having a chemical reaction which helps move the unwanted deposits through the system to a drain point where we can dispose of the dirty water whilst flushing with clean water at the same time. There are a few ways to do a chemical flush. We can put a chemical into your system and leave it for an average of 2-4 weeks allowing the chemical to do its thing. We then return after this time period and proceed with a cold flush on the system which will replenish and restore the system to a healthy status again. The chemicals we use are non-toxic and have a close to neutral PH level. 

A chemical flush can also be used in conjunction with a flushing kit like the MagnaCleanse Flushing Kit. The Magnacleanse Flushing Kit gets plumbed into the return pipework before the boiler thus collecting unwanted deposits and allowing them to be pulled from the water with the use of magnetic filtration. This also saves heavy metals and sludge to be deposited into the boiler. Modern boilers struggle a lot more with dirty central heating systems as the water ways are very narrow so a large sludge deposit can block a combustion chamber/heat exchanger very easily. This problem can be one of the more costly repairs and sometimes equals to the price of a new boiler. 

A powerflush is recommended when a central heating system has larger sludge and heavy metals deposits. These can be extremely stubborn and will need the use of a larger flushing kit, pump and magnets. We use a stronger chemical in conjunction with a powerflushing kit. A powerflush will be completed within a day or two depending on what condition the system is in and how many radiators you have. 

It’s good to note that a chemical flush, flushing kit or power flushing kit may not always be the way forward. These methods generally won’t be able to clear a blockage and we always advise having a blockage removed completely by removing the section of pipework which is blocked. 

First thing we recommend is to shut of your water supply at the stop tap and open the taps within the property. If you’re able to identify what it is that is leaking this may help you, but we appreciate not everyone knows which pipes are what. 

Shutting the water supply off and opening both hot and colds taps will help drain any header tanks in the loft space if you have them and will help to drain the water quicker. We advise the use of towels, a large bucket and anything else that can help prevent further damage until an engineer can attend to you. 

Like the question above, we advise shutting the water supply off and opening the taps as soon as possible. If there is a lot of water coming through the ceiling and you can’t find the cause of the leak, then we suggest getting a screwdriver and poking a few holes in the area where the water is coming through. This will help relieve any pressure the water may be putting on the ceiling and may help save your ceiling collapsing and causing injury. Again, calling an engineer will be the way forward to have the cause of the leak resolved. 

This could be happening for a few reasons. A good starting point is to find out what type of shower you have. If it’s an electric shower that you have you will probably find that there is too much limescale build up and the heating element inside is heating up the limescale as opposed to heating up the water thus causing it to overheat. There is an internal pressure relief valve built into most electric showers which will activate due to either high pressure or high temperature. Electric showers are instantaneous so will always heat the water up internally as soon as it senses that a flow of water is required. 

If it’s a thermostatically controlled shower this could also be due to limescale build up, a faulty thermostatic cartridge or even a problem with the hot water supply whether it be fed by a hot water cylinder or a combination boiler. We can repair most thermostatic showers without the need to replace the whole unit providing we can identify the make and model of the shower. 

Electric shower 

Thermostatic mixer shower 

Power showers 

Digital showers 

Non-concussive showers 

Electric showers will be connected directly to the mains water supply and will only heat up when you’re ready to have a shower. By turning the shower on and allowing a flow of water to pass through the flow switch housed within the unit this will activate the electrical heating element heating only the water you require. 

Thermostatic mixer showers work in a different way altogether. These showers are plumbed to both a hot and cold-water supply. These showers don’t have an electric heating element inside. It will take its hot water from the hot water supply whether it be from a hot water cylinder or a combination boiler. These showers work on high-pressure water supplies or on gravity-fed pipework. If it’s plumbed to gravity-fed water supplies, you will most likely find a shower pump has been installed to boost the water pressure. They work by thermostatically mixing the hot and cold water together to create your desired showering temperature. These showers do not require an electrical supply. 

Power showers work somewhat of the same as a thermostatic mixer shower, but it has its own pump built into the unit so there isn’t a need for a shower pump to be fitted to the pipework. These showers require hot and cold water and will thermostatically blend the water to your required temperature. These showers do require an electrical supply.  

Digital showers can be used on either gravity-fed or high-pressure systems. They have their own processor unit that controls the temperature and flow of water. They require both hot and cold-water supplies. These showers do require an electrical supply. 

Non-concussive showers are generally found in commercial and industrial premises. Kind of like the showers you find at a swimming pool, gym or schools. They are pre-set to a desired temperature to prevent scolding and over usage. You just press the button on the front of the shower control valve, and this will deliver a pre-set temperature of water for a specific amount of time. You can also get non-concussive taps which are generally found in the same sort of premises.