In West London, and certainly across the wider UK, central heating is the backbone of any safe, comfortable and warm property! As a result, when your central heating system starts to suffer from faults, it can make the colder months unbearable. In fact, the average temperature during the UK’s winter months is 5 degrees Celsius. Living at this temperature can hurt your joints, and your lungs and increase the chance of injury at home.  

Unfortunately, there are many common central heating faults that can reduce the performance and efficiency of your system, whether that is a gas boiler or an electric one. Nonetheless, please don’t panic! Not only do we at Essential Repairs provide high-quality West London property maintenance services when your central heating is not turning on, we offer useful advice on how to fix these faults yourself in this blog post.

Read on for more. 

No Heating or Hot Water

Having no heating or hot water is a serious fault in your central heating system. You’re left cold and unable to properly wash, which is problematic in any season – not just the wintertime! Rather than wrestle with this frustration hopelessly, we recommend a few fixes.

First, you should address a potentially damaged thermostat. If your thermostat is set incorrectly or malfunctioning, you won’t receive any heating or hot water at all. Thermostats can be recalibrated and replaced if necessary, a simple and non-disruptive procedure when handled by an experienced engineer.

Secondly, if you own an older boiler – perhaps one from ten years ago or more – the pilot light may have gone out. This can impact your heating. In newer models, ignition issues are a more common cause of no heating or hot water. Other times, air can be trapped in your central heating system, producing a nasty airlock. This can be resolved by bleeding your radiators or repressurising your heating system in accordance with your manual.

When none of these quick solutions turns your heating or hot water back on, and you happen to live within the West London area, it may be time to book with Essential Repairs. Professionals are well trained in dealing with the most tempestuous boilers and can replace what can’t be fixed with ease.

Your Boiler Keeps Switching Off

Worried about your central heating not turning on? Many boilers start to switch themselves off after long-term use, and this can indicate several underlying faults. The first issue could be a faulty thermostat. They can cause the boiler to switch off prematurely without any manual intervention. Another problem could be insufficient water pressure, which triggers safety shut-offs in your central heating system to preserve the condition of your boiler. A boiler’s condensate pipe can also freeze in the colder months, making it shut down completely too.

In other cases, even one malfunctioning pump can prevent water from circulating inside your boiler, causing it to overheat and switch off. Whilst it can be difficult to figure out which of these faults is switching off your boiler, we recommend taking a systematic approach to address each problem, one at a time.

As such, here’s how to fix each one!

Thermostat

Check and recalibrate the thermostat to determine whether this is the problem. If your thermostat is faulty, replace it as soon as possible.

Insufficient Water Pressure

Refill the water pressure system using the filling loop to make sure that this isn’t the issue, or, if it is, that it’s resolved and you can go back to enjoying a safe and warm home.

Frozen Condensate Pipe

It’s easy to tell whether your condensate pipe is frozen, because of its temperature and appearance. If it is, gently thaw it with warm water – not boiling, in case the pipe cracks! Insulating the condensate pipe can prevent this fault in future.

Malfunctioning Pumps

If your pump is making unusual noises, this indicates a major problem, and will be the root cause of your boiler switching off. Make sure to repair or replace the pump with the assistance of an Essential Repairs’ professional as soon as we’re available – which, for central heating faults, is immediately.

Your Radiator Makes Unusual Noises

As we mentioned briefly above, a pump making unusual or funny noises is a clear indicator that something’s faulty with your central heating system. This is the same for your radiators! Problematic radiators in the home will tend to make unusual noises, which may manifest as bubbling, banging or hissing.

These noises are often caused by kettling, triggered by prolonged limescale build-up, which also impedes the function of your radiators by making them overheat. The water inside is literally boiled, creating a major hazard for those with young children or pets that are at a level height with your radiators.

If it’s not down to kettling, then trapped air also creates unusual noises in your radiators. So does pipework that has come loose, or high water pressure. Fortunately, each of these issues can be pretty quickly resolved!

Descaling your radiators with a regular descaling solution resolves the problem of kettling, bleeding your radiators releases trapped air, and securing loose pipes with pipe clips or adjusting your water pressure resolves the last faults in an instant.

Again, if these problems happen to escalate, don’t hesitate to involve a gas-safe engineer – they nip faults in the bud before they become disastrous.

The Boiler is Leaking

Sometimes, a central heating fault is unmistakable. A leaky boiler is hard to hide and rarely goes unnoticed, although the problems triggering a leaky boiler can go under the radar for quite some time. At Essential Repairs, we often see properties afflicted with corroded pipes or joints, which cause system leaks to the pipework, and loose connections within the boiler. Your boiler relies on a complex system of connections to function well. When they become loose, leaks are bound to happen, creating water damage and even turning your central heating off!

Another cause of a leaky boiler can be a faulty pressure valve. As this blog has established, water pressure can seriously affect your boiler – whether it’s too low, or too high. Indeed, excess pressure causes the pressure valve to release water, creating persistent leaks.

Fixing a leaky boiler generally requires professional assistance, but there are two steps you can take before your Essential Repairs’ professional arrives:

1. 1. Identify the source of the leak by checking all visible pipes, joints and connections
   2. Release some water from your central heating system to lower the pressure

For help with your central heating, contact Essential Repairs

 At Essential Repairs, we satisfy the central heating requirements of every domestic or commercial property in West London. Oftentimes, central heating faults do require a professional resolution to guarantee the continued function and comfort of your home. As certified, accredited, licensed and thoroughly trained experts, we provide comprehensive central heating maintenance and installation solutions, including the ability to resolve leaking pipework and carry out an expert power flush. To discover more about our plumbing and gas services, call us at 020 3813 1038 or book with our Gas Safe engineers, today.