Losing your heating or hot water is always badly timed. Before you pick up the phone, there are a handful of safe checks you can run yourself — and surprisingly often, one of them gets you back up and running. Here’s what to look at, in order.
1. Check the thermostat and programmer
It sounds obvious, but it’s the most common culprit:
- Make sure the programmer or timer is set to come on, and that the clock is showing the right time (a power cut can reset it).
- Turn the room thermostat up a few degrees above the current room temperature and listen for the boiler firing.
- If your thermostat is battery-powered, try fresh batteries — flat batteries are a classic cause of “dead” heating.
2. Check the boiler pressure
Look at the pressure gauge on the front of the boiler. If it’s reading below around 1 bar, the boiler may have shut down as a safety measure. Topping it up using the filling loop (see your boiler manual) often brings it back to life. If the pressure keeps dropping, that’s a separate issue worth getting looked at.
3. Check the power
- Is the boiler’s display lit up at all? If it’s completely dead, check the fused spur or plug that powers it.
- Check your fuse board for a tripped switch. If a breaker has tripped, you can reset it once — but if it trips again immediately, stop and call an engineer, as that points to an electrical fault.
4. Check the gas supply
- Are your other gas appliances working — for example a gas hob? If nothing gas-powered is working, the issue may be your gas supply rather than the boiler.
- Check that you’re not simply out of credit if you’re on a prepayment meter.
If you ever smell gas, do not touch any electrical switches. Leave the property and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.
5. Check for a frozen condensate pipe
In cold Norfolk winters this is a very common cause. Modern boilers have a condensate pipe — a white or grey plastic pipe that usually runs outside to a drain. If it freezes, the boiler will often shut down and may show a fault code or make a gurgling noise.
If you can safely reach it, you can gently thaw an external condensate pipe by pouring warm (not boiling) water over it, or holding a hot water bottle against it. Once thawed, reset the boiler following its instructions.
6. Try a reset
Most boilers have a reset button. It’s fine to use it once. If the boiler fires up and stays running, great. If it locks out again, don’t keep resetting it repeatedly — that won’t fix the underlying fault and the boiler is telling you something is wrong.
When to call an engineer
Call a Gas Safe registered engineer if:
- The checks above don’t restore heating or hot water
- The boiler shows a fault code and resets won’t clear it
- A breaker trips repeatedly
- You see leaking water, or smell burning
Bettess Gas handles boiler breakdowns and repairs across Watton and the surrounding villages. If you’ve worked through these checks and you’re still cold, get in touch and we’ll help you get sorted.