Boiler repair in Croydon and the CR postcodes

A boiler repair is £110, which covers us coming out, diagnosing the fault properly and the labour to fix it. Parts are on top and we tell you the price before we fit anything, so nothing appears on the bill that you have not already agreed. If you need us outside our normal hours as an emergency, the call-out is £120 and covers the same diagnosis and the price of putting it right.

The codes people ring us about most are these. Worcester Bosch EA is an ignition lockout, meaning the boiler tried to light and did not sense a flame, usually electrodes, the flame sense lead or gas supply. Vaillant F22 and Ideal Logic F1 are both low water pressure. Vaillant F75 is the pressure sensor not seeing the pump start properly. Baxi E133 is a failed ignition and E119 is low pressure. A code tells you which sensor complained, not which part failed, which is why guessing at parts from a code online gets expensive.

It depends on how fast it falls. Losing pressure over a couple of days with no wet patches anywhere usually means the expansion vessel has lost its air charge, which is a repair rather than a replacement. Losing it within hours means water is escaping, and the usual places are a weeping radiator valve, a corroded towel rail, the pressure relief valve discharging outside, or a joint under a floor. We check the vessel charge first because it is quick and it is the common answer.

Almost never, no. On a combi it is usually the diverter valve sticking on the heating side, and on most models that is a cartridge rather than the whole valve. It can also be the hot water thermistor, or a plate heat exchanger scaled up by Croydon’s hard water. All three are ordinary repairs on a boiler in reasonable health. If the boiler will not fire for either heating or hot water, that is a different conversation.

Look at three things together: the age, what has failed, and whether parts are still made. Under about twelve years old with a sensor, pump, fan or diverter fault, repair it. Over twelve with a main heat exchanger, gas valve or PCB failure, and a quote approaching a third of replacement cost, replacement is usually better value. The deciding factor is often parts availability, since manufacturers stop supplying spares roughly ten years after a model ends production. We will tell you which side of that line your boiler sits on before you commit to anything.

Usually yes for Croydon and the CR postcodes, particularly if you call in the morning. We carry the parts that fail most often, so a large share of jobs are finished on the first visit. If a part has to be ordered we will tell you when it will land and we will make the boiler safe before we go. For a house with no heating and no hot water we cover emergencies around the clock rather than adding you to tomorrow.

That pattern on a combi is the classic sign of a scaled plate heat exchanger, and it is common here because Croydon water is hard. The boiler heats the water fine but the scale stops it transferring heat evenly, so the temperature swings while the tap is running. Depending on the model we can either descale or replace the plate exchanger. If the same house also sits high on the hill, we will check the incoming flow rate at the same time, because low flow produces a similar symptom for a completely different reason.

It might, and it is worth knowing before you book. Since 2013 a flue hidden in a ceiling void has to have inspection hatches so an engineer can see the joints along its length. Without them the appliance is classed At Risk and cannot be signed off. Croydon has a lot of flat conversions from the 1990s and 2000s where this was never done, so tell us when you call if you cannot see where the flue exits, and we will explain what needs cutting and why.

Very often, yes. A boiler between about seven and twelve years old with a decent service history is generally worth keeping, and the parts that fail at that age are mostly cheap ones. What changes the maths is a repair on one of the three expensive components, or a second failure within a year of the first. If you have paid us twice in twelve months for unrelated faults, we will say plainly that it is time to look at replacing rather than take a third fee off you.

We work on the makes that dominate the housing round here, which in practice means Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Ideal, Baxi, Glow-worm, Potterton and Viessmann. We also work on older back boilers and floor standing units, which still turn up in the 1930s semis in Shirley, Selsdon and Coulsdon. If we know a particular model is not economically repairable any more, we will tell you that on the phone rather than take a call-out fee to say it in person.

Standard buildings and contents cover generally will not, since boiler breakdown is usually treated as wear and tear rather than damage. It is normally only covered if you hold a separate boiler cover or home emergency policy. What buildings insurance often does cover is the damage a boiler leak causes to floors and ceilings, so it is worth keeping our written report if water has got anywhere it should not have.

You can top it up when it falls, and it is a reasonable short term move if the boiler drops below one bar on a cold morning. What you should not do is top it up week after week and treat that as normal. Every refill brings fresh oxygenated water into a sealed system, and that accelerates corrosion and sludge, which then blocks the heat exchanger and costs a great deal more than finding the leak would have. If you are repressurising more than about twice a year, get it looked at.

We are based on Highbury Avenue in Thornton Heath and we cover Croydon and the CR postcodes, which takes in Thornton Heath, South Norwood, Selhurst, Addiscombe, Shirley, Purley, Sanderstead, Selsdon, Coulsdon, Kenley, Warlingham and New Addington. Normal hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 8pm, and we keep emergency cover running 24 hours a day for a total loss of heating or hot water. The number is 07534 841885.