Heating and hot water are fundamental components of a safe and comfortable home life. It is all too easy to take these things for granted but they will soon have your attention if you go to turn them on and your boiler won’t fire up.
There is nothing worse than coming home of a cold winter’s day, going to turn on the radiators and discovering you have no heat. The easiest way to get your boiler back up and running again is to call in a qualified Gas Safe boiler engineer to resolve the issues, but they can take several days to arrive during the winter due to high demand and there are a few simply and safe things that you can try that might resolve your problems.
Read on to learn more about the common causes of a boiler not firing up as well as a few simple tips and tricks that could fix them in an instant.
Lack of power
Many people don’t realise that gas boilers are actually reliant on electricity to fire up and you might actually have a problem with your electricity rather than your boiler.
From a tripped fuse to a complete power cut in your area, there are many potential reasons for a lack of electricity that could be preventing your boiler from firing.
Before you call a local Gas engineer, try to diagnose the issue by checking to see if you have power in the rest of your home and checking the fuse box to see if the circuit powering your boiler has tripped. If this is indeed the case, simply flipping the switch on the fuse box itself will have your boiler working again in no time, limiting disruption and saving you a huge amount of time and stress.
If a power failure does occur, many boilers will automatically lock to protect any damage from occurring. If this happens you will need to reset the boiler. Check the product guide or contact the manufacturer for details on how to do this.
Frozen pipe
There are many pipes connected to a boiler system, carrying hot water around the premises, that can freeze if the boiler is not turned on regularly during the winter months.
One of these, the condensate pipe, is responsible for draining wastewater away from the boiler, and unlike most of the pipes in your heating system is usually located on the outside of the property.
This makes it much more likely to freeze and should this happen your boiler will sense the problem and refuse to turn on as a result. If you suspect that a frozen pipe may be the cause of your boiler problems try and listen out for any gurgling noises, or check the screen on the boiler itself for an error code.
Faulty/reset thermostat
Sometimes, boiler issues are far less serious than you might think. It is natural for your mind to jump to the worst possible conclusion when your heating doesn’t activate at the time that it should but this could simply be due to a thermostat malfunction that can easily be remedied.
If you recently had a power cut, for example, your thermostat may have reverted to factory settings and lost your pre-set heating schedule. Simply reprogramming the system, whilst a bit of a pain, will save you the embarrassment of calling out an engineer only for them to find a perfectly working boiler.
If your boiler does work, but you find it turns off before your home is at a comfortable temperature, despite the thermostat being set to a relatively high temperature, the location of the thermostat may be the issue.
If your thermostat is located close to a source of heat, or in a room that is naturally warmer than the rest of the property, it will turn off your boiler earlier than you would wish as the temperature nearby is already at the level you have set.
To fix this, set the thermostat slightly higher, or consider arranging to have it re-located. In rare instances, the thermostat may be measuring temperature incorrectly and a reset may be required. If this doesn’t work, calling in the professionals is probably your only option.
Lack of pressure
Boilers require a certain level of pressure in order to be able to fire up and will experience operational issues if the pressure falls too low. If this is the cause of your problems it will be relatively easy to identify as boilers come fitted with a pressure gauge that will indicate a sudden drop.
If you do indeed have too low pressure, a boiler repressurise may fix the problem, or, if the pressure is too high, a radiator bleed could help.