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The tap runs cold, the shower's lukewarm, or the hot water lasts five minutes and gives up. Nine times out of ten the cause is one of a short list — a failed immersion heater, a cylinder thermostat or motorised valve that's stopped working, an airlock, or a cold-feed problem in the loft — and we find which one it is on the visit rather than guessing. Based in Crawley, usually with you the same day, fully insured, and a clear price before we start.
Hot water in most Crawley homes comes one of two ways: a cylinder in the airing cupboard heated by an immersion heater or by the heating circuit, or a combi boiler heating water on demand. Everything on the water side of that — the cylinder, the immersion, the thermostats, the valves, the pump, the pipework and the tank in the loft — is our trade. Here's what we see most often.
The immersion heater is the electric element that screws into the cylinder, and it's a wear part. In a hard-water area like ours, limescale builds up on the element until it either burns out or trips the thermostat so it never gets going. The symptoms are hot water that's gone completely, or an immersion that's switched on and drawing nothing. We test the element and thermostat properly, and where it's failed we replace it with the correct type for your cylinder and set the thermostat to a safe temperature.
If your cylinder is heated from the heating circuit, a small chain of controls has to agree before any heat reaches it: the programmer calls for hot water, the cylinder thermostat says it's cold, and a motorised valve opens to let hot water through. When one link fails, the radiators can be warm while the taps run cold — or the other way round. We check each link in order, repair or replace the part that's actually failed, and don't swap out a valve because it's the easiest thing to reach.
If the water's been off — after a repair, a stopcock being closed, or work on the mains — air can get trapped in the hot pipework and stop water getting to a tap, usually the ones furthest from the cylinder. Spluttering, a tap that runs then dies, or hot water upstairs but not down are classic signs. Airlocks are usually quick to clear once you know where they are, and we'll check why the air got in so it doesn't keep happening.
A vented cylinder is fed from a cold-water tank in the loft. If the ballcock in that tank sticks, the tank runs dry and so does your hot water; if it jams open, the overflow runs outside. A collapsed or blocked cold feed does the same job of starving the cylinder. We check the tank, the float valve and the feed before we touch anything on the cylinder itself, because a dry tank looks exactly like a dead cylinder from the tap end.
Cylinders don't last forever. A copper cylinder that's weeping at a joint, scaled up so badly it rumbles when it heats, or taking far longer to heat than it used to may be at the end of its life. Where a repair is sensible we'll do the repair; where it's genuinely time for a new cylinder we'll say so plainly and quote for a like-for-like replacement, including the pipework and controls that go with it. Unvented cylinders need someone with the right qualification for the pressurised side, and we have that covered — the right trade on every part of the job.
Where your hot water comes from a combi or system boiler and the boiler has locked out, lost pressure or shown a fault code, that part of the job belongs to a Gas Safe registered engineer and we'll point you to one at gassaferegister.co.uk. Everything from the boiler's water connections outwards — cylinders, valves, pumps, pipework, taps and showers — is ours, and we're often the ones who spot that a "boiler fault" is really a stuck valve or an airlock before anyone's paid for a boiler visit. If you ever smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 before anything else.
Three steps. No surprises.
Cylinder or combi, whether the heating still works, whether it's every tap or just some, and whether anything happened just before — the water being off, a trip switch going. Two minutes on the phone usually narrows it to one or two causes, so we arrive with the right parts.
We check the simple things first — immersion switch and thermostat, programmer, cylinder stat, valve, loft tank — and test rather than assume. Most no-hot-water faults are a single failed part, and most are fixed the same visit.
We run the hot water through properly before we leave, not just a quick check at one tap. You get a clear price before we start and an itemised VAT receipt by email, and you can pay by card on the spot with Stripe Tap to Pay, by bank transfer (BACS), or cash.
Based in Crawley, we're usually the quickest to reach the town itself and the villages around it, and we cover the wider Sussex, Surrey, South London and Kent area from there. Click any area for full detail on what we cover there.
Not in this list? We also reach Brighton and South London, and most addresses within about an hour of Crawley — call 07884 064809 and we'll confirm we cover you.
If it's only the shower that's running cold, the fault is often in the shower valve rather than the hot water supply — see shower and tap repairs in Crawley. If the hot water's gone because of a leak or a burst, our emergency plumber service covers Crawley around the clock. And if the cylinder's weeping somewhere you can't see, leak detection in Sussex will find it without pulling the airing cupboard apart.
If your hot water comes from a cylinder, the usual suspects are a failed immersion heater element, a tripped or faulty immersion thermostat, a cylinder thermostat or motorised valve that's stopped calling for heat, an airlock after the water's been off, or a cold-water feed problem in the loft tank. We work through those in order on the visit, starting with the simplest, so you're not paying for a part you didn't need.
Usually, yes. No hot water is one of the calls we prioritise, because a household can't really wait on it. In Crawley we aim to be with you within a few hours during the day, and we cover evenings and weekends too. Call and we'll give you an honest time rather than a vague window.
An immersion heater is the electric element that screws into the top or side of the cylinder, and it's a wear part — most fail after a number of years, especially in hard water where limescale coats the element. If the cylinder itself is leaking, rumbling heavily or has gone cold even though the heating side is fine, the cylinder or its controls are more likely. We test rather than guess, and tell you which it is before anything is replaced.
If the fault is on the water side — a cylinder, immersion heater, thermostat, motorised valve, pump, airlock or pipework — yes, that's our trade and we'll sort it. If the boiler itself has gone down, a Gas Safe registered engineer is the right person for that part of the job and we'll point you to one (gassaferegister.co.uk) — the right trade on every part of the job. If you ever smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 first.
It depends on the cause — resetting a thermostat and bleeding an airlock is a very different job from replacing an immersion heater or a cylinder. We don't quote a fixed figure that might not hold once we've seen it. What we promise is a clear price agreed before any work starts, then you pay for the time on the job and any parts, with a VAT receipt by email.
We're based in Crawley and cover Crawley (RH10, RH11), Horsham (RH12, RH13), Burgess Hill (RH15), Haywards Heath (RH16, RH17), East Grinstead (RH19), Redhill (RH1), Reigate (RH2), Brighton (BN1-3) and out into Surrey, South London and Kent. If you're within about an hour of Crawley, call us — chances are we cover you.
Call or WhatsApp, tell us what you've got, and we'll give you an honest time to be there.