What To Do When Your Hot Water Is No Longer Hot

Murphy’s Law, if your hot water system is to go on the blink it will always happen in winter! Don’t despair if this happens to you. MJ Walker Plumbing have some helpful tips on what to do before you call in the experts:

Know what sort of system you have

This will be helpful to know when you call a plumber out to take a look at your system.

Hot water systems come in a range of types including:

• Electric
• Heat Pump
• Natural Gas
• LPG Gas

Wait a while if your hot water system has been overloaded

If you have family or friends staying and the use of your hot water has significantly increased in a short time, you may need to wait for the hot water system to recover and reheat the water.

Your hot water system may be too small if prolonged increase of hot water is recurring and your system simply cannot reheat the water fast enough.

If you find you have waited and the water is not returning hot this could indicate another problem. Let your plumber know you have tried this when you call.

Check your switchboard to see if the circuit breaker for the hot water system hasn’t tripped

If you have an electric hot water system, sometimes the circuit breaker will trip in the switchboard if there is a fault within the hot water system.

You need to open your switchboard and check to see if the switch is in line with the others. If it is not, try flicking it back to be inline, if it trips again you will know there is an electrical problem within the system.

Check the pilot light is still on in a gas hot water system

In certain circumstances the pilot light may have extinguished on a gas hot water system. It is recommended you turn the regulator off for a short time first.

Press the ignition button if you have a self-igniting system, then turn the regular back on. Make sure the pilot light remains lit.

If you have an older system and need to manually light the pilot light, turn off the regulator first.

If you smell large amounts of gas, err on the safety side and call a gas plumber from MJ Walker Plumbing straight away. Do not attempt to ignite the pilot light.

Don’t delay if you are experiencing loss of hot water. Call MJ Walker Plumbing today so we can get there as quick as possible and return your water piping hot to you.