With businesses and home owners restricted by the rules of social distancing, isolation and lockdown, it might not be as easy to get a heating engineer to tend to your boiler emergency at the minute. The good news is that whilst it is always advisable to have a professional take care of most boiler repairs, not all problems need an engineer’s expertise. You might be able to solve the problem yourself.

The pros at British Gas highlight five common boiler problems that could be resolved by you at home or work. Have a look:

1. Low pressure

Symptoms

• Your boiler switches itself off
• Your central heating makes banging sounds
• Your upstairs radiators, or those furthest from the boiler, stop heating.

What to do?

Fixing this usually takes little more than a tweak of the filling loop on your boiler. So if the pressure gauge on your boiler control panel reads less than 1 bar, carefully use your valve to increase it to between 1 and 1.5.

Just bear in mind that you might have to reset your boiler once you’ve re-pressurised the system, so check your manufacturer’s guide for details on how to do this.

2. Problem with settings

Symptoms

• Your boiler doesn’t come on when it should, or comes on erratically
• The boiler doesn’t fire up
• You have an error displaying (or a blank panel) on your thermostat.

What to do?

Your timer settings may have changed if you’ve had a power cut, or someone’s accidentally knocked the panel. So double check and adjust them if you need to, using your boiler manual if you’re unsure. Check that the central heating dial on the boiler control panel is turned up too.

Next, check the thermostat settings. If the temperature is set below 21℃ your boiler might not fire up, so increase the temperature to see if this helps. If there’s nothing displayed on the thermostat panel you might need to replace the batteries.

3. Pilot light gone out

Symptoms

• There’s no visible pilot light on your boiler
• Your boiler won’t fire up.

What to do?

A pilot light can blow out for a number of reasons, but you should be able to reignite it by following the instructions on your boiler.

4. Boiler locks out and needs resetting

Symptoms

• The lock-out (red) light on your boiler keeps coming on
• Your boiler control panel displays an error code
• The boiler won’t fire up

What to do?

Sometimes a simple reset is all that’s needed. You should find your boiler reset button somewhere on the front control panel. If you can’t locate it, take a look at your boiler manual then follow the instructions on how to reset the system. If this doesn’t work you could try switching the boiler off and then on again.

5. Frozen condensate pipe

Symptoms

• The boiler makes gurgling sounds when you try to use it
• Your boiler won’t fire up
• The temperature outside has been particularly cold

What to do?

Try thawing it yourself by applying hot (but not boiling) water and a warm compress – like a hot water bottle – directly to the pipe.

If these simple solutions don’t work it could mean that you have a more serious problem with your boiler. Also note that it’s only safe to perform the most minor boiler repairs yourself. If you’re in doubt about any of the above do not hesitate to call your trusted technician, who will be able to advise you on the best course of action, perhaps even as your make the repair yourself.

For further details on any of the aforementioned repairs, visit Britishgas.co.uk which has videos and more detailed explanations on how to conduct these minor repairs.

For all your energy related questions, feel free to contact the CH Systems team on 0208 302 8149 or info@chsystems.cc.