Boiler not working? Try these 5 fixes before calling an engineer

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A broken down boiler might make you want to immediately pick up the phone and call for help but there are a few things you should try first. 

Follow these 5 steps and you may be able to get your boiler up and running without any assistance.

1. Run through the basics

The first step is to run through the basics. If you use a prepayment meter, check that you haven’t run out of credit. Many prepayment meters will offer a small amount of emergency credit, so make sure you haven’t run your meter into negative credit.

You should also check if your gas supply has been affected. Turn on one of your other gas appliances, like a gas hob, to check if this is working correctly. You could also check the fuse box to see if this has tripped.

2. Have you had a power cut lately?

An interruption to the power supply can reset the boiler’s timer settings. This will mean that your boiler won’t turn on and off at the right times. Check the time on the boiler controls to see if it is correct. You may simply need to reprogramme your boiler controls with the correct date and time.

3. Check the boiler pressure gauge

Can you see the boiler’s pressure gauge? If this is showing a pressure of one bar or less then the pressure might be too low for your boiler to function correctly. Topping up the boiler pressure is quite simple and you should be able to manage this yourself. Follow our guide on how to repressurise your boiler.

4. Turn up your thermostat

Setting your thermostat to lower than 21 degrees can prevent the boiler from turning on. A simple step to see if your boiler is still working is to turn it on and then increase the temperature on your thermostat to above 21 degrees.

5. Reset your boiler or check the pilot light

Check the instructions supplied with your boiler to see if there is a reset function. Resetting the boiler can often solve the problem if the steps above have proved to be unsuccessful. 

If your boiler was made before 2004, then it will more likely have a pilot light. Check that the pilot light is on. If it isn’t, then you may be able to relight this yourself. Check your boiler’s instruction manual to see if and how you can do this.

A regular boiler service is one of the best ways to reduce the chance of breakdowns, which you can get free with our home boiler cover. With our emergency cover, you could also call out an engineer to check and fix your boiler if none of the above steps got things back up and running.