24 hour call out

Emergency Boiler Repair, London

No heat, no hot water, or a boiler that has locked out and will not restart. Answered any hour, north and south of the river, with the rate agreed before anyone starts work.

Call 0203 868 6134

Answered 24 hours a day by a technical customer service member.

I need help with

Ring first, then read. Two of the faults below clear themselves in ten minutes and we would rather tell you that on the phone than charge you to hear it.

Gas Safe registered engineers
An engineer as soon as we can, booked around you
Cylinder and unvented systems as well as combis
Parts guaranteed for a year, rates agreed before work starts

No heating or hot water right now? Call 0203 868 6134. We will tell you the earliest realistic slot rather than the one you want to hear.

Google Reviews

"Very happy with this company very and professionally service. Fixed my leaking TRV and after draining my system and the refilled and vented the air . Thank you I have heating now"
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"He was very professional tidy and polite. Would recommend!"
Anna M.
"Steve was very helpful and responsive"
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Prefer we call you? Request a call back

If it is urgent, ring instead. This form is for when you would rather not wait on a line.

What happens when you call

Three steps, and you will know where you stand before an engineer is booked.

Tell us what has stopped and what the boiler is showingHeating, hot water or both, and any code or light on the display. If you can see the make on the front, that is enough. We work out the rest.
The likely part, and a realistic slotWe tell you the likely part and a realistic slot. If we cannot reach you today we say so on the phone, rather than after you have waited in.
The engineer attends and runs a full diagnosticYou get a written breakdown before any repair begins: what has failed, what the parts and labour come to, whether the part is on the van or has to be ordered, and roughly how long the work will take. Nothing goes ahead until you have seen that and agreed to it. Parts are guaranteed for a year.

If we cannot get to you tonight, we will say so on the phone. A firm that promises an hour to everybody who rings is making the same promise to the person before you. We would rather give you an honest answer while you still have time to try someone else.

What to do in the next ten minutes

Ring us first so you are in the diary, then work through this while you wait. Roughly one call in five turns out to be something the householder can clear without us.

Before anything else. If you can smell gas, or a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, stop reading and use the numbers in the safety block further down this page. Neither of those is a boiler call.

Check the boiler still has power and gasA tripped breaker, a spent prepayment meter or a switched-off fused spur beside the boiler will stop it dead with no useful code. Check whether other things on the same circuit are working.
Read the pressure gauge and the displayWrite down the needle position and any code or flashing light, exactly as shown. Those two facts do most of the diagnosis before we arrive.
Check the thermostat and the programmerFlat batteries in a wireless thermostat present as a dead boiler. So does a programmer that has lost its time after a power cut and thinks it is the middle of the night.
In freezing weather, go and look at the outside pipeThe white or grey plastic pipe running out of the boiler through the wall. If it is blocked with ice, that is the single most common winter callout and the section below tells you how to clear it.

What your boiler is showing, and what it means tonight

Codes differ by make, but at three in the morning they nearly all come down to the same short list. Here is how to tell which one you have.

Ice

A frozen condensate pipe, the fault that looks like a broken boiler

Every condensing boiler drains acidic water through a plastic pipe, and on most London installations part of that pipe runs outside. Below freezing it blocks with ice, the water backs up, and the boiler shuts itself down rather than flood its own combustion chamber. Nothing has broken. What it shows: almost always an ignition or gas fault code, which is why it gets misdiagnosed. Vaillant shows F28. Worcester Bosch shows EA or D5, and on some models a slow blue flashing light with gurgling from the boiler. Baxi shows E133 or LF. Potterton shows E133 or E28. Ideal shows LF. Glow-worm and Ferroli both use F1, and Glow-worm also uses F4. What clears it: warm water poured along the outside section of the pipe, or a hot water bottle or warm cloths held against it. The frozen part is usually findable by hand as a noticeably colder length. Once it drains, reset the boiler once. What not to use: boiling water. It can crack the plastic and split a joint, and then you have a real repair on your hands instead of a free one.

Cleared it and it froze again the next night? The pipe run is the problem, not the weather.

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Bar

Low pressure, and the difference between a top up and a leak

A sealed system wants roughly 1 to 1.5 bar cold. Below about 0.5 the boiler stops. Worcester shows A1, Ideal shows F1, Baxi shows E119, Vaillant and Glow-worm both show F22. What you can safely do: top up through the filling loop to between 1 and 1.5 bar cold, then disconnect the loop and reset. This is the other fault that does not need us. What it is telling you underneath:

Once or twice a year: normal. Systems lose a little water.
Every few weeks: a leak, often a radiator valve or a pinhole under a floor.
Every few days: the expansion vessel has lost its charge and is pushing water out of the relief pipe on every cycle.

What it is not: something to keep topping up indefinitely. Repeated refilling puts fresh oxygenated water into the system, and that is how you turn a small leak into a sludged system and a failed pump.

Topping up more than once a month? Call 0203 868 6134 and tell us how often.

Lock

Locked out, and why the reset button is not the answer

Most boilers try to light three times, fail, and lock out. Holding reset for three seconds clears it and the boiler tries again. That is fine once, after you have fixed the cause. The rule we would give our own family: reset it once. If it locks out again straight away, stop and leave it off. A lockout is a safety device reporting a fault that is still there, and the second and third reset are how a cheap repair becomes an expensive one. What it usually is, in order: a frozen condensate pipe in cold weather, then low pressure, then no gas at the meter, then ignition electrodes, then the gas valve or the board. Worth checking first: whether the gas hob lights. If it does not, the problem is the supply, not the boiler, and that changes who you should be ringing.

Locked out twice in one evening? That is the point to stop and let us look.

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The same fault, six different codes

Makers do not share a code set, so the same underlying problem appears under a different number on every boiler. This is the translation.

Make	Frozen condensate	Low pressure
Worcester Bosch	EA or D5, sometimes a slow blue flash	A1
Vaillant	F28	F22
Baxi	E133 or LF	E119
Ideal	LF	F1
Glow-worm	F1, F4 or F28	F22
Potterton	E133 or E28	E119
Ferroli	F1	Varies by model

If your make is not here, we hold the code lists for every one we repair. Each of the boiler makes we repair has its own page with the codes set out.

Did you know A frozen condensate pipe almost always shows an ignition fault, not a drainage one. That is why it gets charged as an ignition repair. In a cold snap it is the commonest call we take, it is free to clear, and the permanent fix is lagging the outside run or having it rerun in wider pipe before next winter rather than during it.

Not sure whether it can wait until morning?

Ring and describe it. If it is safe to leave overnight we will tell you that, and book you in for a time that suits you rather than a call out at midnight you did not need.

Call 0203 868 6134

Is this actually an emergency?

Some of these need someone tonight. Some are safe until morning, and knowing which is which saves you money.

No heating at all, and it is cold

Treat it as urgent if there is a baby, anyone elderly, or anyone unwell in the property, or if the forecast is near freezing and the house has already gone cold. Otherwise it is usually a next morning job, and we will tell you honestly which one you are. The one that is not urgent but looks it: a single cold radiator with the rest of the house warm. That is a valve or trapped air, not a failure, and it is a daytime job. The one that is urgent but does not look it: heating that stopped along with a smell of burning, or a boiler that has started making a banging or kettling noise. Switch it off and ring.

No hot water, but the heating still works

Uncomfortable, rarely an emergency, and it narrows the fault a long way. On a combi, heating working and hot water not usually points at the diverter valve or the hot water sensor rather than anything that would stop the boiler. On a system with a cylinder it is more often the cylinder, the immersion or a motorised valve than the boiler at all. If yours is a stored hot water system, our unvented cylinder repair page covers what fails and in what order. Worth trying: run a hot tap for a full minute before deciding. A diverter valve that is sticking rather than failed will sometimes free itself.

Water coming from the boiler or the pipework

This one is genuinely urgent, because water and electricity share a cupboard. Switch the boiler off, turn off the water supply to it if you can reach the valve, put something underneath, and ring. What it is usually not: the boiler itself. More often a pressure relief discharge, a corroded pipe joint or a failed pump seal, and all three are cheaper than the boiler people assume they have lost. One exception worth knowing. Water running from an outside pipe after the boiler has been hot is often the safety valve doing its job, which points at the expansion vessel. Annoying, not dangerous, and a daytime repair.

Things that can safely wait until morning

Said plainly, because nobody else will. A single cold radiator. Radiators cold at the bottom, which is sludge and a power flush conversation rather than a breakdown. Hot water that runs warm rather than hot. A boiler that is noisy but working. A service that is overdue. None of those is worth an out of hours rate, and a firm that books you in at eleven at night for a cold radiator is selling you something you do not need.

Nights, weekends and bank holidays

What changes after six in the evening, and what does not.

The phone is answered at any hour by someone technical, not a message service that takes a number and passes it on in the morning. That is the part that matters most at two in the morning, because it means you get a real answer about whether you need someone now. What does not change: the rate is agreed with you before any work starts, parts we fit are guaranteed for a year, and nothing is carried out on the assumption you will approve it afterwards. What does change: parts. Merchants are shut, so an out of hours visit is often about making the property safe and warm tonight, with the permanent repair done when the part can be got. We will tell you on the phone if that is the likely shape of it, so you can decide whether tonight is worth it or whether the morning is better value.

The honest version of the coverage question. We cover every London borough, north and south of the river, and we do not qualify that by distance. What we will not do is promise a specific number of minutes before we know where our engineers are. You get a realistic slot on the phone, and if it is not good enough you have lost two minutes rather than an evening.

If someone in the house is vulnerable

Tell us when you ring. It changes where you sit in the day, and there is help you may not know you are entitled to.

Say so at the start of the call if there is a baby, someone over seventy, someone with a long term condition, or anyone whose health is affected by the cold. It is the first thing we ask about and it moves you up the list. Separately, every gas and electricity supplier keeps a Priority Services Register. It is free, it is a legal requirement for suppliers to maintain, and registering means priority in a supply emergency and advance notice of planned interruptions. Households with a disability, a long term illness, a child under five, or anyone of pensionable age can join, and you sign up through your own supplier rather than through us. Most people who qualify have never heard of it.

A practical point for a cold night. If the heating is off and cannot be fixed until morning, close the doors on rooms you are not using and heat one room properly rather than the whole house badly. Never use a gas hob or an oven to heat a room. That is a carbon monoxide risk and it is the single most dangerous thing people do during a breakdown.

Landlords, tenants and managing agents

Where the obligation actually sits, and what a reasonable timescale looks like.

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the landlord is responsible for keeping the installations for space heating and heating water in repair and proper working order, and that duty cannot be contracted out of in most tenancies. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 added a route for tenants to act directly where a property is unfit, and a home without heating in winter can qualify. The law asks for repair within a reasonable time rather than naming a number of hours, and what counts as reasonable turns on the weather, the household and the severity. A total loss of heating in December with a young child in the property is not the same as a slow leak in July. What we do about it: we attend for landlords and agents on the same terms as anyone else, and we report in writing so there is a record of what was found and when. If you also need the annual certificate, that sits on our landlord gas safety certificate page. If you are the tenant: report it in writing, keep the date, and keep a note of every follow up. If your landlord instructs us we will attend. We cannot take instructions from a tenant on a landlord's behalf, and any firm that says otherwise is setting you up for an argument about who pays.

When the emergency turns into a replacement conversation

Sometimes the honest answer at midnight is that the repair is not worth doing.

You are probably wondering whether a night call out ends with somebody trying to sell you a boiler. It is a fair worry and it is why the diagnosis is written down before any work starts. Two situations genuinely change the conversation. A heat exchanger that has corroded through and is leaking, because on most boilers that is the boiler. And a part that is no longer made, which happens sooner than people expect on ranges that went out of production a decade ago. Everything else is a repair, and age on its own is not a reason. Where a replacement is the right answer we will say so and we will also say what a temporary repair would buy you, because the two weeks before Christmas is a bad time to be without heating while a new boiler is fitted. What that costs is set out on our guide to repair and replacement costs, and the work itself sits on the boiler installation page.

The thing that prevents most emergency calls. Nearly every breakdown we attend in January was visible in October. A yearly service catches the pressure loss, the tired pump and the condensate run that will freeze, while all three are cheap and none of them is an emergency.

Boiler problem? We are here 24 hours a day

Emergency boiler repairs across London, north and south of the river Call 0203 868 6134

Where we cover

London, north and south of the river. These are the districts we work in most.

Epsom and EwellLarge family houses into SurreyView services Hampstead Garden Suburb and FinchleyOften two appliances in one houseView services Islington and HighburyGeorgian terraces, little plant spaceView services Kingston, Coombe and SurbitonCoombe Hill and Kingston HillView services Fulham and Parsons GreenTerraces and mansion flatsView services All areasEvery area we have written upView all

These are where we work most, not a boundary. An engineer attends anywhere in north London and south London. Tell us where you are and we will say plainly when we can get to you.

Districts including Hampstead and Belsize Park, Dulwich and Sutton and Cheam each have their own page with the housing stock and the postcodes set out. Give us your postcode and we will tell you plainly whether it is a tonight or a tomorrow job, rather than promising a slot we cannot make. We work across boiler repair in north London and boiler repair in south London, and the full list is on areas we cover.

Safety

If you smell gas: do not touch any switches. Open the windows, leave the property, then call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. That line is free and open 24 hours. Call them before you call us. If a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding: get everyone out immediately, then call 999 if anyone feels unwell. Do not go back in until the property has been ventilated and checked. If the boiler locks out repeatedly: try one reset. If it locks out again straight away, stop. Repeated resets hide a fault that is still there, and on a gas appliance that is not a risk worth taking. Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, only a Gas Safe registered engineer may work on gas appliances. Never open the boiler casing yourself.

Emergency boiler repair FAQs

How quickly can you get to me?

We will give you a realistic slot on the phone, and it depends on where our engineers already are that day. We do not promise a fixed number of minutes to everybody who rings, because a firm making that promise to you is making it to the person before you as well. What we will do is tell you honestly whether it is tonight or tomorrow while you still have time to try someone else, and put you further up the day if there is someone vulnerable in the property.

My boiler shows an ignition fault in freezing weather. Is it broken?

Probably not. A frozen condensate pipe blocks the boiler's drain, the water backs up and the boiler shuts down, and almost every make reports that as an ignition or gas fault rather than a drainage one. Vaillant shows F28, Worcester Bosch EA or D5, Baxi and Potterton E133, Ideal LF, Glow-worm and Ferroli F1. Pour warm water along the outside pipe, never boiling, and reset once it drains. It is the commonest winter callout and it costs nothing to clear yourself.

Do you charge more at night or at weekends?

Out of hours work is charged differently from a weekday appointment, and you will be told the rate on the phone before anybody is booked, not after the engineer is standing in your kitchen. That is the same rule at three in the morning as at three in the afternoon. If the job can safely wait until normal hours we will say so, because paying an out of hours rate for a cold radiator helps nobody. Our guide to repair costs explains what drives the figure.

What can I safely check myself?

Four things, none of which involve opening the boiler. Whether it still has power and gas, including the prepayment meter. The pressure gauge, which should read between 1 and 1.5 bar cold. The thermostat batteries and the programmer time, both of which present as a dead boiler. And in cold weather the outside condensate pipe. Never remove the casing: under the Gas Safety Regulations only a Gas Safe registered engineer may work on the appliance itself.

I have no hot water but the heating works. Is that an emergency?

Uncomfortable rather than urgent, and it narrows the fault usefully. On a combi it usually points at the diverter valve or the hot water sensor, neither of which stops the heating. On a system with a stored cylinder it is more often the cylinder, the immersion or a motorised valve than the boiler at all, which is why the unvented cylinder repair side matters. Unless there is someone vulnerable in the house, this is normally a next day job.

How many times can I press the reset button?

Once, after you have dealt with the cause. A lockout is a safety device reporting a fault, and resetting repeatedly does not fix it, it just asks the boiler to try again with the same problem in place. If it locks out twice in an evening, leave it off and ring. The most common reason a cheap repair turns into an expensive one is somebody resetting a boiler eight times before calling anyone. The same applies to electric boiler repair, where a tripping breaker is the equivalent warning.

I am a tenant with no heating. What is my landlord required to do?

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord must keep the space heating and water heating installations in repair and proper working order, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 gives tenants a direct route where a property is unfit. The law asks for repair within a reasonable time rather than a fixed number of hours, and what is reasonable depends on the weather and who lives there. Report it in writing and keep the date. We attend when the landlord or agent instructs us.

Which areas do you cover for emergency call outs?

Every London borough, north and south of the river, across twenty six districts. Hampstead and Belsize Park, Dulwich, and Sutton and Cheam are three of them. We do not qualify coverage by distance or add conditions to particular postcodes. The full list, with the postcodes each one covers, is on our areas we cover page.

Every make, and the codes each one uses

We carry the fault code lists for every make we repair, and each page sets out what the codes mean and which parts fail. Most emergency calls start with a code from one of these.

For a boiler with no code on the display, or a make not listed, our gas boiler repair page covers the diagnostic route. If you would rather write than ring, contact a boiler engineer in London. In an emergency the phone is faster.

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Book an emergency engineer

Have the model number and the fault code ready if you can. With those two pieces of information we can usually tell you what has failed and what it will take to put right before anybody is booked in.

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Gas Safe registered. Unvented cylinder qualified. Parts guaranteed for a year. Covering London, north and south of the river, 24 hours a day.