CR2

Boiler Repair in Sanderstead and Selsdon

Gas Safe engineers across CR2, 24 hours a day.

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

What is the boiler doing?

A radiator that stayed cold when the heating went back on in October is usually a seized valve pin, not a boiler fault.

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

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JA Morris
"Efficient and amiable service all round. Even managed to save me money by fixing a thermostat that we thought was broken."
Graziano B.
"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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Prefer we call you? Request a call back

Two details to start. Add your postcode and whether there is a cylinder in an airing cupboard and we can usually tell you the likely part before we attend.

We cover Sanderstead, and the whole of London

Tell us the address and you will get an honest answer about timing. View areas we cover

What happens when you call

Three steps. The first one usually tells us most of it.

Tell us where you are and whether there is a cylinderIn CR2 most of the larger houses still have one. The other thing worth telling us is whether the problem appeared the first week the heating came back on.
You will know what has probably failed, and when we can comeWe 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.
Nothing starts until you have agreed the costThe engineer runs a full diagnostic, then puts the fault, the part and the labour in writing. Parts are guaranteed for a year.

If a repair is not worth doing, we will say so on the phone. Call 0203 868 6134.

We come to every street around here

Almost nobody says they live in CR2. They say Selsdon, or Hamsey Green, or Forestdale.

Names we hear on CR2 calls, and the postcodes around it

Grouped by postcode, because that is the one part of an address everybody knows.

CR2Sanderstead, Selsdon, Forestdale, Sanderstead Hill, Selsdon Vale and South Croydon
CR6Warlingham, Chelsham and Hamsey Green
CR0Addington, Shirley and New Addington
CR8Purley Downs and the Riddlesdown border
CR3Whyteleafe and the Caterham border

We work right across London, north and south of the river. If yours is not here, ring and tell us the address.

The commonest autumn fault here is not a fault at all

It is a valve pin that seized over the summer.

CR2 is interwar and postwar detached and semi-detached houses, generously sized, most of them still storing hot water and nearly all of them fitted with thermostatic radiator valves during the eighties and nineties. Those valves have typically never been touched since. A thermostatic valve works by a pin that a wax or liquid capsule pushes down on. Leave it fully open all summer with the heating off, and that pin can stick in place. When the system comes back on in October the valve cannot open, and the radiator stays stone cold while every other one in the house heats perfectly. That is not a boiler fault, and it is very often not even a repair. Pull the head off the valve and the pin is visible at the top of the body. If it is stuck down, easing it free by hand is frequently the whole job. We will talk anyone through checking it on the phone, because it is not worth a call-out if it takes two minutes.

Did you know Turning every thermostatic valve fully open and closed a couple of times at the end of the heating season stops this happening. It takes ten minutes across a whole house and it prevents the single most common October call-out we get.

Heating fine, hot water gone

The commonest call from CR2, and it is rarely the boiler.

On a stored system, heating that works and hot water that does not points at the cylinder side. Three usual culprits: the motorised valve that diverts flow to the tank, the cylinder thermostat, and the immersion element. Each costs a fraction of a new appliance and each gets mistaken for one. The motorised valve is a close relative of the radiator valve above. It has a moving spindle and an actuator on top, and in a house where the hot water has been on the same programme for twenty years, that spindle can stick exactly the same way. Replacing the actuator alone is often enough, and it is a fraction of the cost of the whole valve. An unvented cylinder is a pressurised store, so working on one is notifiable and needs a G3 qualification on top of Gas Safe registration. Plenty of firms hold one and not the other, which is why a cylinder call so often becomes two visits. Our engineers hold both, so it is one visit and one charge. See unvented cylinder repair.

Water running from a pipe outside? If it comes from a tundish, the cylinder is discharging and a safety device has failed. Turn the boiler off, isolate the cold feed if you can find the stopcock, and call. That is an emergency, not a booking for next week.

Hard water, and who actually supplies yours

Look it up rather than take anybody's word for it.

Most of London drinks water drawn from the Thames and the Lea and treated by Thames Water, and it measures roughly 277 milligrams of calcium carbonate per litre. This corner of the city is one of the places where that is not the supplier. Much of it takes its water from SES Water instead, drawn from chalk boreholes rather than from a river. Scale does the same thing wherever it comes from. In a combi it furs the plate heat exchanger. On a stored system it coats the coil inside the cylinder so the tank takes longer to recover. It also settles in valve bodies and around spindles, which is part of why valves that have not moved in years are the ones that seize.

We are not going to tell you your water is worse than somebody else's. Look up your own supplier and their published hardness figure for your postcode, because it is a matter of record rather than opinion. What we will say is that the answer is the same either way: a scale reducer on the mains and a magnetic filter on the return, both fitted during a yearly service, and a power flush for what is already in there.

Google Reviews

"These guys provide an excellent service. A pleasure to deal with and professional"
Day Walker
"Very professional and would recommend to anyone!"
Abby M.
"Engineer excellent and very time efficient."
Fiona G.

Repair or replace

Age does not decide it. The failed part does.

A pump, a diverter valve, a thermostat or a fan is a repair on almost any appliance, whatever its age. A failed main heat exchanger on a boiler well past ten years is the point where the arithmetic stops working, and we will tell you that rather than sell you the repair. Before a replacement in a house like these, it is worth knowing how much of the complaint is the appliance and how much is twenty years of valves that have not moved. A new boiler on a system full of seized valves heats exactly the rooms the old one did, and the disappointment afterwards is entirely avoidable. Our boiler replacement page sets out what a replacement actually involves, including what changes when a stored system is converted, and the costs guide explains what moves the figure.

That answer costs nothing. It is the one most people ring us for. Call 0203 868 6134.

Nearby areas

Next door to here we cover Croydon and Purley and Kenley. Everything else is on boiler repair in south London and areas we cover.

Sutton and CheamChalk belt, scale is the first checkView services Blackheath and GreenwichGeorgian terraces, listed constraintsView services Crystal PalaceHigh ground, mains pressure mattersView services Sydenham and Forest HillTall Victorians, long pipe runsView services Epsom and EwellLarge family houses into SurreyView 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.

Cold radiator since October?

Nine times out of ten that is a thermostatic valve whose pin seized shut over the summer. It is often a two minute fix and we will talk you through checking it before anybody sets off.

Call 0203 868 6134

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.

Common questions

Do you cover my street in Sanderstead?

Yes. The names listed above are the ones we hear most, and they are nowhere near a complete list. We work right across London, north and south of the river. Ring and tell us the address and you will get a straight answer about timing.

One radiator has been cold since the heating went back on. What is that?

Almost always a thermostatic valve whose pin seized over the summer. The valve cannot open, so that radiator stays cold while the rest of the house heats perfectly. Pull the head off and the pin is visible at the top of the valve body. If it is stuck down, easing it free by hand is often the entire job.

Can I check that myself?

Yes, and we would rather you did than paid for a call-out. Take the plastic head off the valve, look for the small metal pin, and press it gently. If it moves freely the valve is fine. If it is stuck it can usually be freed. Ring us and we will talk you through it.

How do I stop it happening every year?

Turn every thermostatic valve fully open and fully closed a couple of times at the end of the heating season. It takes about ten minutes across a whole house and it prevents the most common October call-out there is.

My radiators are hot but there is no hot water. Do I need a new boiler?

Almost certainly not. That points at the cylinder side: the motorised valve that diverts to the tank, the cylinder thermostat, or the immersion element. On a system that has run the same programme for years the valve spindle can seize like a radiator valve, and replacing just the actuator is often enough. Our unvented cylinder repair page explains what is involved.

Do you repair Vaillant and Worcester Bosch boilers in Sanderstead?

Yes, and every other major make. Those two and Ideal are what we open most in CR2, usually system boilers feeding a cylinder. Baxi, Glow-worm and Potterton turn up on the older installations and Viessmann on recent refits. If your boiler is showing a fault code, the brand pages explain what it means.

I am a landlord with a property in CR2. Can you do the certificate too?

Yes, and on the same visit where the appliance passes, so a let property is not off the market twice. See landlord gas safety certificates. If it has no gas supply we cover electric boilers as well.

Are you available at night and at weekends?

The line is answered 24 hours a day by a technical customer service member, not a call centre reading from a script. If it is a single cold radiator we will say so and save you the call-out, whatever time it is.

The makes we see most in CR2

Every major make, and the fault code pages often name the part before you ring.

These houses run system boilers feeding a cylinder, and the ones we open most here are Vaillant, Worcester Bosch and Ideal, with Baxi and Glow-worm on the installations they replaced and Potterton on anything untouched since the nineties. Viessmann appears on recent refits. If your boiler is showing a code, the make decides what it means. A Vaillant F75 and an Ideal L2 are different faults with different fixes, and neither of them on its own means a new boiler. Each brand page lists the codes for that make and what actually causes them.

The full list is on our boiler brands page, and general repairs are on boiler repair in London.

Google Reviews

"He was very professional tidy and polite. Would recommend!"
Anna M.
"Steve was very helpful and responsive"
Richard E.
"Took his time to listen to my concerns hence it was a nice job. Thank u so much"
Frank E.

Book an engineer in Sanderstead

Tell us where you are and whether there is a cylinder in an airing cupboard. With those two answers we can usually name the likely part, give you the rate, and book somebody in, all on the one call.

Call 0203 868 6134 Book an engineer online

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