What To Do If Your Boiler Stops Working

Having central heating and hot water in your home is essential, and both of these things are provided by your boiler. This is why your boiler is so vital in your home and you need it to be working well at all times. It is a more common occurrence for your boiler to break in the winter seasons as you will be using it more often, as we know, you need your boiler the most in the winter – so to avoid breakdowns in the winter, you need to look after your boiler as well as possible. BOXT Boilers are going to guide you through some of the things that you can do if your boiler stops working to get it back up and running again.

Maintain Your Boiler

Before we get into the fixes that you can carry out when your boiler stops working, we want to talk a little bit about how you can maintain your boiler when you are not using it, in order to avoid these breakdowns. The best way to look after your boiler is to ensure that you are maintaining it through the summer months when it is normally going to be turned off for a long time. This is because if you leave your boiler completely switched off for a number of months, it is likely that some of the internal parts may cease up or stop working smoothly. To avoid this, you should regularly switch your boiler on in the summer months when you are not using it. Some other tips to keep your boiler well maintained are as follows:

• Get your boiler serviced annually
• Bleed your radiators
• Carry out safety checks

If you maintain your boiler well and you still run into problems, which can happen, then you need to further investigate what your issue may be.

Try To Locate The Problem

This is likely to sound easier than it will be, unless you are competent with boilers or similar systems, however, it is worth checking if there is anything that you can tell an engineer if you spot it.

It is very important to remember to switch off your boiler before you do anything, to avoid further damaging the boiler or doing harm to yourself.

Boilers are gas appliances that use water and also electrical components, so it is likely to be one of these 3 things that are causing you a problem. If you can see water leaking, it’s likely to be related to that. If there is nothing that you can see that may be a problem, you should call out an engineer to help you locate and fix the problem as it may be something serious. We are going to continue with some easy fixes that you should be able to carry out yourself if your boiler stops working.

Reset Your Boiler

Many modern boilers have a reset button, and like the old cliche says, “try turning off and on again”. This can often be useful with boilers because they have many safety precautions that will shut the boiler down if they think something is wrong. There is a chance that this is what has happened if your boiler stops working, it is just a precautionary shutdown. So, the first thing to try if your boiler shuts down is to use the reset button. If you press this button and it comes back on with no problems, then you have saved yourself some time and money! If this does not resolve the issue, however, you will need to continue through our guide to find out what else may be wrong with your boiler.

Possible Boiler Faults

If the boiler reset does not produce success for you then some of the following things may be reasons that your boiler is not working.

Pilot Light

A common boiler issue is that the pilot light continuously goes out. You will generally be able to see the pilot light burning in a small space in the front of the boiler. If the pilot light is not burning, it is likely an issue with the gas, this is of course something that you should hire an expert engineer for.

Low Boiler Pressure

A very common issue with boilers is that the pressure has dropped, causing them to not work to the best of their ability. Thankfully, if your boiler pressure drops, this is normally something that can be fixed easily. You can usually adjust the pressure by releasing air from the knobs beneath the boilers. You should always double check your manual for your boiler to ensure that you are doing this carefully and safely and if you are not 100% sure, it may be worth calling for help. It is important to never attempt to fix anything that you are not confident will be done safely.

There are many more complex boiler faults that could be the reason that your boiler has shut down, however, these are some of the most common and likely the most easy to diagnose. If you run into any issues with your boiler that you are unaware of how to solve, ensure that you contact a Gas Safe Engineer to do the job for you The money that you spend will be worth far more than the time and struggles that you will have if you do something wrong when trying to resolve the issue. It is also vitally important that it is done correctly and safely due to the possibility of a deadly carbon monoxide leak, if something were to go pear shaped.