Before anything else, check the base of the unit
If there is water pooling under your hot water unit, or rust streaking down it, stop reading and turn the water off at the mains. A leaking storage tank holds hundreds of litres, and it does not get better.
Call R&G on 0461 330 531 for emergency plumbing in Sydney. $0 call-out fee, 24 hours.
No hot water is usually not an emergency, and the fastest way to find out which one you have is to walk around the house turning taps on.
Cold everywhere, lukewarm in the shower but hot in the kitchen, and hot then cold after a few minutes are three different faults. Most of them wait until morning.
Start With Which Taps
Turn the hot tap on at the kitchen sink, then every bathroom basin, then the shower, for thirty seconds each. What you find narrows it immediately.
| What you get | Where the fault is |
|---|---|
| Cold at every tap in the house | The unit itself, its power, or its gas |
| Hot in the kitchen, lukewarm in the bathroom | The tempering valve, not the unit |
| Hot, then cold after a few minutes | Tank capacity, a failed element or a thermostat |
| Cold at one tap only | That tap or mixer, nothing to do with hot water |
A failed mixer cartridge looks exactly like a hot water fault from inside the shower.
If You Have an Electric Storage Unit
A tall cylinder, usually white or cream, in a cupboard, a garage or against an outside wall. Two things cause most failures,s and one you can check yourself.
Look at your switchboard for a tripped breaker labelled hot water or HWS, and reset it if one has gone. If it trips again straight away, leave it off and call us, because something downstream is faulting.
The other common cause is that the tank has simply run out. If your unit runs on a controlled load or off-peak tariff,ff it only heats overnight, so a long run of showers or a load of washing can empty it by evening, ing and it will not be hot again until the small hours. Nothing is broken.
If the breaker is fine, nobody has used more water than usual and it has been cold for a full day, the element or the thermostat has most likely failed. Both are repairs rather than replacements, and both need a licensed plumber.
If You Have a Gas Unit
Either a storage cylinder with a gas burner underneath, or a flat rectangular box on an exterior wall, which is a continuous flow unit.
Check the gas is on elsewhere first. If your cooktop will not light either, the problem is the supply, not the water heater.
On older storage units, nits there is a pilot light, and it can go out after a gas outage or a strong wind. The relighting procedure is printed on the unit, and if it will not stay lit after two attempts, stop. A pilot that will not hold usually means a failed thermocouple or gas control valve, and both are licensed gas fitting work.
Continuous flow units have no pilot and no tank. They have a small display that shows a fault code, and that code is the most useful thing you can give us on the phone. Read it out before you call.
A continuous flow unit also needs a minimum flow rate to fire, so a tap opened only slightly can run cold while the same tap opened fully runs hot. If your hot water works in the shower but not at a basin, that is why.
If the Water Is Lukewarm, Not Cold
Water leaves a storage unit hot enough to keep bacteria from growing in the tank, which is hotter than anyone should have on their skin. So a valve sits between the unit and the bathroom, blending cold water in before it reaches the shower and basin. The kitchen tap in most homes is not blended, which is why you can scald yourself at the sink but not in the shower.
When that valve fails, ,it fails toward cold. The bathroom goes lukewarm, the kitchen stays hot, and the unit itself is working perfectly.
It is a small part and a quick replacement. Not an emergency, and not a reason to replace a hot water system, which is worth knowing before anyone quotes you for one.
Do not try to fix it by turning the thermostat up. You will make the tank hotter without changing what the failed valve delivers, and the risk lands on whoever uses the kitchen tap.
When It Is Actually an Emergency
Four situations, and only four.
- Water pooling under the unit, or running from it. A storage tank that has split is going to empty itself. Turn the water off at the mains and call
- Any smell of gas near the unit. Leave it, do not touch switches, get outside and call the gas network’s emergency line before you call a .plumber
- Steam, banging, or water coming from the relief valve in bursts. That is a pressure or temperature control, problem and it should be looked at the same day. A steady drip from the same valve is different, because the valve is doing its job, so that one is a nnext-working-daycall
- Nobody can wash, and someone in the house is very young, elderly or unwell. Not a plumbing emergency, but a real one, and we treat it that wawayf You Are Renting, This Is an Urgent Repair
A broken hot water service is on the statutory list in NSW. The NSW Government’s urgent repairs page, citing the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, includes “a failure or breakdown of any essential service for hot water, cooking, heating, cooling or laundering”.
Tell the landlord or agent straight away, in writing, and keep the message. Check your tenancy agreement too, because it may name the repairer you must use.
If you cannot reach them and the repair cannot wait, you can arrange it yourself and claim the cost back. The Tenants’ Union of NSW sets out the limits, and they are tight. Do not spend more than $1,000, because above that you may not get it back, and the landlord must repay reasonable costs within 14 days of your written notice with receipts attached.
To be reimbursed,ed you need to show the problem was not your fault, that you made a reasonable attempt to contact the landlord or agent, that you gave them a reasonable chance to fix it, and that a licensed tradesperson did the work, or the repairer named in your agreement. If they do not pay, you have three months to apply to NCAT.
Ask your plumber to write the cause on the invoice. It is the difference between a reimbursement and an argument.
Repair It or Replace It
Elements, thermostats, tempering valves, thermocouples and gas control valves are all repairs, and on an otherwise sound unit they are the right answer. The calculation changes on a tank that is leaking, or one old enough that nobody remembers it going in, because you are then repairing a vessel that will fail anyway.
What a repair costs depends on which part failed, so we will not pretend there is one number. Our guide to hot water system repair costs in Sydney breaks it down by fault, and the hot water systems page covers replacement.
Two things to have ready when you call
What kind of unit you have, electric or gas, storage or continuous flow, and the fault code if there is a display. Call R&G on 0461 330 531. Those two answers often tell us whether it is a part we carry on the van. $0 call-out fee, 24 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I have no hot water in the shower but hot water in the kitchen?
Almost certainly the tempering valve, which blends cold water into the hot supply before it reaches the bathroom so nobody gets scalded. The kitchen tap in most homes is not blended, so it keeps running hot while the shower goes lukewarm. The hot water unit is usually working normally,lly and the valve is a small, quick replacement.
Is no hot water an emergency?
Usually not. It becomes one if water is pooling under the unit, if you can smell gas near it, if it is steaming or banging, or if someone in the house genuinely cannot go without washing. Everything else, including a cold tank and a failed element, safely waits for a normal appointment.
How long does a hot water system take to reheat?
A storage unit that has been emptied takes a few hours to come back up, and one on a controlled load or off-peak tariff will not start until its overnight window. A continuous flow unit does not store anything, so if it is working you have hot water immediately,tely and if you do not, something has actually failed.
My landlord will not fix the hot water. What can I do in NSW?
A broken hot water service is an urgent repair under the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Give written notice immediately. If you cannot reach them, you can arrange the repair yourself and claim back reasonable costs up to $1,000, which the landlord must pay within 14 days of your notice and receipts. You will need to show it was not your fault, that you tried to contact them, and that you used a licensed tradesperson. If they do not pay, you have three months to apply to NCAT.
Can I relight the pilot light myself?
On an older gas storage unit, yes, following the instructions printed on the unit. If it will not stay lit after two attempts, stop and call a licensed gas fitter, because a pilot that keeps going out usually means a failed thermocouple or gas control valve. Continuous flow units have no pilot light at all, so if yours is a flat box on the wall ,there is nothing to relight.
Cold water and no idea why
We repair and replace electric, gas, continuous flow and solar hot water systems across the Upper North Shore, the Hills District and the Parramatta and Ryde corridor. Licensed fforthe plumbing and gas work, fixed price before anything starts, and no call-out fee. See hot water systems, or if it is leaking right now, we are available 24 hours for emergency plumbing.
