Check the pressure gauge
Most sealed systems should read between 1 and 1.5 bar when cold. Below about 0.5 bar many boilers refuse to fire. A boiler that keeps losing pressure has a leak or a failed expansion vessel.
No heating, no hot water or a fault code on the display? Local Gas Safe and OFTEC registered engineers test the boiler properly, then give you a fixed price for the fix.
Leave your number and we will call you back during our opening hours: Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 8am–1pm.
A boiler that will not fire could have any one of a dozen faults, and several of them look identical from the outside. Changing parts until it works is the expensive way to find out which. We test first: gas pressure at the appliance, the ignition sequence, flow and return temperatures, system pressure and the sensors that report them. Then we show you what has failed and what it costs to put right.
Being based in the MK18 area matters on a breakdown, because Winslow is a short drive for us and not a slot in a regional call-out queue. We aim to attend genuine no-heat and no-hot-water calls the same day wherever the diary allows, and we give you an honest time on the phone. Our hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm.
We repair gas, oil and LPG boilers from the major makes, including Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Ideal, Baxi, Glow-worm, Viessmann, Grant and Firebird. This page is about the day it stops working. For the wider picture, see boiler repairs in Winslow on our homepage.
Smell gas? Do not wait for us. Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, open the windows and leave the appliance alone.
We carry the spares that fail most often, so a good share of breakdowns are finished on the first visit. When a part has to be ordered you get the price and the date before we leave. And if the boiler is beyond economic repair, we say so and show you why, with the cost of a replacement next to the repair so the decision is yours.
Repairs are priced per job, not by the hour. You agree the figure before we start.
Six quick checks. Some of them will get you going again, and the rest tell us what to bring.
Most sealed systems should read between 1 and 1.5 bar when cold. Below about 0.5 bar many boilers refuse to fire. A boiler that keeps losing pressure has a leak or a failed expansion vessel.
Write down the code or the pattern of flashing lights before you reset anything. It tells us where to start and which parts to bring.
Flat batteries in a wireless thermostat, or a programmer knocked off its schedule by a power cut, stop a boiler just as surely as a real fault.
If the hob will not light either, the problem is the gas supply or a prepayment meter, not the boiler.
In a hard frost the plastic drain pipe outside can freeze and lock the boiler out. Thaw it with warm water, never boiling, then reset.
On an oil boiler, look at the tank gauge. Running low draws sludge and air into the line, and the burner needs bleeding before it will relight.
Fault codes narrow a breakdown down, but they describe a symptom and not a cause. Ignition lockouts such as EA on a Worcester Bosch, F28 on a Vaillant or L2 on an Ideal all mean the boiler tried to light and did not detect a flame. The cause might be the electrode, the gas valve, the gas supply, a blocked condensate trap or the flue, which is why we test each in turn.
Low pressure codes, such as F22 on a Vaillant or E119 on a Baxi, mean the system has lost water. Topping up clears the code, but the water went somewhere. The usual suspects are a weeping radiator valve, a pressure relief valve passing to outside, or an expansion vessel that has lost its air charge so the pressure swings every time the heating runs.
Overheat and circulation faults point the other way: the boiler is making heat but cannot move it. A seized pump, a stuck diverter valve, an airlock or a heat exchanger restricted by sludge will all do it. Clearing the fault without dealing with the sludge means it comes back, so we tell you plainly when a system clean is part of the repair.
Tell us what the boiler is doing, the make, and any code on the display. We will say when we can be there.
We test the appliance and the system, then explain what has failed in plain English.
You get the cost of the repair before any work starts, and the cost of replacement where the two are close.
Part fitted, boiler run up to temperature and safety checks completed before we leave.
A repair is priced once we know what has failed. These are the things that set the figure.
You get a fixed price in writing before any work starts, with parts and labour set out separately.
Winslow sits at the centre of our patch, with the Horwoods, Swanbourne, Granborough, Adstock and Padbury all a short drive away. There is no separate mileage charge for the villages on our coverage list, and off the gas grid we repair oil and LPG boilers too.
Yes, if you are comfortable using the filling loop and your boiler manual shows how. Fill slowly to between 1 and 1.5 bar with the system cold, then close both valves fully. If the pressure drops again within days or weeks, stop topping up and call us, because constant fresh water corrodes the system and the leak behind it needs finding.
Reset once. If the boiler locks out again, leave it. On an oil boiler, repeated resets pump unburnt oil into the combustion chamber, and many gas boilers limit how many resets they will accept. A second lockout means there is a fault to find.
Often, yes. Age alone is not the test. If the fault is a single part, spares are available and the heat exchanger is sound, a repair is good value. We advise replacing when parts are obsolete, when the heat exchanger has failed, or when the repair costs a large share of a new boiler.
Yes. We are OFTEC registered for oil and Gas Safe registered for both natural gas and LPG, so we attend breakdowns on all three fuels in Winslow and the surrounding villages.
Turn the boiler off if you can do it on your way out, open doors and windows, get everyone outside and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. If anyone feels unwell, get medical help. Do not use the boiler again until an engineer has tested it.
New gas, oil and LPG boilers surveyed, supplied and fitted, with the system cleaned and the paperwork registered.
Boiler installation in Winslow →OFTEC registered servicing, burner repairs, tank checks and replacement for oil-fired boilers.
Oil boiler service in Winslow →Radiators, powerflushing, unvented cylinders, controls and pipework for the whole heating system.
Central heating in Winslow →Tell us the make, the fault code and what it is doing, and we will give you an honest answer on timing.