Hot water rarely gives up on a gentle June afternoon; it goes on the frosty morning when the whole household wants a shower. Most losses of hot water have a calm five-minute check behind them — and the ones that do not are worth describing well when you ring.
Cold taps and a cold shower right now? Check the boiler's pressure gauge, the thermostat and timer, and the trip switches at the consumer unit — and in freezing weather, suspect the condensate pipe before anything else. If it is beyond those checks, ring 020 4577 2888 any hour to be connected with a local plumber. If you smell gas, skip everything: leave the property and call 0800 111 999.
If there is any smell of gas, the hot water stops mattering. Take everyone outside, touch no switches, strike no flames, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 from outside the building. And whatever the fault turns out to be, never open the boiler casing yourself — everything behind it belongs, by law, to an engineer on the Gas Safe Register.
Before assuming the worst, look at the boring suspects, because they account for a surprising share of cold showers. Has the room thermostat or the boiler's own hot-water dial been nudged down? Has a power cut scrambled the timer or clock, so the boiler thinks it is three in the morning? Has the trip switch or fuse that feeds the boiler gone over at the consumer unit? Then the gauge: most sealed systems like to sit around 1 to 1.5 bar when cold, and a needle well below 1 bar can stop the boiler running at all. Topping up once through the filling loop, following the manual, is a householder's job — a needle that keeps sinking afterwards is a leak wanting found, and that is a different chapter.
Any season · The combi householdThis particular pattern — radiators warm, taps stubbornly cold, or the other way about — is worth knowing by name if your home runs on a combi boiler. Inside the boiler a diverter valve swings the heat between the radiators and the tap water, and when it sticks, one duty carries on while the other quietly stops. There is no householder's fix here: the valve lives behind the casing, which is exactly where you must not go. What you can usefully do is report the symptom precisely when you ring, because "heating works, hot taps do not" points a professional straight at the likely culprit and shortens the visit.
December – February · The cold-snap suspectsWhen a hard Moray frost settles in and the boiler locks out overnight with a fault code, think first of the little plastic condensate pipe that runs from the boiler to a drain — often down an outside wall, where a bitter night can freeze it solid. Warm, never boiling, water poured along the frozen section, then a reset as the manual describes, often brings the whole house back to life. Cold weather has one more trick: an airlock. If the hot taps splutter, hiss and give nothing after work on the system or a spell with the water off, air in the line may be the whole story — some airlocks clear themselves with patient running, and the stubborn ones are quick work for a plumber.
Any season · The cylinder householdPlenty of homes around Elgin — not least the older stone-built ones — still heat water in a cylinder rather than on demand. There the checklist shifts: make sure the programmer is genuinely calling for hot water at this hour, and that the cylinder's own thermostat has not been knocked low. Many cylinders also carry an electric immersion heater on its own switch, usually in the airing cupboard, and it makes an honest stopgap — a tankful of hot water while the main fault waits for the morning. An immersion that trips its switch repeatedly, though, is telling you something; leave it off and have it looked at rather than resetting it on a loop.
On a combi boiler that pattern usually points at the diverter valve — the part that switches the boiler between warming the radiators and warming the tap water. It is an internal component, so diagnosing and replacing it means opening the boiler, which is not a householder's job. Mention the symptom when you ring; it narrows the fault at once.
Usually. If the gauge sits below about 1 bar, the boiler's manual shows how to top the system up through the filling loop to around 1 to 1.5 bar when cold. Do it once and then watch the gauge over the following days — pressure that keeps sliding away means a leak somewhere in the system, and that wants finding rather than endless topping up.
Check that the programmer is actually calling for hot water at this hour and that the cylinder thermostat has not been knocked down. Many cylinders also carry an electric immersion heater with its own switch — often in the airing cupboard — which can heat a tankful while the main fault waits for attention. If the immersion trips repeatedly, leave it off and have it looked at.
No. Everything behind the casing of a gas boiler is legally the territory of an engineer on the Gas Safe Register, and it is entirely fair to ask to see a Gas Safe ID before that work begins. The checks on this page — pressure, thermostat, timer, trip switches, condensate pipe — all live safely outside the casing.
Leave the property straight away, do not touch light switches or anything that makes a flame or spark, and do not go looking for the leak. From outside, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Only once the emergency service has made things safe is it time to talk about engineers and repairs.
The front page — the Moray plumbing year and how this line works.
Back to the front →Frost, thaw and the first five minutes when water is escaping.
Read the chapter →Pressure, frozen condensate pipes and the gas rule that outranks everything.
Read the chapter →What to try, what never to pour away, and when it is the public sewer.
Read the chapter →No invented prices — how charging works and what to ask before work begins.
Read the chapter →Lagging in autumn, gentle thawing in winter — and the flame rule with no exceptions.
Read the chapter →Damp patches, dropping pressure and the quiet stopcock test that settles it.
Read the chapter →Ring any hour of any season to be connected with a local plumber covering Elgin and the Moray villages around it — and remember: for gas, it is 0800 111 999 first.
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