Houses and apartments both. A dead unit is more often a part than a write-off, and in a unit block the constraint is usually access and strata rather than the plumbing itself.
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Every storage tank is a slow race between the anode and the cylinder. The anode is a sacrificial rod that corrodes in place of the steel, and once it is gone the tank is on its own. A tank that has started to go cannot be repaired.
Almost nobody replaces an anode. It is a straightforward job at around the five to seven year mark that adds years to the unit, and it is the single biggest avoidable cost on this page.
What is particular to Chatswood is where these units live. In the apartments they sit in tight internal cupboards, often with minimal ventilation and awkward access, which means they run warmer, get serviced less, and are usually only looked at once they have already failed. In the older houses they are frequently external and decades old, sitting alongside pipework that is older still.
One thing it is not: hard water. Sydney's supply is soft, averaging around 43 mg/L, so a failed unit here is almost never limescale. If someone quotes descaling on that basis, get a second opinion.
Tell us the brand, the rough age, and whether it is a house or an apartment. In a unit, the floor and whether there is lift access decides the timing.
A unit in a sealed internal cupboard runs warmer than one outside, and it is harder to reach for anything approaching maintenance.
Warmer is not a fault in itself, but a unit nobody can get to properly does not get its anode checked, which is what actually decides how long it lasts.
So position affects service life as much as quality does, and that is worth thinking about at installation.
The unit inside your lot is generally yours. What is generally not yours is the external wall it might vent through, the common area it might sit in, and the building's fabric.
So a replacement can be simultaneously your decision and the building's, and they move at different speeds.
Raising the building's part early is considerably easier than raising it after an appliance has arrived.
A heat pump moves heat out of surrounding air, so it needs genuine airflow around it, and it runs a fan and a compressor while it does.
In an apartment there is frequently nowhere with enough air and nowhere the noise is acceptable to a neighbour, which are two separate problems.
It is not impossible. It is a question to answer honestly before ordering rather than after.
On an off-peak arrangement the cylinder is filled with heat overnight and then draws down all day with no top-up until the next window.
By evening, whatever is left is what there is, and a household whose routine has shifted later meets that ceiling regularly.
Before concluding anything has failed, check for a boost switch near the unit or the switchboard. A surprising number of installations have one.
The anode inside a storage tank is designed to be sacrificed. It corrodes so the cylinder does not, and it runs out.
Nothing on the outside of the unit indicates how much is left, and no fault code or noise announces the moment it is gone.
Around six or seven years is when it becomes the best value thing anybody can spend money on, and almost nobody does.
The compliance plate carries the date. Under about eight years a failure is usually a part. Past twelve the tank lining is generally the issue.
Photograph the plate and send it through before anybody attends. In a building with access to arrange, a second trip is a real cost.
Between those it depends on the fault, which is why a specific diagnosis matters more than a rule.
A lift, a corridor, protection on the floor and a building's rules about all three. That is a real part of the job rather than an afterthought.
It belongs in the quote and in the booking, because it may need a lift reserved and access arranged in advance.
Mention the floor and the building when you ring. It changes what we send and when we can come.
A storage tank inside an apartment sits above somebody else's ceiling, and a failure reaches them within hours rather than days.
Turn the water off at the unit, kill its power, and tell the building and the apartment below before arranging anything else.
That urgency is why the warning signs matter more in a building than in a house.
A unit that empties mid-shower is generally undersized for how the household now behaves rather than faulty. Capacity is drawn down by what is taken in the same short window.
A flat let to a share household is the version people forget, because the building has not changed but the pattern of use has.
Describe the actual arrangement when you ask for advice, because that is what the sizing runs on.
Trace it upward. From a fitting on top, that is a connection and a small job. From the side or base of the cylinder, that is the steel.
The second case has no repair, and it is worth being firm about because somebody will eventually offer one.
Turn it off, isolate the power or gas, and get it replaced. The damage while a decision is made routinely exceeds the cost of the unit.
Type and size decide most changeovers, and getting either wrong costs you in a way you notice later. Undersize a tank and you run out mid-shower. Oversize it and you pay to keep water hot nobody uses.
In a house here the field is open. In an apartment it is usually narrowed to whatever fits the existing cupboard and whatever strata will approve, which in practice means electric storage or a compact continuous flow unit.
| System | How it heats | Typical life | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric storage | An element heats a tank, often overnight on a controlled load tariff | 8 to 12 years | Apartment cupboards, and any lot with no gas and no outdoor space |
| Gas storage | A burner under the tank, reheating through the day | 8 to 12 years | Houses with gas at the meter and room for an external unit |
| Continuous flow | Heats on demand, so there is no tank to run out | 15 to 20 years | Tight footprints, and households with uneven demand |
| Heat pump | Moves heat from the surrounding air, like a fridge in reverse | 10 to 15 years | Houses with a side passage. Rarely straightforward in a unit |
| Solar with boost | Roof collectors with electric or gas backup | 15 to 20 years | Freestanding houses with usable north-facing roof |
A starting point rather than a rule. A household showering back to back within an hour needs more than the same number of people spread across a morning.
| People in the home | Electric storage | Gas storage | Continuous flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 125 L | 135 L | 16 to 20 L/min |
| 3 to 4 | 160 to 250 L | 135 to 170 L | 20 to 26 L/min |
| 5 or more | 250 to 315 L | 170 L or more | 26 to 32 L/min |
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 Sydney ranges for guidance, not quotes. In a unit, access can move the labour and we will say so up front.
Someone out to you who establishes what has actually failed rather than guessing.
The most common repair on an electric storage tank, and usually the same visit.
Worth doing on a sound tank at five to ten years. Adds years for a fraction of a swap.
Same type and size, common brands. Add time where lift and corridor access is involved.
Before the NSW discount and federal certificates, which usually come off up front.
Almost every home here runs one of these eight, and the building tells you which. The apartments are overwhelmingly electric storage: Rheem, Dux and AquaMAX in internal cupboards, sized to whatever the original developer specified.
The freestanding houses are a wider field. Rinnai and Bosch continuous flow where a renovation added gas, Vulcan and Rheem storage in the older installs, Solahart on roofs from the solar era, and Stiebel Eltron appearing on the heat pump conversions that have the outdoor space to make one work.
Elements, thermostats, anodes and tempering valves for the mainstream brands ride on the van, so a repair is usually same day. The parts that take a day or two are almost always for a unit that stopped being made years ago, which is generally the point at which replacing it is the better spend.
We service and replace these systems as an independent licensed plumber. We are not an agent for, or endorsed by, any manufacturer.
What has failed, how old the unit is, and where it physically sits. In a unit block the last one decides as much as the first.
Cupboard, corridor, lift, and whether what you want needs the owners corporation. Better to find that out now than with a unit in your hallway.
Common elements, thermostats, valves and popular tank sizes are stocked, so most jobs finish on the first visit.
Temperature checked at the tap, tempering valve verified, cupboard left dry and clean, old unit removed for recycling.
Tell us the brand, the rough age and whether you are in a house or a unit. If nobody in the building has hot water, say so, that is a different job entirely.
Call 1300 381 569If it is electric, check the switchboard for a tripped breaker, and check whether the unit runs on a controlled-load tariff that only heats overnight, because a heavy evening can empty a tank before the next cycle. If it is gas, check the pilot or ignition. In an apartment also check whether the neighbours have hot water, because if nobody does it is a building system rather than your unit and the building manager needs to know first.
Usually yes, but not unilaterally. The unit inside your lot is generally yours to replace. What you cannot do without the owners corporation is change anything that alters common property, penetrate a wall or slab, run a new flue, or put a heat pump on a balcony or external wall where noise and appearance are governed by by-laws. In practice a like-for-like swap inside an existing cupboard is straightforward and anything else needs written approval first. We will tell you which one you are looking at before quoting.
Because a heat pump needs somewhere to stand with real airflow, and it makes noise while it runs. In a house that is a side passage. In an apartment the only candidates are usually a balcony or an external wall, both of which are common property and both of which raise by-law questions about appearance and noise to neighbours. It is not impossible, and in some buildings it has been done, but it starts with the strata committee rather than with us.
The anode, most of the time. It is a sacrificial rod inside the tank that corrodes so the steel does not, and when it is consumed the cylinder starts going. Almost nobody replaces one, which is why so many units are scrapped years earlier than they needed to be. In apartments there is a second factor: units installed in tight internal cupboards with poor ventilation run hotter and are harder to service, so they tend to be neglected until they fail rather than maintained.
Age decides it more than the fault. Under about eight years most failures are one part, an element, a thermostat or a valve, and those are worth repairing and usually same day. Past twelve years on a storage tank you are generally looking at a corroded cylinder, which has no repair. In between we will give you both numbers honestly. In a unit there is a third consideration: if access is genuinely difficult, doing the work once properly is worth more than squeezing another year out of it.
If a heat pump is actually viable at your property, yes. The NSW Energy Savings Scheme applies an upfront discount to the installer's quote rather than a rebate afterwards: up to $640 replacing an old electric water heater and up to $330 replacing gas, depending on the model. Only installers partnered with an Accredited Certificate Provider can apply it, so ask any quote whether it is included and who the provider is.
Usually same day for a like-for-like changeover on a mainstream brand in a house. In an apartment it depends on access as much as parts: a ground floor cupboard is a morning, a unit that has to come down in a lift and through a corridor takes longer and sometimes needs the building manager to book the lift. Tell us the floor and whether there is lift access when you call and we can give you a realistic time rather than an optimistic one.
Brand, rough age, and house or apartment. If it is a unit, the floor and whether there is lift access decides how long the job takes.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts, and we will tell you what needs strata approval before you order anything.
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