Hot water repairs and
replacement in Chatswood

If 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.