Gas heater service and repairs, before the cold
Service, repair and replacement for flued and unflued gas heaters. Pressure tested, carbon monoxide checked, and booked before the first cold snap.
Get a price on a heater service
We'll call you back, usually within the hour during the day.
Straight to Aidan's phone. No call centre, no lead-selling service.
Aidan will call you back, usually within the hour during the day. If it can't wait, call 0498 184 488.
A gas heater in Katoomba works harder than the same heater in Sydney. July averages a 2.6 °C minimum up here, the season starts earlier and finishes later, and one appliance carries the house through all of it. Australian gas use runs close to six times higher in winter than summer, and on the mountain that load lands on a heater that ran all last winter too.
We are gas specialists as well as plumbers. Licence 479856C carries Gasfitter and LP Gasfitter, so the service, any repair, the flue and the compliance paperwork are one visit and one trade rather than a plumber who then sends somebody else.
What a service covers
- Gas pressure tested at the appliance with the heater running
- Burner, injectors and pilot assembly cleaned and adjusted
- Flue, seals and clearances checked on flued heaters
- Carbon monoxide spillage test, the check that matters most
- Ignition, thermocouple and safety shut-off proven to work
- What we tested and what it read, told to you plainly at the end
The faults we get called to
- A pilot that lights and then drops out, usually a thermocouple
- A lazy yellow flame where it should be blue
- A heater that runs for twenty minutes and cuts out
- Soot marks above the heater, or windows streaming when it runs
- A heater the real estate agent needs certified between tenants
If you can smell gas, or the heater is sooting up, turn it off at the isolation valve and ring us. Do not run it while you wait for a booking.
Why it's different up here
Book in February, March or April, not on the first cold snap. Every plumber on the mountain gets the same calls in the same fortnight in May, and a pilot that will not stay lit on the first cold night is usually a service that was due in autumn. Holiday lets are better serviced between guests than after a complaint, and a heater past fifteen years with no parts left is a replacement quote rather than a third repair. We will tell you which one you are looking at.
The things people ask
How often does a gas heater need servicing?
Once a year is the honest answer, and every two years is the outside limit most manufacturers will accept. A heater in a holiday let earns a service every year without argument. Beyond the gas bill and the pilot dropping out, the unserviced flued heater is the one that develops a carbon monoxide problem.
What does a carbon monoxide test involve?
We run the heater and check that the flue is taking the combustion gases outside instead of spilling them back into the room, and we test the burner and the seals that make that work. It is the part of a heater service you cannot do yourself and cannot see going wrong.
Can you service a heater that runs on LPG bottles?
Yes. Licence 479856C carries LP Gasfitter as well as Gasfitter, so bottled LPG heaters, regulators and changeover valves are the same job to us as natural gas. Plenty of the mountain runs on bottles and we work on them every week.
Is my old heater worth repairing?
Sometimes. If parts are still made and the heat exchanger is sound, a repair is usually the cheaper winter. Past about fifteen years, with parts gone or a cracked exchanger, you are paying twice. We will quote the repair and the replacement and let you pick.
Do I get a compliance certificate?
For a service, you get a written record of the tests and the readings. For an installation or a replacement you get the certificate of compliance NSW requires, which your insurer, agent or conveyancer will ask for.
Gas heater service across the Upper Mountains
Other services
Heater not lighting?
Call Aidan. You will get a straight answer about whether it is a service, a repair or a replacement.
0498 184 488