Plumber in Crawley, West Sussex

Hard water in Crawley and what it does to your boiler

Crawley’s water is hard, typically quoted at around 280 parts per million. You see it as the crust in your kettle. You do not see the same scale forming inside your boiler, your hot water cylinder and your shower valve, and it is the number one cause of the boiler breakdowns, blocked heat exchangers and failing unvented cylinders we see across RH10 and RH11.

Where it does the damage depends on the system you have.

• Combi boilers push fresh mains water through a small plate heat exchanger every time a hot tap runs. That plate scales first. The early signs are hot water that swings between hot and cold, runs lukewarm at full flow, or only gets properly hot when you turn the tap down.
• Unvented cylinders collect scale on the heating coil and the immersion element. The cylinder takes longer and longer to reheat, and eventually the element fails.
• Older open-vented systems, with a feed and expansion tank in the loft, draw fresh hard water into the heating circuit whenever the system loses any. That is where scale on the main heat exchanger, and the kettling that comes with it, usually starts.

A sealed heating circuit that is not losing water keeps the same water for years, so scale on the heating side stays limited. If you are topping up the boiler pressure every few weeks, each top-up brings in another dose of hard water, and the real problem is a leak that needs finding.

What actually helps in a Crawley home: an inline scale reducer or a water softener on the incoming main, an annual boiler service that checks the hot water side as well as the burner, and a powerflush where scale and sludge have already settled in the radiators. If you fit a softener, keep one unsoftened tap in the kitchen for drinking.

How Crawley’s older and newer neighbourhoods fail differently

The split between the original new town and the later estates decides what goes wrong, so it is the first thing we think about when you give us your address.

West Green, Northgate, Southgate and Langley Green

The copper laid in these neighbourhoods when the new town was built is thin in places now. Pinhole leaks appear under floors and in airing cupboards, and old joints that have been disturbed once too often start to weep. Some houses still have a length of lead pipe on the incoming supply, which restricts flow and is worth replacing whatever else you are doing.

Many of these homes also still run gravity-fed hot water: a cold tank in the loft, a copper cylinder in the airing cupboard and weak pressure upstairs. We modernise these regularly, to a combi or an unvented cylinder, and we check the incoming supply first, because a new boiler cannot deliver more water than the pipe feeding it. Our Ifield page covers Langley Green and Gossops Green in more detail, and our Three Bridges page covers the Victorian streets by the station that predate the new town.

Maidenbower, Bewbush, Pound Hill and Kilnwood Vale

The estates from the 1980s onward, including Maidenbower, Bewbush and the later parts of Pound Hill, were largely built with plastic push-fit pipe, and the faults are different. A push-fit joint that was never pushed fully home can weep under a floor for years before a stain on the ceiling below gives it away. Pipes behind plasterboard are also easy to catch with a drill or a screw when you put up shelves.

Kilnwood Vale, on the western edge of town, and the newest homes often have an unvented cylinder, and some newer builds use narrow microbore pipe. Both work well, but microbore blocks sooner if sludge is allowed to build and the cylinder scales up in Crawley’s water, so annual servicing matters more on a newer Crawley house than people expect. Manufacturers also expect an unvented cylinder to be serviced every year, including its safety valves, and that work should be done by a G3 qualified engineer, which we are.

Boiler installation in Crawley

Plenty of Crawley homes are two or three bedrooms with one bathroom, and for those a combi is usually the right choice. It frees up the loft and the airing cupboard in one go. Popular choices here include the Worcester Bosch 2000, Vaillant ecoTEC and Ideal Logic ranges, and we size the boiler to the house rather than to the biggest number on the box.

A combi is not automatically right, though. If two showers run at the same time, or the incoming main is still an old narrow or lead pipe, a system boiler with an unvented cylinder may serve you better. We measure flow and pressure at the survey, then give you one fixed price covering the boiler, the flue, the system clean, a magnetic filter and taking the old one away. A gravity-fed conversion in the older neighbourhoods usually takes two to three days, because the tanks and cylinder come out as well. On selected boilers the guarantee runs up to 18 years, subject to manufacturer terms, correct system protection and annual servicing. More on boiler installation and choosing the right boiler.

Boiler repair in Crawley

The repairs we do in Crawley follow the housing. In the older neighbourhoods it is usually sludge: ageing steel radiators shed magnetite that blocks pumps, diverter valves and heat exchangers, and the first sign is radiators cold at the bottom. On the newer estates it is more often scale on a combi’s hot water side, or pressure loss from a small leak somewhere under a floor.

We diagnose the actual component rather than swapping parts on the strength of an error code, and we will show you the numbers if a boiler has reached the point where another repair is money wasted. See boiler repairs, or our guide to emergency boiler repair in Crawley for the checks worth doing before you call.

Emergency plumber in Crawley

A Crawley emergency usually looks like one of three things: a pinhole or failed joint on old copper spraying under a floor in one of the original neighbourhoods, a push-fit joint letting go on a newer estate, or no hot water because a scaled combi has finally given up.

Call first. We will talk you through turning off the stopcock and isolating the boiler while we get to you, and you will know the price before any work starts. We are open seven days a week, with no weekend premium. If water is already coming through a ceiling, our guide to a leak through the ceiling covers what to do right now. More on our emergency plumber service.

Powerflush in Crawley

A Crawley heating system can carry two kinds of debris at once. Black magnetite sludge comes from steel radiators corroding from the inside, and limescale builds wherever the circuit has been topped up with hard water over the years. Together they settle in the bottom of radiators and in the boiler’s heat exchanger.

We are Adey trained and flush with MagnaCleanse, one radiator at a time, then finish with inhibitor. A powerflush is from £400, typically £400 to £780 for an average three-bedroom home, depending on the number of radiators and the state of the water. On a newer house with microbore pipe we will tell you honestly what a flush can achieve before you book. See powerflush and radiators cold at the bottom.

Gas safety certificates for Crawley landlords

We carry out CP12 gas safety checks across RH10 and RH11 and just up the road in Horley and around Gatwick, so a portfolio split between the new town and the airport side is one booking with one engineer. The certificate is issued the same day, we arrange access with tenants directly, we send reminders before each one expires, and we discount portfolios. Booking the CP12 with the annual boiler service costs less than two separate visits, and in a hard water town it means the boiler gets serviced every year rather than only checked for safety. More on gas safety certificates.

Bathrooms, showers and taps in Crawley

Before you choose a shower for a Crawley bathroom, we measure the flow at the tap. A rain head that looks good in a showroom needs more flow than many older supplies here can deliver, a gravity-fed system needs a pump to run it, and an unvented cylinder usually runs it without trouble. Knowing which one you have saves you returning a shower you cannot use.

Hard water also shortens the life of tap cartridges, thermostatic shower valves and shower heads. A dripping tap in Crawley is as likely to be a scaled cartridge as a worn washer. For new bathrooms we recommend valves with replaceable cartridges and fit isolation valves, so the parts that scale can be changed later without draining the house. See bathroom installation and plumbing repairs.

Heat pumps in Crawley

Heat pumps are becoming a real option in Crawley, and the housing decides how easy the switch is. Newer, better insulated homes, such as those at Kilnwood Vale and on the later estates, are the simplest to convert. A 1950s or 1960s house in the original neighbourhoods can work well too, but it usually needs larger radiators and better insulation first, because a heat pump runs at a much lower flow temperature than a gas boiler.

We hold the LCL Level 3 heat pump qualification, and we install and repair air source systems including Mitsubishi, Daikin, Vaillant and Samsung units. See heat pumps and our heat pump guide.