Plumber in Horsham, West Sussex

Hard water in Horsham

Horsham has some of the hardest water in West Sussex, often measured between 240 and 314 parts per million. In Horsham homes it shows up in three places more than anywhere else: electric shower elements that burn out long before they should, unvented cylinders with heavily scaled coils and immersion heaters, and combi boilers whose hot water side furs up until the temperature swings every time a tap runs.

Prevention costs far less than the repairs: a scale reducer or water softener on the incoming main, an annual boiler service that looks at the hot water side as well as the burner, and a scaled immersion element replaced before it burns out. If you have a Megaflo or a similar unvented cylinder, its annual service needs a G3 qualified engineer, which we are, and our Megaflo timer guide explains the controls.

Lead, iron and low pressure in Horsham’s period homes

The older streets around the town centre hold Tudor buildings as well as Victorian and Edwardian terraces, and low pressure in these houses is usually a pipe problem rather than a supply problem. Old lead supply pipes and early iron pipework narrow from the inside as scale and corrosion build up over decades, until the kitchen tap drops to a trickle whenever the washing machine fills.

We trace the run from the boundary to the stopcock and beyond, replace the lead or iron, and then look again at the hot water. A new, larger supply pipe can make mains pressure hot water realistic in a house where it was not before. The same old joints can leak under suspended timber floors for months before anything shows, so we trace those with leak detection equipment before lifting boards. Solid walls in these houses also weaken wireless thermostat signals, which our Hive signal booster guide covers.

Converting a gravity-fed house near the Carfax

Changing a period Horsham house from a loft tank to a combi or an unvented cylinder is more than a boiler swap. The tanks and old cylinder come out, the incoming main is checked and often upsized, and the heating circuit is cleaned before the new boiler goes on, because a century-old system altered by many hands usually carries sludge. Expect two to three days, a fixed price agreed before we start, and a straight answer on which system suits your house. See boiler installation.

Unvented cylinders in Southwater and Broadbridge Heath

Newer homes in Southwater and the recent development around Broadbridge Heath run sealed systems, with either a combi or a mains pressure unvented cylinder. The pressure is excellent. The catch is that these systems are sensitive to Horsham’s hard water. The cylinder coil, the immersion and the relief valves all collect scale, and a relief valve that has started dripping into the tundish is a job for an engineer, not something to live with. Manufacturers expect an unvented cylinder to be serviced every year, and our guide to unvented cylinders explains how these systems work.