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Available: Emergency Plumber, 7 Days a Week
Guaranteed Same Day Service: 4943 9000
Available: Emergency Plumber, 7 Days a Week
Guaranteed Same Day Service: 4943 9000
If your hot water has stopped working, check the power or gas supply first. On an electric system that means looking for a tripped circuit breaker or a hot water switch at the switchboard. On a gas system it means the pilot light or the gas supply itself. If the supply is fine, the fault is usually a failed heating element, a broken thermostat or a tempering valve, and each of those needs a licensed plumber.
Below is the same order a plumber works through when they arrive. Most of it you can check yourself in about ten minutes. The rest tells you what you are dealing with before you pick up the phone.
Before you diagnose anything, rule these three out.
You can smell gas. Do not touch light switches, do not use your phone near the unit, open doors and windows, and get everyone outside. Then call your gas supplier or 000. Once you are clear of the property, call Enviromate on 4943 9000
The water is scalding. If water is coming out dangerously hot, turn the hot water system off at the switchboard or the gas isolation valve and stop using the hot taps. A system delivering water hotter than it should usually means a failed thermostat or tempering valve, and it can cause serious burns.
Water is pouring out of the unit or the tank has burst. Turn off the water supply at the isolation valve near the unit, or at the mains if you cannot find it, then call an emergency plumber.
None of these are diagnosis problems. They are stop-and-call problems.
This is the single most common cause of an electric system going cold, and it costs nothing to rule out.
Go to your switchboard and look for a circuit breaker sitting in the middle or the off position. There is often a separate switch labelled “hot water” or “HWS”. Someone may have knocked it, or it may have tripped on its own.
If a breaker has tripped, switch it fully off and then back on. Give the system a few hours and verify again. If it trips straight back, or trips again the next day, stop there. A breaker that keeps tripping means an electrical fault, and that is an electrician’s job, not yours.
This one catches people out constantly, and most guides skip it.
A controlled load tariff , often called off-peak, is an electricity plan where your hot water only heats during set hours, usually overnight. If your household used the whole tank during the day, the system will not start reheating until its next heating window opens. Nothing is broken. You are just waiting.
You can check whether you are on one by looking at your electricity bill for a separate hot water or controlled load line item. If you are, and you ran out in the evening, the water should be hot again by morning.
If your system is on a controlled load and it is still cold the following morning, then you have a genuine fault and the rest of this list applies.
Look for the tap or lever on the cold water pipe running into the unit. It should be fully open. If it has been closed, perhaps during other plumbing work, the tank cannot refill.
This is also the check to make if you have no water at all coming from your hot taps while the cold taps run normally. That symptom points to the water supply into the unit rather than the heating itself.
If your water is lukewarm rather than cold, the thermostat is a likely culprit. Australian storage systems are designed to hold water at a set minimum temperature, with a tempering valve limiting what actually reaches your bathroom taps.
Many electric units also have a high-temperature cut-out, a red reset button behind a cover panel, which trips as a safety measure. Resetting it involves removing a cover on a live electrical appliance, so this is not a homeowner job. If you suspect the cut-out has tripped, note it down and mention it when you call. It tells the plumber a lot.
Look for the manufacture date on the compliance plate on the side of the unit.
Storage hot water systems have a finite service life, and the type matters. If your unit is out of warranty and you have already paid for one or two repairs, the sensible conversation is about replacement rather than another repair. We cover that in how long hot water systems last.
If your hot water works but takes longer than you expect, that may not be a fault at all. See how long a hot water system takes to heat up.
Once you know the symptom, the system type narrows it further.
Faulty heating element. Many electric storage systems have two elements, at the top and bottom of the tank. If one fails you get lukewarm water rather than none at all, which is why “the water is warm but never hot” so often turns out to be an element. Elements can be replaced individually, so a failed element does not automatically mean a new system.
Faulty thermostat. The thermostat tells the elements when to heat. When it fails, the system either stops heating or overheats.
Sediment build-up. Minerals settle on the tank floor over time, insulating the element from the water and reducing how much hot water you actually get. Harder water areas see this sooner. Rumbling noises from the tank are the usual giveaway.
Pilot light out. The pilot flame has to stay lit for the burner to fire. Pilot lights often go out as a safety response to another problem rather than at random. You can usually relight it yourself using the instructions printed on the unit, but only if there is no smell of gas and it has not gone out repeatedly. If it will not stay lit, the thermocouple has likely failed. A thermocouple is the sensor that confirms to the system that the pilot is burning, and it shuts the gas off when it cannot detect a flame.
Gas valve failure. If the gas control valve is faulty the burner will not light. A failing valve can also lead to a gas leak, so treat it as urgent and call a licensed gasfitter.
Gas leak. A leak in the line or connections can stop the system igniting and is a serious safety hazard. Always treat it as an emergency. Call Enviromate on 4943 9000
Continuous flow units. A continuous flow system heats water on demand instead of storing it, so it needs both gas and electricity to fire. Check the power point it is plugged into is switched on. Mineral scale in the inlet water filter is another common cause of a continuous flow unit refusing to start.
Collector problems. Dirty or damaged collector panels, or a long run of overcast weather, limit how much water the system can heat. In normal operation the booster takes over.
Booster failure. When there is not enough sun, an electric or gas booster should cut in. If the booster has failed you will notice it first on a cloudy week, because the solar side has been masking the problem.
Freezing or overheating. Extreme weather can damage pipework or push water temperatures too high in a system without adequate protection. If water is coming out dangerously hot, turn the supply off and call a plumber straight away.
Cold outdoor conditions. Heat pumps draw warmth from the surrounding air. In very cold weather a lower-quality unit can struggle or shut down.
Temperature sensor failure. A failed sensor makes the system misread the water temperature, giving you either no hot water or water that is too hot.
Compressor or fan faults. If the compressor or fan stops, the system cannot draw in heat and the water stays cold. These faults are often electrical.
Error codes. Most heat pumps display a fault code. Write it down before you call. It will usually tell the plumber exactly what has failed.
The line here is not about confidence. It is about law and safety.
You can: check your switchboard, check your electricity tariff, check the isolation valve, read the compliance plate, note down an error code, and relight a gas pilot light using the manufacturer’s instructions when there is no smell of gas.
You cannot: work on gas components, open up electrical panels, replace heating elements or thermostats, or touch the tempering valve. In New South Wales, gas and electrical work on a hot water system must be carried out by an appropriately licensed tradesperson.
Doing it yourself is not just risky. On most systems it also voids the warranty and can invalidate an insurance claim if something goes wrong later.
Most hot water faults are inconvenient rather than dangerous, and can wait for a normal appointment. These cannot:
Gas leaks , which can cause fires or explosions
Burst tanks or pipes , which cause flooding and water damage fast Scalding water , which is a burns risk to anyone using the taps Repeated circuit breaker trips , which indicate an electrical fault
If any of those apply, call emergency plumbing services immediately. Enviromate runs a GPS-tracked fleet seven days a week, so we can send whoever is closest to you. Call 4943 9000
Repair usually makes sense when the system is within its expected life, the fault is a single component such as an element, thermostat or thermocouple, and it is the first significant repair.
Replacement usually makes more sense when the tank itself is leaking or corroded, when you are looking at a second or third repair on an out-of-warranty unit, or when the system was never the right size for the household. A licensed plumber should give you both numbers so you can compare them, not just quote the repair.
If you are replacing, it is worth asking what a more efficient system would cost to run. Heat pump, solar and continuous flow systems all use less energy than an older electric storage unit, and the difference shows up on every bill for the next decade. See our hot water repairs and replacements for what is involved either way.
If you have worked through the checks above and your hot water still is not working, it is time for a licensed plumber.
Enviromate has more than 20 local plumbers working across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter Valley and Port Stephens, seven days a week. You will get an all-inclusive quote before any work starts, so there are no surprises when the job is done. And you do not need to have worked out what is wrong for us. That is our job.
Call 4943 9000 or contact your local plumber to book.
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