Getting your heating ready for winter: 8 checks for Leeds homes

Advice · Central heating

There’s a moment every autumn when the whole of Leeds seems to turn the heating on at once. The first properly cold morning arrives, everyone reaches for the thermostat, and a few thousand boilers that have been sat doing nothing since April are suddenly asked to work flat out. It’s no surprise that’s when our phones get busiest. The good news is that most of those breakdowns can be spotted early. Here are the eight checks I’d do in my own house.

1. Put the heating on now, not when it’s freezing

This is the simplest tip, and the one people ignore most. On a mild afternoon, turn the heating up and let it run for half an hour. Go round and feel every radiator. Listen to the boiler.

If something’s wrong, you find out while you’ve still got time to get it fixed and it isn’t minus two outside. Trust me, it’s much easier to get an engineer out in October than on the first frosty Monday in December.

2. Check the boiler pressure

Most combi boilers have a little pressure gauge on the front. With the heating off and cold, it should usually sit somewhere around 1 to 1.5 bar. Below 1 and it may need topping up. If it keeps dropping, there’s likely a leak somewhere in the system, and our guide to a boiler losing pressure walks you through what you can safely check yourself.

3. Bleed radiators that are cold at the top

Air sneaks into the system over summer and rises to the top of radiators. With the heating off and the radiators cool, open the bleed valve at the top corner with a radiator key (an old tea towel underneath saves the carpet). You’ll hear a hiss. Close it the moment water appears, then check your boiler pressure again, because bleeding can make it drop.

4. Look for radiators cold at the bottom

This is a different problem altogether. A radiator that’s warm at the top but cold at the bottom usually has sludge in it, a black sediment that builds up over the years. Bleeding won’t help. A system clean or power flush, with a magnetic filter fitted afterwards, normally sorts it. See our radiator guide for more.

5. Check the thermostat and timer

Swap the batteries in any wireless thermostat. Check the clock on your timer is right, especially after the clocks go back at the end of October, otherwise your heating will come on an hour early or an hour late all winter. And set it to warm the house up before you get out of bed, not when you do.

6. Wrap up the condensate pipe

Most modern boilers have a thin plastic pipe that carries waste water out to a drain. If yours runs outside, it can freeze solid in a hard frost and stop the boiler dead. It’s one of the most common winter call-outs we get. A few pounds’ worth of pipe insulation from the DIY shop can stop it happening. We’ve written a whole guide on frozen condensate pipes if it ever catches you out.

Five minutes with a bit of pipe lagging in October can save you a freezing morning in January.

7. Test your carbon monoxide alarm

Press the test button. Check the date on the back, because CO alarms don’t last forever. If you have a gas boiler, gas fire or gas cooker and you don’t have a CO alarm, please get one this week. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour, and an alarm costs less than a takeaway.

8. Book your boiler service

If you only do one thing on this list, make it this. An annual service is the best way to avoid a winter breakdown, it keeps your boiler running efficiently, and most manufacturers need it to keep your warranty valid. Our boiler service is £78 including VAT, and we cover the whole of Leeds from our base in Stanningley.

When to stop and call us

Give us a ring if your boiler is showing a fault code, making banging or gurgling noises, keeps losing pressure, or just doesn’t seem right. And if you ever smell gas, don’t touch any switches: get out, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.

Stay warm, and give us a shout if anything isn’t right.
Steve, Director, White Rose Property Maintenance & Compliance Ltd

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