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    Plumbing & Electrical Problems — Solved

    Search every common plumbing, electrical, geyser, drain, solar, and DB-board issue we see across Sandton, Midrand and Northern Joburg. Each answer is written by a registered plumber and electrician.

    Geyser problems

    Geyser · Urgent

    Why is my geyser leaking?

    A leaking geyser comes from one of four places: the pressure-control or T&P safety valve, the cylinder itself, the element gasket, or the inlet and outlet fittings. Work out which one and you know whether this is a valve swap or a full replacement. Water dripping only from the overflow pipe outside is a valve. Water in the drip tray or staining the ceiling is the cylinder or the flange, and that one does not get better on its own.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why is the geyser overflow pipe dripping constantly?

    A small, occasional drip from the overflow is normal — water expands as it heats and the valve releases the extra pressure. A constant drip, especially overnight when municipal mains pressure peaks, means the pressure-control valve or the T&P valve has worn through. More than one drip per second is not thermal expansion, it is a failed valve wasting heated water onto your driveway and onto your bill.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why do I have no hot water?

    No hot water is almost always one of three things: a tripped breaker or earth leakage, a failed element, or a failed thermostat. Check them in that order — electrical supply first, then thermostat, then element. If the breaker holds when you reset it but the water stays cold after two hours, the element or thermostat has gone. If the breaker trips again immediately, stop resetting it; that is a water-into-electrics fault.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why does my geyser keep tripping the earth leakage?

    When a geyser trips the earth leakage, water has reached an electrical part — almost always a cracked element or a perished element gasket letting moisture into the terminal box. This is not a nuisance trip to be reset around. The earth leakage is doing exactly its job, and every reset re-energises a live component sitting in water. Switch the geyser breaker off and leave it off until it has been tested.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why is my geyser making popping or banging noises?

    Popping, knocking or kettling comes from scale on the element. Water trapped under the limescale flashes to steam and the bubble collapses with a pop. The noise itself is harmless, but it is a direct warning that the element is running hot behind an insulating layer and will fail within months if the cylinder is not drained and descaled. Noise only during the heating cycle is the giveaway.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why isn't my geyser water hot enough?

    Lukewarm water usually means the thermostat is set too low, has drifted out of calibration, or one element in a dual-element geyser has burnt out. Set the thermostat to 60–65°C and give it one full heating cycle. If it is still lukewarm after that, the thermostat or an element has failed. A geyser that used to be hot and is now only warm has almost always lost half its heating capacity.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why is the geyser pressure valve leaking?

    The pressure-control valve is a four to five year wear item, not a fault in the geyser. Once it drips constantly, the diaphragm has perished and the valve can no longer seat. Replacement is quick and inexpensive. What matters is doing it before the drip becomes a flow — a failed-open PCV can drain heated water continuously, and the element keeps paying to reheat what runs down the overflow.

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    Geyser · Routine

    How long should a geyser last in South Africa?

    A standard SANS-compliant South African geyser lasts eight to twelve years. In hard-water Johannesburg suburbs without regular descaling, expect six to ten. The cylinder rarely fails without warning: rising electricity use, longer reheat times, popping noises and a weeping valve all arrive first. Treat year eight as the point to start budgeting rather than the point to start worrying, and replace proactively rather than through a ceiling.

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    Geyser · Emergency

    Why is my geyser drip tray overflowing?

    Water in the drip tray itself means the cylinder, element flange or fittings are leaking inside the ceiling — not the safety overflow doing its job. The tray is the last line of defence and it is already full. This is a ceiling-collapse emergency measured in hours, not days. Isolate the power and the cold-water inlet immediately and get someone out the same day.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why does my hot water smell like rotten eggs?

    A sulphur or rotten-egg smell from hot water is hydrogen sulphide, produced when bacteria in the cylinder react with a magnesium sacrificial anode. It is unpleasant rather than dangerous, and it is fixable: replacing the magnesium anode with an aluminium-zinc type resolves it permanently. If only the hot tap smells and the cold is clean, the cylinder is confirmed as the source.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why isn't my solar geyser heating?

    A solar geyser that has stopped heating is usually a circulation pump failure, a degraded or empty glycol loop, a faulty controller sensor, or shaded and dirty panels. Start with what you can see: panel cleanliness, shading from a tree that has grown, and any fault code on the controller. If the backup element has also been disabled to save power during load shedding, you can be left with no heat at all from either source.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why isn't my heat pump heating water?

    Heat pumps stop heating when refrigerant pressure is low, the fan or compressor is not running, or the controller has lost its temperature sensor reading. Because a heat pump moves heat rather than generating it, a small refrigerant loss shows up as weak heating long before it shows up as no heating. Power tripping during load shedding and never being restored is the single most common cause of an apparently dead unit.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why does my gas geyser pilot light keep going out?

    A gas geyser pilot that will not stay lit is usually a failing thermocouple, a dirty pilot orifice, low gas supply, or wind back-draft down the flue. The thermocouple is the most common: it senses the pilot flame and shuts the gas valve when it cools, so as it ages it starts shutting the gas off while the pilot is still burning. Gas work needs a registered installer and a Gas COC.

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    Geyser · Routine

    How much does it cost to replace a geyser in Johannesburg?

    A compliant geyser replacement in Johannesburg ranges from about R7,500 to R14,000, and the spread is driven by size, brand, how accessible the geyser is, and how much compliance work the old installation is missing. A roof-space replacement costs more than a cupboard one for the same cylinder. The quote should be itemised, because the difference between a cheap and a fair price is usually the parts a cheap quote leaves out.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why does my geyser take so long to heat?

    Slow heating points to a partly failed element, heavy scaling, a geyser undersized for the household, or a thermostat cycling early. A 150L geyser should reach temperature in roughly one and a half to two and a half hours from cold. If yours has drifted past three hours and used to be quicker, you have lost element output — usually to scale, sometimes because one element of a dual-element cylinder has failed.

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    Geyser · Urgent

    Why is my geyser water scalding hot?

    Scalding water means the thermostat has failed closed or has been set too high. This is a genuine safety risk, not a comfort issue — at 65°C a child can be badly scalded in under five seconds, and above that the margin disappears entirely. If turning the thermostat down changes nothing within a heating cycle, the thermostat is stuck and the next thing to operate will be the T&P safety valve.

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    Geyser · Routine

    When do I need a Plumbing COC for a geyser?

    A Plumbing Certificate of Compliance is required when you sell a property in the City of Johannesburg, and any geyser installation or replacement should be accompanied by one confirming SANS 10254 compliance. It certifies that the drip tray, tray drain, vacuum breakers, safety valve, isolator and pipework all meet the standard. Insurers increasingly ask for it too, and a missing COC is a common reason a geyser claim is queried.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Why is my vacuum breaker leaking?

    Vacuum breakers sit on the hot and cold lines above the geyser and are required by SANS 10254. They stop the cylinder siphoning empty if mains pressure drops, which is what protects the element from dry-firing. They contain a perishable rubber diaphragm, so a weep after a few years is wear, not a defect. Replacement is quick and inexpensive, and skipping it risks the far more expensive failure it exists to prevent.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Should I install a 150L or 200L geyser?

    Size on simultaneous demand, not on bedrooms. As a working guide: 150L suits two adults, 200L suits three to four, and 250L suits four or more or any household that runs a bath and a shower at the same time. Oversizing costs you standing heat losses every day of the year; undersizing gives you cold showers every morning. The deciding question is how many hot outlets run at once at your busiest time.

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    Geyser · Routine

    Is it worth installing a heat pump instead of a geyser?

    A heat pump uses roughly a third of the electricity of an element geyser because it moves heat rather than making it. In Johannesburg, payback is typically three to five years for a household of four or more. It stacks up well where hot-water demand is high and consistent, and much less well for a couple in a small home, where the lower running cost takes far longer to repay the higher installation cost.

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