Repaired where a repair is honest and replaced where it is not, with the pipework between the tank and the taps checked before anybody sells you a new tank.
Online Now!·--:--
The most frustrating hot water call we take is the one where somebody has already spent the money. New unit, professionally installed, and the exact same complaint the following week.
The explanation is nearly always the same. In housing of this age the appliance and the pipework are two separate things with two separate histories. A changeover replaces the appliance. The distribution pipework running from it to every tap in the house stays exactly where it was, and in an older property it is frequently original.
So it matters enormously what the complaint actually was. If the unit was not producing hot water, replacing it was the right call. If the complaint was about what arrives at the tap, discoloured, slow, or weaker than the cold beside it, then the problem was between the tank and the tap and a new tank was never going to touch it.
The check is not complicated. If the cold at a given tap behaves normally and the hot does not, the difference is on the hot side. That is worth establishing before an order goes in rather than after a unit is installed and the household is disappointed.
Then the unit was not the fault. Get the pipework between the tank and that tap looked at before anybody suggests another unit.
A changeover replaces one of them and leaves the other exactly where it was. The new unit is new. The pipe carrying its water to your taps is whatever age the house is.
In housing of this era the distribution is frequently original, and original means jointed copper or galvanised installed a long time before the unit that now feeds it.
Which is why a brand new system can deliver disappointing water, and why the complaint that follows a changeover is so often not about the changeover.
If the cold is normal and the hot is not, the difference is on the hot side. That is a two-minute test at a basin and it splits the problem in half.
Poor flow on both sides at the same tap points at the supply to the property or at that fitting. Poor flow on hot only points at the hot distribution or the unit.
Do it at more than one tap. A single bad tap is a tap. Every hot tap in the house is a system.
Points at the pipework rather than at the cylinder that has just been removed. A new tank cannot be the source of rust that is still arriving a month later.
In older galvanised distribution that is exactly what happens, and it is disappointing precisely because somebody has just spent money.
It is worth diagnosing before the changeover rather than afterwards, which is why we ask about the pipework when quoting a unit.
Corrosion builds on the inside wall and the bore reduces over decades. From outside the pipe looks exactly the same as the day it was installed.
So the flow gets worse gradually, over years, and nobody notices a change because there was never a moment when it changed.
A section cut out tells you immediately, and it is the only test that is genuinely definitive on an old line.
It is more disruptive than a changeover, because it means getting at pipe inside walls, under floors or in a roof space, and in a house with original finishes that matters.
It is also sometimes the only thing that will actually fix the complaint, and saying so is more useful than selling a second new unit.
It can frequently be done in stages, worst run first, which spreads both the cost and the disruption.
Soft supply means nothing accumulates the way it does in cities with hard water. The maintenance advice you find online for descaling a tank is describing a different problem.
Here the mechanism is the steel corroding, and the anode is the consumable component fitted specifically to be eaten first.
Nobody checks one on their own initiative because there is nothing to see from the outside, which is why so many tanks end early.
These houses are large and they have been added to, so the run from the unit to the furthest bathroom can be considerable. The water standing in that run has to be pushed out before hot arrives.
That is pipe length rather than a failing heater. Insulating the pipe helps at the margins and recirculation genuinely solves it by keeping the run warm.
The exception is a wait that has got noticeably longer than it used to be, because a change has a cause and narrowing pipe is one of them.
A tank in a roof space, an internal cupboard or a tight side passage narrows the options, and on housing of this age all three are common. Continuous flow needs an external wall and a flue path. A heat pump needs airflow and clearance.
None of that rules out changing systems. It means working it out before ordering, because the cheapest unit that will not fit where the old one was is not cheap.
Getting the old one out of an internal cupboard in a period house is a real part of the job rather than an afterthought.
A tempering valve limits the temperature delivered to bathroom outlets and it is required. Set too low, or failing, it produces water that is never quite hot enough anywhere.
That gets read as an undersized or faulty system and it is neither. It is a small part with a small price.
Worth ruling out first on any complaint about temperature, because it is both the likeliest explanation and the cheapest.
Close the water at the unit, turn off its electricity or gas, and ring. Those three things, in that order, and then the replacement can be arranged at a sensible pace.
Water coming from the cylinder body is the end of that unit. The steel has gone and no repair returns it.
The reason for speed is not the tank, which is already finished. It is the floor, the wall and anything below it.
If the diagnosis really is the unit, then the choice is between five types. Here is what separates them in practice rather than in a brochure.
| Type | How it works | Expected span | What it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric storage | A submerged element warms a stored volume | About 8 to 12 years | A position and a circuit, and very little else |
| Gas storage | A burner beneath keeps the volume hot | About 8 to 12 years | Gas connected and flue clearances met |
| Continuous flow | Heated in transit, nothing stored | About 15 to 20 years | Gas, and a compliant wall position |
| Heat pump | Ambient warmth moved into the tank | About 10 to 15 years | Outdoor space with genuine airflow |
| Solar with boost | Roof collectors with an element for poor weather | About 15 to 20 years | Roof area with a workable orientation |
A starting point rather than a rule. Storage is judged on how much can be drawn before it empties, so the number that counts is how many people want hot water inside one hour.
| Occupants | Electric storage | Gas storage | Continuous flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| One or two | 125 to 160 L | 90 to 135 L | 16 L/min |
| Three to four | 250 to 315 L | 135 to 170 L | 20 L/min |
| Five or more | 315 to 400 L | 170 L or twin | 26 L/min |
| Two bathrooms at once | Size up a step | Size up a step | 26 L/min |
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Including whether the fault is the unit or the pipework, and it comes off the work.
The most common electric fault, and the reason a cold tank is not automatically a dead one.
Cheap insurance on a cylinder with years left in it.
Unit, install and removal of the old one, in one figure.
On the run, and only where that is genuinely where the fault is.
Electric storage through a good deal of the older housing here, gas where a property is connected for it, and continuous flow wherever a cylinder had to come off the floor. These are the makes involved.
We service and replace these systems as an independent licensed plumber. We are not an agent for, or endorsed by, any of these manufacturers.
No hot water at all is one problem. Something wrong with the hot water that does arrive is a different one entirely.
Including comparing the hot to the cold at the same outlet, which frequently ends the diagnosis on the spot.
Anode, element or thermostat where that solves it, and a changeover only where the unit is genuinely the fault.
Which on this suburb is the point of the exercise: the water at the outlet, not the appliance in the yard.
A licensed plumber answers directly. Repairs are usually same-day and plenty of changeovers are too.
Call 1300 381 569Because in older housing the unit and the pipework are two different ages. A changeover replaces the appliance. It does not replace the distribution pipework running from it to the taps, and in a house of this vintage that pipework is frequently original. If the complaint was about what arrives at the tap, replacing the thing that heats the water was never going to change it.
Discoloured hot water that persists after a new unit goes in. Hot water that takes a long time to arrive at one particular outlet. Flow at one hot tap that is noticeably worse than the cold beside it. All of those are about what happens between the tank and the tap.
By checking the pipework rather than only the appliance. If the cold at the same tap behaves normally and the hot does not, the difference is on the hot side and the unit is not automatically the suspect. It is a straightforward thing to establish and it is worth establishing before an order goes in.
Soft water is why they fail this particular way. In hard-water places a tank silts up with scale. Sydney's is not like that, so the sacrificial anode is consumed protecting the steel and the tank starts corroding once it is gone, or an element burns out. Both are frequently repairs.
On a unit you plan to keep, it is the best value job in this trade. It costs a fraction of the tank it protects and it is the only maintenance that genuinely adds years.
Replace. Water from the body of the cylinder means the steel has gone and there is no patch for that. Shut it off and ring, because the damage compounds daily.
Diagnosis is $120 to $250 and comes off the repair. An element or thermostat is $250 to $550. An anode is $300 to $600. A storage replacement is $1,400 to $2,800. Replacing a run of hot water distribution pipework is quoted on the run.
Tell us whether there is no hot water at all, or whether there is something wrong with the hot water you are getting. Those are two different jobs and only one of them is the tank.
Diagnosed properly first, so nobody buys a unit that was never the problem.
Online Now!·--:--
