No Heating or Hot Water in Edinburgh? Emergency Help
A cold house at 6am tells you exactly one thing: something in the chain from gas meter to radiator has failed. Our Edinburgh emergency line is answered around the clock, and while an engineer travels we'll talk you through the safe checks that occasionally fix it before they arrive.
Safe checks while help is on the way
Five checks, none requiring tools: the room stat and timer are actually asking for heat; the gas supply is live (test the hob); the meter isn't out of credit or showing an error; the boiler pressure sits in the green zone — top up via the filling loop if it's dropped below 1 bar; and the external condensate pipe isn't frozen solid, which a jug of warm water cures. Press reset once after any fix. Repeated resetting against an unknown fault isn't a repair, it's a delay — that's the point to hand over.
Heating but no hot water — or the reverse
Split symptoms shorten diagnosis. Combi owners in Edinburgh with heating but no hot water are usually looking at a stuck diverter or scale-blocked plate exchanger; hot water but no heating flips the same suspects. Cylinder systems add their own suspects — zone valves, pumps, cylinder thermostats. Tell us which half works and the engineer arrives with the right parts shortlist.
Why boilers fail in cold snaps
Cold weather is a stress test. Marginal pumps, tired expansion vessels and hesitant igniters all pass it in September and fail it in December. Add the condensate-freeze lockouts that arrive with the first hard frost — particularly on pipes run externally without lagging, common across Marchmont and Corstorphine — and the seasonal spike explains itself. A pre-winter service catches most of it early; the emergency line catches the rest.
Emergency pricing, straight
Emergency attendance in Edinburgh runs from £125 covering call-out and the first hour, quoted on the phone before dispatch. Parts are priced before fitting. If your situation can safely wait for a next-day standard slot at a lower rate — heating down but hot water working in mild weather, say — we'll tell you that instead of dispatching an emergency you don't need.
Coverage for no heating or hot water runs right across Edinburgh — Marchmont, Corstorphine and Craigmillar included — plus the surrounding Midlothian & the Lothians area. Jobs route by proximity rather than by a call centre's guess at the map, which is why local engineers arrive with the right parts more often than not.
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Frequently asked questions
I can smell gas — what do I do?
Don't use the form and don't wait for us: open windows, don't operate electrical switches, get everyone out, and call the National Gas Emergency line free on 0800 111 999 immediately. Once the property is made safe, we can arrange the follow-up repair.
My boiler pressure is at zero — is that the fault?
Very likely part of it. Below about 0.5 bar most boilers lock out. Top up to 1–1.5 bar via the filling loop and press reset. If pressure falls again within hours or days there's a leak or a failed component, and that needs an engineer — repeated topping-up is a symptom, not a fix.
Is a frozen condensate pipe really that common?
In the first hard frost, it's the single most common cause of boiler lockout in the UK. The white plastic pipe running outside freezes, the boiler senses the blockage and shuts down. Warm — not boiling — water over the frozen section, then reset, restores most of them. Lagging the pipe stops the repeat.
Do you prioritise households with children or elderly residents?
Yes. Tell us when you call — no-heat triage runs on severity and vulnerability, and households with young children, elderly or medically vulnerable residents move up the rota at no premium.