If your gas geyser has stopped working, don't replace it until you've had it properly diagnosed. GasCraft George repairs gas geysers of every brand across George and the Garden Route, with same-day response where possible. we are a registered LP gas installer, and he comes back until the unit is working.
Most calls we take describe one of six things: it won't ignite, it clicks but won't light, the water goes hot then cold, it cuts out mid-shower, there's no hot water in the morning, or the display is flashing an error code. All six are repairable in the majority of cases. Here is what usually sits behind each one.
You open the hot tap and nothing happens — no click, no flame, no hot water. On battery units this is very often flat batteries or a corroded battery housing after coastal damp. On mains units it can be a tripped plug point, an empty or frozen-up cylinder, or a gas regulator that has failed. We check the simple causes first before touching the board.
The igniter is firing but the burner is not catching. That usually points at gas getting to the unit — an empty cylinder, a partially closed valve, a regulator that has locked out, or air in the line after a cylinder change. It can also be a dirty burner or a blocked injector, which is common on units that have never been serviced.
The most common complaint we get in George. It is usually flow-related: the geyser needs a minimum water flow to keep firing, and mixer taps, a shower head with a restrictor, or a pressure drop when another tap opens can push it below that point. Dirt in the flow sensor or spinner does the same thing.
The unit runs for a few minutes and then dies. Causes include a thermal cut-out doing its job because of poor ventilation, wind blowing across an outdoor unit that has no cover, gas pressure dropping as the cylinder runs low on a cold morning, or a flow sensor that is sticking.
Cold mornings and a nearly empty cylinder are a bad combination — LPG pressure drops as the cylinder cools, so the geyser struggles to fire until later in the day. Solar homes see a version of this too, where lukewarm feed water confuses a unit that was never set up to run inline.
Paloma Error 11 and its equivalents on other brands tell you the unit tried to light and gave up. The code narrows the search, but it is not the diagnosis on its own — we still check gas supply, water flow and the sensing side before deciding what to replace.
If your symptom isn't on this list, it is still worth a phone call — read through common gas geyser problems or just tell us what the unit is doing and we'll tell you what it usually means.
We find the fault before we replace anything. Swapping parts until the geyser works is expensive for you and tells nobody why it failed, so our team works through the system in order: gas supply, water flow, ignition, then the control side. Most faults are found in the first two.
A full walkthrough of the process is on our gas geyser fault diagnosis page.
Repair, in most cases. A gas geyser is a serviceable appliance, and the parts that commonly fail — sensors, solenoids, electrodes, regulators, battery housings — are all replaceable. Replacement only makes sense when the body or heat exchanger is corroded through, when parts for the model no longer exist, or when the unit was always too small for the house.
If the old unit really is finished — or you're moving off a burst electric geyser — we match a new gas geyser to your plumbing, install it and issue the COC.
See replacement optionsThe premium whole-house unit we fit most often in larger George homes and solar setups. From around R22,000 installed, and it needs a weatherproof plug point.
See the Paloma 20LAll five models we supply and install, what's included in the price, and how quickly we can get the job booked in George and the Garden Route.
See installationsBecause we are the gas geyser hospital of George — this is what we do all day, not a sideline to general plumbing. we are a registered domestic LPG installer, he answers the phone himself, and he comes back until the geyser is right. Our 4.9★ Google rating is built on exactly those three things.
“Returned several times until it worked properly”
“Responded on the same day”
“Quick response on quotation”
“Back the next day to sort everything”
Several of our customers came to us after someone else didn't pitch or couldn't solve the fault. We keep the job open until the hot water is reliable, and if a second visit is needed to prove the fix under real use, we make it. More about GasCraft George and how the business runs is on our about page.
It depends on what is actually wrong. A call-out and diagnosis is charged as a set fee, and from there most common repairs — a cleaned or replaced flow sensor, a new solenoid, a battery housing, a gas regulator, a service on a dirty burner — sit well under the cost of a new unit. we give you the price before he does the work, so you decide whether to go ahead. If parts have to be ordered in, we tell you what they cost and how long they take.
Tell us your suburb and what the geyser is doing — not clicking, hot then cold, cutting out — and we'll get to you the same day where we can. Diagnosis first, honest recommendation second, and a price before any work starts. Prefer to type it out? Send us a message through the contact page.