Geyser repairs, Vanderbijlpark and the Vaal.

Six things a geyser does before it dies.

You don't need to know which part failed. You just need to tell me what it's doing. These are the six I hear most, and what each one usually means.

1. Stone cold, no hot water at all.

   Usually a burnt-out element, or the thermostat has failed open. Sometimes the isolator switch outside.

2. Warm, but never hot.

   Usually the thermostat. It is switching off too early, or it has drifted.

3. Hot, then cold again fast.

   Half the element gone, or a thermostat that keeps cutting out. Replacing both in one visit is cheaper than two callouts.

4. Popping or crackling in the roof.

   Scale on the element boiling water inside the deposits. The element is on its way out.

5. The earth leakage trips, mostly morning and night.

   Classic cracked element. The geyser heats, water reaches the live part, and the earth leakage does its job.

   This one: WhatsApp me
6. The electricity bill jumped and nothing else changed.

   An element covered in scale runs for hours to do a job that used to take one. A timer caps the damage.

Before you do anything else, switch the geyser isolator off at the wall if the earth leakage is tripping. That is the small switch, usually in the passage or outside near the geyser. If the tripping stops with the geyser off, we already know a lot.

Elements last about three to five years. In this water, sometimes less. So if yours is five years old and cold, the answer is usually simple and usually cheap.

Elements fail when you need them.

Geyser work is not spread evenly through the year. It piles up in winter, and it is not bad luck.

In a Vaal winter your incoming water is cold. The element runs far longer to reach the same temperature. A tired element that coped in February gives up in June. So does a thermostat that had been drifting for a year.

You also use more hot water. Longer showers, more baths, more washing. The geyser cycles more often, and every cycle is another chance for a cracked element to leak enough current to trip your earth leakage.

Two practical things. First, if your element is over five years old, do it in autumn rather than in a cold July queue. Second, if you're already having your DB board looked at, ask me to test the geyser circuit while I am already there, because that costs almost nothing extra.

A timer stops the geyser reheating water all night that nobody uses. It won't halve your bill, and I won't pretend it will. For most families it pays for itself over a season.

On insurance: policies differ and nobody can promise you a payout. What holds generally is that insurers want work done by registered people, and they commonly ask for a valid Certificate of Compliance and its test report when they assess electrical or fire damage. Doing geyser work yourself voids both your insurance and the unit's warranty. That is the whole reason the paperwork exists.

On the certificate itself: it is issued only after a physical inspection and test, and the test report with the readings comes with it. Who signs it is set out in the footer, and you are welcome to phone the Department of Employment and Labour on 051 505 6371 and check the number.