Gas, electric, heat pump and solar. And if you are waiting a long time for hot water at the front of the house, we will tell you honestly that a new tank will not change it.
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The most common hot water complaint in this suburb is not that there is none, it is that it takes an age to arrive at a tap up the front of the house.
That is a plumbing layout problem rather than an appliance problem. The bungalow grouped all the wet areas at the back, and the hot water unit went with them. So a front bathroom or a front kitchen tap is a long way from the source, and the water sitting in that pipe has gone cold since it was last used.
What you are waiting for is that cold water to clear. A brand new unit does exactly the same thing, which is why replacing one to fix a slow tap is the most common wasted purchase in this housing, and it is not a cheap mistake.
The genuine options are insulating the run, which helps somewhat, or a recirculation arrangement, which is a real fix and a real piece of work. We will price both honestly and tell you when neither is worth it.
That is almost always the run rather than the unit. Worth knowing before anyone quotes you a replacement.
The bungalow grouped the bathroom, laundry and kitchen at the rear, and the hot water system went in with them because that is where the plumbing already was.
Which is entirely sensible and it is why these houses were cheap to build. It also means the unit is as far from the front of the house as it is possible to be.
On a deep block with a front bedroom or a later front bathroom, that is a long pipe run.
The water sitting in a long pipe goes cold between uses, and it has to clear before hot water arrives. That is a fixed volume determined by the length and diameter of the pipe.
No new system changes it. A brand new unit delivers hot water to that tap after exactly the same wait as the old one.
It is the most common disappointment after a changeover on this housing, and it is entirely avoidable by knowing about it first.
Insulating the run reduces how quickly it loses heat, which helps at the margins and costs very little. It does not remove the wait.
Recirculation genuinely solves it by keeping the run warm, either continuously, on a timer, or on demand from a button near the tap.
A small dedicated unit at the far end is the other honest answer, and on a house with one distant bathroom it is frequently the cheaper of the two.
It usually relocates the long run rather than removing it, because the kitchen and laundry are still at the back and they still need supplying.
So a unit moved forward to serve a front bathroom creates a long run to the rear wet areas instead. The total length of cold pipe barely changes.
It is worth thinking through before paying for it, and we would rather do that thinking with you than after.
Sydney's supply is soft, so furring up is rarely what ends a unit. The anode corrodes in place of the steel and the tank starts spending itself once it is gone.
That means maintenance advice written for hard-water regions does not describe a cylinder here at all.
Renewing an anode is inexpensive against a replacement and buys years, and it is worth adding to a visit that is already happening.
The compliance plate carries the date. A young system with a failed component is a repair. An old one with the same fault is usually a replacement.
Elements and thermostats are worth replacing on a unit under about ten years old. Past a certain age the parts are no longer manufactured.
Photograph the plate and send it through before anybody drives anywhere.
Because neither of them stops you having a shower. Rusty hot water with clear cold, and a rumble on heating, are both perfectly liveable symptoms.
They are also the clearest evidence you will get that the cylinder is corroding and has accumulated material on its base.
Almost every emergency replacement we do was preceded by months of one or both. Acting on them turns an emergency into an appointment.
A tank that empties mid-shower is generally undersized for how the household now behaves rather than faulty. Capacity is drawn down by what is taken in the same short window.
These houses were sized for the households of the 1920s, and very few of them still have one.
Describe your actual mornings when you ask for advice, because that is what the sizing runs on.
A shower draws hot and cold together, so the head sets the rate at which a cylinder is drawn down. Anything installed before the WELS labelling scheme can flow well above nine litres a minute.
A pair of heads costs a fraction of a hot water system and takes minutes to fit. If it solves the problem you have saved thousands.
If it does not, you have lost very little and you know the issue is genuinely the system.
A leak at a valve is a fault, and faults get fixed. A leak from the body of the tank is the cylinder reaching the end of its working life.
No patch holds against a corroded shell under pressure, however convincing it looks on the day.
Water off at the unit, power or gas off, replacement organised. If it sits above a living area, treat that as the same day rather than the same week.
Type and size decide most changeovers. Before any of that it is worth being clear about which complaint you are solving, because a slow tap and a cold tank are different problems and only one of them is fixed by buying a system.
| System | How it heats | Typical life | Fixes a long wait at a distant tap? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric storage | An element heats a tank, often overnight on a controlled load tariff | 8 to 12 years | No. The distance is unchanged |
| Gas storage | A burner under a tank keeps a stored volume hot | 8 to 12 years | No. Same distance, same wait |
| Continuous flow | Gas heats water on demand, nothing is stored | 15 to 20 years | No, and be wary of anyone who says it does |
| Heat pump | Moves heat from the air into the tank rather than making it | 10 to 15 years | No. It changes running cost, not layout |
| Recirculation on the existing system | Keeps hot water moving in the run | n/a | Yes. This is the one that actually addresses it |
A starting point rather than a rule. Storage size is about how much you can draw before it runs out, so what matters is how many people want hot water inside the same hour.
| People in the house | Electric storage | Gas storage | Continuous flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 125 to 160 L | 90 to 135 L | 16 L/min |
| 3 to 4 | 250 to 315 L | 135 to 170 L | 20 L/min |
| 5 or more | 315 to 400 L | 170 L or twin | 26 L/min |
| Second bathroom added | Size up a step | Size up a step | 26 L/min |
Fixed price agreed before we start. These are indicative 2026 ranges. Diagnosing a slow tap, including telling you a new unit will not fix it, is part of the visit.
Element, thermostat, valve or anode. Often the whole job on a newer unit.
Like for like in the same position, old unit removed and taken away.
Never runs out. Will not shorten the wait at a distant tap, and we will say so.
Before rebate. The efficient option where there is no gas to the property.
Whether it is the unit or the run, and what would actually change it.
These are the makes we repair and install. We will always tell you the age of your unit and the actual fault before anyone talks about replacing it.
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 and a slow tap at the front are different problems with different answers.
Anode, element, thermostat and valve checked before anyone suggests a replacement.
Including when it is the pipe run and a new unit would change nothing at all.
Same day where we can, tested on completion and the old unit taken away.
Tell us the age of the unit when you ring. On anything reasonably recent this is usually a part rather than a tank.
Call 1300 381 569Usually not, and it is worth understanding before anyone sells you a new one. In a bungalow the hot water unit sits at the back with the rest of the wet areas, because that is where the plumbing was grouped. Any outlet at the front of the house is therefore a long way from it, and everything sitting in that pipe has gone cold since you last used it. You are waiting for the cold water in the line to clear, not for the unit to heat anything. A brand new tank does exactly the same thing.
Sometimes, and honestly sometimes not economically. The real options are insulating the run, which helps a little, or a recirculation arrangement, which is a genuine fix but a piece of work. What we will not do is let you buy a new hot water system in the belief that it will shorten the wait, because it will not. That is the most common wasted purchase in this housing.
Age decides it. Under about eight years a failure is usually a part: an element, a thermostat or the sacrificial anode. Past twelve you are spending on a tank whose lining is near the end regardless. In between it depends on what has failed and what the tank looks like inside. We test rather than guess and tell you which side of that line you are on before quoting.
Not through scale, which surprises people from harder water areas. Sydney runs soft, so limescale is rarely the cause. What fails is the sacrificial anode, a rod designed to corrode instead of the tank, and once it is used up the tank starts corroding. Replacing it on schedule is cheap and adds years, and hardly anyone has it done.
Rarely worth it, and worth pricing before assuming. Moving the unit means moving the connections, the drain and often the power or gas as well, and it usually just relocates the long run rather than removing it, because the kitchen and bathroom are still at the back. Where somebody has added an ensuite or a second bathroom at the front, the arithmetic can change, and that is a conversation worth having properly.
It is a good system and it solves several things, but not the waiting. A continuous flow unit heats on demand and never runs out, which is genuinely useful. It does not shorten the distance between it and a tap, so the cold water sitting in a long run still has to clear first. Anyone telling you otherwise is overselling it.
Diagnosing and repairing an element, thermostat, valve or anode is $250 to $650. Replacing electric storage in the same position is $1,400 to $2,800. Continuous flow is $1,900 to $3,500 installed. A heat pump starts around $3,200 before rebate. Assessing a slow-to-arrive outlet, and telling you honestly whether a new unit would help, costs nothing extra.
Let us know how old the unit is and whether the problem is everywhere or just at one tap. Those are different faults and only one of them needs a new system.
Parts tested first, a straight answer about what a replacement would and would not fix, and same-day changeover where it genuinely is the tank.
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