Geyser Installation
in Alberton

Two numbers, and they belong on separate lines. The cylinder is the larger of them and it tracks capacity and technology: 150 litres of electric storage is the ordinary case, while solar and heat pump systems ask considerably more at the start and hand it back monthly on the bill. Against that sits the labour, which covers stripping the old unit out and taking it away, a fresh tray with its overflow, vacuum breakers, pressure control, the isolator and the paperwork. Shown apart, you can judge each half on its own merits, and there is no charge for us coming to work it out.

This is the single most misunderstood point in South African plumbing, so here is the honest version. SANS 10254 governs the installation, replacement and repair of fixed electric storage water heaters, and every geyser installed since 8 June 2001 must meet it. However, since the standard changed on 24 June 2022 there is no longer a requirement in any national standard, regulation or act for a Certificate of Compliance to be issued for a geyser. Municipal by-laws are separate and many still require one, and most of those that do require a PIRB certificate specifically. The law relaxed. Your insurer did not.

Because the insurer is the one who reads it. Where an installation is non-compliant, an insurer is entitled to repudiate the claim, and homeowners routinely discover their installation was never compliant only after the burst, the flood and the rejected claim. The certificate is also what keeps a manufacturer warranty alive, since that warranty holds only where the unit was installed by a licensed plumber. We issue the PIRB certificate on the day the work is signed off rather than leaving you to chase it afterwards.

Electric is the default and the cheapest to install, and for a small household with modest hot water use it is often still the right answer. Solar suits a house with roof space and daytime use, and the Highveld gives it plenty of sun to work with. A heat pump runs at a fraction of an element's consumption and does not care whether the sun is out, which suits a household that showers at night. Gas heats on demand, so there is no element sitting in a tank waiting for the next restart surge to take it out, which is why it rides load-shedding so comfortably. We will tell you which of those fits your actual usage rather than which has the best margin.

A straight like-for-like swap in an accessible roof space is usually a half day: isolate, drain down, remove the old unit, fit the new one with a new tray, overflow, vacuum breakers and pressure control valve, refill, test and certify. It runs longer when the position has to move, when the existing pipework or electrical isolator does not meet the standard, or when the roof space access is tight. Anything that will extend it is priced before we start, not discovered halfway.

Both, every time, and it is not an upsell. The tray and its overflow are the only thing standing between the next failure and your ceiling, and a tray that has spent ten years under a slowly weeping connection is usually rusted through at the lowest point. Fitting a new geyser above an old tray means the first drip goes straight into the ceiling board. The overflow also has to discharge where you can see it, because that drip is how you get warning.

Often yes, and in an older Alberton house it is worth considering. A geyser at ground level on an external wall cannot flood a ceiling, is far easier to service, and takes the weight off roof trusses that were sized decades ago. It costs more because the supply, return and electrical all have to be re-run, and it is not always possible where the gravity and pressure arrangement of the house depends on the geyser being high. We will tell you honestly whether your house suits it.

Roughly, 100 litres for one or two people, 150 litres for a typical family of three or four, and 200 litres where there are more people or two bathrooms in use at the same time. Going bigger than you need costs you every day in standing heat loss, and going smaller means the last person gets a cold shower. The other half of the answer is the element rating and how it interacts with your board, which we check rather than assume.