Pumps & Circulation
A pump that has stopped leaves the collector baking on the roof and the tank cold underneath it, so the element ends up doing all the work.
Home / Solar Geyser Repairs
Solar geyser repairs in Alberton come with one trap built in: a system whose solar side has stopped still gives hot water, because the element quietly takes over, and the bill becomes the only symptom. We test the collector, pump and controller first, and the element last. For a standard electric unit, see geyser repair.
Tell us what the controller shows if it has a display, and whether the water is hot on a sunny afternoon with the element switched off. Both narrow the fault down before we arrive.
Direct and indirect, flat plate and evacuated tube, pumped and thermosiphon, whoever installed it.
A pump that has stopped leaves the collector baking on the roof and the tank cold underneath it, so the element ends up doing all the work.
A controller that cannot read the tank or the collector makes the wrong call every time. Sensors tested, settings checked, faulty units replaced.
Indirect circuits checked for fluid level and condition, leaks in the loop found, and the circuit refilled and purged of air.
Copper burst by ice in a direct system, repaired where it can be, with an honest word on converting to indirect so it does not happen twice.
Broken tubes replaced one at a time and their seals renewed, without replacing a collector that is otherwise sound.
The electric side of the system, repaired like any geyser: element, thermostat, timer and the valves around them.
Most home solar geysers in South Africa are solar geysers with electric backup. The sun does whatever heating it can, and an element tops the tank up to its set temperature whenever the sun has not managed it on its own. It is a sensible design, because it means you never run out of hot water on a grey week.
It is also why solar faults go unnoticed. When the circulation pump stops, a sensor fails, the glycol runs low or a tube cracks, the house does not go cold. The element takes over the whole job, quietly, and the system becomes an electric geyser with an expensive panel on the roof. Nothing drips and nothing beeps. The only sign is a bill that never dropped, or dropped and then crept back.
Winter muddies the picture. Less solar energy reaches the collector in the winter months, so the backup genuinely carries more of the load then, and a higher bill in July is the system working as designed. A bill that stays high through a run of clear summer days is a different matter. That is the pattern of a solar side that has stopped contributing.
So a solar repair has to start on the solar side, and ours does. The controller is read first, because it normally displays the collector and tank temperatures and shows whether the pump has been running. On a pumped system a hot collector over a cold tank points at the pump or the controller, while a lukewarm collector on a bright day points at the fluid, an airlock or the collector itself. The element is tested last, because testing it first finds a working element and misses the actual fault.
The sunny-day test, before you call anyone: on a clear day, switch the backup off at its isolator or timer in the morning and run a hot tap in the late afternoon. Hot water means the solar side is doing its job. Lukewarm or cold means it has stopped, and the element has been paying for it.
In this order, so the cheapest likely cause is ruled in or out first.
Fault first, part second, and the settings left right.
Collector, pump and controller tested before anyone condemns an element or a tank.
A sound collector and tank stay where they are. The failed part is what gets replaced.
The invoice lists each part and the labour apart, so you can see exactly what changed.
Timer and controller set to your household's hours before we leave, and explained.
Cost, frost damage, leaks on the roof, glycol, pumps and tubes.
There are two stages and they are priced separately. Finding the fault comes first, and it is quicker when you can tell us what the controller shows and whether the water is hot on a sunny afternoon with the element off. The repair is then quoted as named parts and labour before anything is done. Many solar faults come down to one component rather than the whole system: a pump, a sensor, a controller, a tube, a fill of glycol. Our plumbing prices page shows how a figure is put together.
Sometimes. Ice expands inside the collector's waterways, and on a direct system that can burst a riser or a header. A single split in an accessible pipe can be repaired; a collector with several splits, or damage inside the absorber, usually cannot, and replacing it is cheaper than repairing it twice. Either way, it is worth deciding whether to rebuild the circuit as an indirect glycol loop at the same time, because the same frost will come back next winter and our solar geyser installation page explains why that choice matters on an inland roof.
It depends on the system. On a direct system the water in the collector is your mains water, so a drip is a leak at a joint, a split from frost, or a valve on the collector letting by. On an indirect system the fluid in the panel is glycol, and losing it matters more than the puddle suggests: as the level drops, the loop stops carrying heat to the tank and the element takes over without telling anyone. Either way it needs looking at before the next sunny week.
At every service, and any time the solar side seems to have gone weak. The check covers two things: the level, because a loop that has lost fluid cannot move heat, and the condition, because glycol that has degraded no longer protects the collector the way it should. If yours has never been checked since the system went in, that alone is a reason to book one.
The controller decides when the pump runs by comparing the collector temperature with the tank's, so either symptom usually points at that decision rather than at the pump itself. A pump running through the night suggests a sensor reading wrongly or a controller fault. A pump that never runs may have failed, lost power, or been told by a faulty sensor that there is nothing to collect, and a collector left full and baking with no flow runs very hot. We test the sensors and the controller first, because replacing a good pump does not fix a bad reading.
Yes, as a rule, provided the replacement matches the original tube's size and type. With tubes that hold water, a broken one leaks and the collector should be isolated until it is replaced. With heat pipe tubes the circuit stays sealed, so a broken tube only costs output. Either way there is no need to replace the whole collector for one tube, and the seals around it are renewed at the same time.
Usually, if the tank is sound. A well-installed system can run 15 to 20 years or more, and the parts that fail along the way, such as the pump, the controller, the sensors and the anode, are replaceable. The question that decides it is the cylinder: a tank that is weeping or corroded through is the end of that unit, though a collector in good order can sometimes be kept and connected to a new one. We look at both before giving you the choice.
Yes, whatever the make or the installer. Controllers differ more than the rest of the system, so if you can find the model name on the controller or the tank label, send it with your request. If the backup element or thermostat is the problem rather than the solar side, the repair is the same as on any electric geyser, which our geyser repair page covers.
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Solar geyser not pulling its weight? Send the controller reading and a note on how hot the tap runs late on a sunny day, and the likely fault comes back with the cost of confirming it.