Circulation pumps
The small pump that moves water between tank and collector. Seized, air locked, or never told to run by its controller.
Home / Solar Geyser Repairs
Solar geyser repairs in Durban are mostly pumps, controllers, sensors and valves, not the collector on the roof. Under eThekwini's Water By-law a solar repair is certified work, so you get the fault fixed and a copy of the certificate. For an all-electric unit, see geyser repair.
Tell us whether the system has a pump and a controller box or works without one, and whether the water is cold only on sunny days or all the time. Those two answers narrow it down a long way.
A solar geyser is two systems sharing one tank. The roof side and the tank side fail separately, and they get tested separately.
The small pump that moves water between tank and collector. Seized, air locked, or never told to run by its controller.
The controller compares two temperatures and decides when to pump. A sensor that has drifted makes it decide wrong.
Cracked evacuated tubes, weeping collector joints and the roof penetrations around them, isolated before anything is replaced.
The electric side of the system. It fails like any element, and while it works it hides every fault on the solar side.
Relief valves, vacuum breakers, and the blending valve the by-law expects every solar unit to make room for.
Float valves, feeder tanks and vent pipes on gravity systems, where one stuck float can leave the whole system dry.
Most people connect geyser paperwork with a brand new installation. On a solar system in Durban that idea is out of date, and it matters most on the jobs that feel far too small to need any paperwork at all: a valve swapped, a pump replaced, a leaking union remade on the roof.
eThekwini's Water By-law came into force on 10 February 2024, and section 63 deals with solar water heaters on their own. It does not stop at new units. The registered contractor or responsible plumber who installs, replaces or repairs a solar water heater, or any of its associated protective devices, must request a geyser compliance certificate and notify the Water Inspectorate of the work. When the certificate is completed, one copy is issued to the customer and another reaches the Inspectorate within five working days for audit.
The same section says every unit installed must make provision for an automatic blending valve, and that requirement is about skin rather than pipework. A solar tank is heated by whatever the sun delivers on the day. After a long clear afternoon it can hold water well above any temperature a person would set an element to, and the blending valve is what keeps that heat in the cylinder instead of at the basin.
Why this matters on a repair is simple. The protective devices are the parts standing between a sun-heated pressure vessel and the people in the house. When an insurer is assessing a burst or a scald, or a conveyancer asks what has been done to the system before a sale, the document showing that a registered person worked on those parts is that certificate. A repair that cured the fault but left no record is a repair you cannot show anybody.
After any work on a solar geyser, ask for your copy of the geyser compliance certificate, and look for a blending valve on the hot outlet. If the certificate is missing, ask why before you pay. If the blending valve is missing, have it priced while somebody is already up there, because both are far easier to sort out on the day than to reconstruct later.
Five things worth checking before you pay.
The roof side proven on its own, the tank checked before the roof, and the paperwork finished on the day.
The backup element masks solar faults, so the solar side is tested with it switched off at the board.
If the cylinder has failed, no work on the collector is worth paying for. That gets established first.
Pump, sensor, valve or tube, by type, so an insurer or the next plumber can see exactly what was done.
The by-law asks for a geyser compliance certificate on a solar repair, and a copy of it is yours.
Cost first, then how to tell which half of the system has actually failed.
Usually less than people brace for, because the parts that let a solar system down tend to be the small ones. A circulation pump, a controller, a temperature sensor or a valve is a part plus a few hours, measured against the trade's published national guidance of R450 to R850 an hour and a R450 to R650 call-out, both before VAT. A cracked tube or a leaking collector costs more, mainly because the work happens on the roof. The figure only reaches replacement territory when the storage cylinder itself has failed, and you are shown that before anybody prices it.
Something between the roof and the tank, and the backup element has been covering for it. On a pumped system the usual suspects are the circulation pump, the controller that switches it, or the sensor that tells the controller the collector is warmer than the tank. A system with no pump moves heat by natural circulation instead, so a sagging pipe run, an air pocket or a valve left part closed can stall it. The simplest test is a sunny day with the element switched off at the board. If the water is cold by evening, the solar side is not delivering.
Judge it on the cylinder and the collector rather than on the date it went in. If the tank is sound and the collector is not leaking, a pump, a sensor or a valve puts the system back to doing what you paid for, and switching to an electric-only geyser throws that away. If the cylinder is weeping at a seam, the honest answer is a replacement geyser, and that is the moment to weigh solar, a heat pump and a plain electric unit against each other. A repair quote that never looked at the cylinder is not a finished quote.
Because the weather set the temperature that day, not a thermostat. An element switches off at its setting, while a collector keeps delivering heat for as long as the sun is on it, so after a clear afternoon the tank can be far hotter than anyone would set an electric geyser. An automatic blending valve deals with that by mixing cold into the outgoing hot, so the taps never see the full tank temperature. eThekwini's Water By-law requires every solar unit installed to make provision for one. If yours has none, it is worth having one fitted.
Yes. Section 63 of the Water By-law, in force since 10 February 2024, places that duty on the registered contractor or responsible plumber who repairs a solar water heater or its protective devices: they must request a geyser compliance certificate and notify the Water Inspectorate. A copy is yours, and another goes to the Inspectorate within five working days. It applies to a replaced valve as much as to a new system, which is the part that surprises most people.
It needs attention soon rather than tonight, unless it is reaching the ceiling. A leaking collector wastes water you are paying for and can soak the timber underneath it. First check whether the drip is really the relief valve discharging, because on a roof-mounted tank that pipe often ends on the roof close to the collector, and a relief valve that drips has a different cause entirely. If it is the collector or one of its joints, switch any pump off at its controller and leave the rest alone until it has been looked at.
Most likely air in the solar loop. When a rationing window drains the network and supply returns, air arrives with the water, and on a pumped system some of it can settle in the circuit between the tank and the collector. A circulation pump pushing air instead of water rattles, carries almost no heat and wears its own bearings. Bleeding the loop takes minutes once someone finds where the air is gathering. If it happens after every outage, the vent on that loop deserves a closer look.
Yes, and they go wrong in different ways. A low pressure system is not on mains pressure at all: a small feeder tank with a float valve keeps it topped up, and hot water reaches the taps by gravity. That makes it forgiving of a weak supply but dependent on the float, the feeder tank and the vent pipe, and a float that sticks can let the whole system run dry. A pressurised solar geyser carries the same valves as an electric one, including the vacuum breakers that earn their keep on a rationed supply. The electric geyser repair page covers those.
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Describe what the solar geyser is doing and whether it has a pump, and you will get a view on which half of the system has failed before anyone climbs a ladder.