Heating Engineers in Chesterfield

Local Heating Engineers for Chesterfield

We cover Chesterfield from our base in Wath upon Dearne, about 20 miles to the north: the town centre, Brampton, Boythorpe and Birdholme in S40; Newbold, Whittington Moor, Old Whittington, Sheepbridge, Hasland, Spital and Tapton in S41; Walton, Wingerworth, Holymoorside, Cutthorpe, Grassmoor, Tupton, North Wingfield and Holmewood in S42; Staveley, Brimington, Inkersall, Barrow Hill, Clowne and Barlborough in S43; Bolsover, Calow, Arkwright Town and Duckmanton in S44; and Dronfield, Unstone and Holmesfield in S18.

We are Gas Safe registered (584578), Heat Geek Assured and DBS checked. Our engineers work Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm, and we will get to you the same day where we can during office hours, for £30 extra.

Chesterfield Homes and Their Heating

Chesterfield grew on coal and iron. Sheepbridge, on the north side of town, grew around the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Works, founded in the 1850s, which built rows of cottages for its workers from bricks made on site. Staveley had its own ironworks, and there were pits all around the town. Today, under the Crooked Spire, the housing is a mix of Victorian and Edwardian terraces in places like Whittington Moor, Newbold and Brampton, post-war estates, and newer homes on the edges of town.

A lot of these houses were first given central heating decades ago, often from a back boiler behind a gas fire. Many have since had a modern boiler fitted, but kept the original pipes and radiators. That old pipework can carry decades of sludge, and a modern boiler, with its narrow waterways, copes with it far worse than the old back boiler did.

What sludge does to a heating system

The black sludge in a heating system is magnetite. It forms as the steel inside radiators slowly rusts from the inside. Just as fat clogs arteries, it builds up in the pipes, settles in the bottom of radiators and blocks the boiler, so the water can't flow round properly. Radiators go cold at the bottom, rooms never get warm, and the boiler can overheat.

Power Flushing a System in Sheepbridge

In March 2023 we were called to a mid-terraced house in Sheepbridge. The radiators weren't giving out much heat, and the boiler kept locking out because it was overheating and kettling: the rumbling, kettle-like noise a boiler makes when the water boils inside it because it can't flow through fast enough.

The pipes, radiators and boiler were full of black sludge. The boiler had replaced an old back boiler about ten years earlier, but the heating system itself was around 50 years old and had never been flushed.

We recommended a power flush with a MagnaCleanse fitted in line. Short of re-piping the whole house, it is the next best thing: a powerful pump drives water through every radiator and pipe, changing direction to shift the deposits, which is like jet washing the inside of the system, while the MagnaCleanse's magnets catch the sludge as it comes out.

With full flow restored, the customer was delighted. The house was warmer than it had ever been.

If your radiators are cold at the bottom or your boiler keeps locking out, book a fault finding visit and we'll tell you whether a flush will fix it, and which one. Before any flush, read our system flushing disclaimer: it explains what a flush can and can't do on a very old system.

What We Do in Chesterfield

All prices include VAT and are our Band A prices, which cover every Chesterfield postcode from S40 to S44, and Dronfield (S18). Flush prices cover up to 10 radiators; extra radiators are quoted separately.

• Power flush with MagnaCleanse — from £780, our most thorough clean, for systems with years of sludge.
• MagnaCleanse magnetic flush — from £540, for systems with a moderate build-up.
• Mains flush — from £420, a lighter clean, for example before a new boiler goes on a clean system.
• Boiler and heating fault finding — £132 covering the first hour, then 15-minute steps, with parts quoted before we fit them.
• Boiler servicing — £132, or £192 with an unvented cylinder done at the same visit. Or spread it with a Boiler Service and Care Plan, from £13.20 a month over twelve monthly payments.
• New boilers — Worcester Bosch and Ideal, supplied and fitted from £2,200. Replacing like for like? Price it online.
• Heat pump servicing — £264, with the hot water cylinder included. Grant-funded heat pump installs go through Heat Geek: currently grants of £7,500 are available, taken off the price rather than claimed back.
• Air conditioning — mini split and multi split systems by UberCool, installed, serviced and repaired. They heat as well as cool.