Annual gas heater service across Greater Hobart.

The standard service checklist — eight items, 45 to 90 minutes on site.

1. Visual inspection. Casing, controls, flue connection, gas connection, room ventilation. Flag anything obviously corroded, loose or damaged.
2. Burner strip and clean. Remove burner assembly, brush off carbon and lint, vacuum out the combustion chamber, inspect the injector orifice.
3. Pilot assembly inspection. Pilot flame size, position, thermocouple millivolt reading, flame-failure shutdown response time.
4. Gas pressure test. Manometer on the test point, measure burner pressure against the appliance data plate. Adjust gas valve if out of spec.
5. Heat exchanger inspection. Visual inspection for cracks (the single highest CO risk on a forced-draft or ducted unit). Borescope if needed.
6. Ambient CO test. Combustion analyser in the room with the heater firing, log CO ppm over a 10-minute cycle.
7. Flue spillage test. Negative-pressure protocol — rangehood, bathroom fan and clothes dryer running, doors closed. Watch flue for combustion-product spillage back into the room.
8. Re-commission. Reassemble, leak-test gas connections with soap solution, function-test all controls and safety shut-offs, replace service sticker.

Pricing band breakdown.

• Wall-mounted radiant or convection heater (single unit, easy access): $200–$280.
• Console or free-standing space heater (radiant or fan-flued): $240–$340.
• In-built or hearth-mounted heater (limited access): $280–$420.
• Ducted gas central heating (roof-mounted heat exchanger inspection): $320–$480.
• Two or more appliances at the same property: first at standard rate, second and subsequent units approximately half rate.

When two-yearly isn’t enough — annual service triggers.

AS 4575 sets two years as the upper ceiling. We recommend annual servicing on any of:

• Appliances more than 10 years old (drift on gas pressure, fatigue on burner components, ageing pilot assemblies)
• Ducted gas central heating systems (heat exchanger crack is the single highest CO risk and needs annual visual inspection)
• Rental properties (Tasmanian Residential Tenancy expectations + landlord insurance position)
• Appliances in sealed-envelope retrofit homes where ventilation has been substantially reduced
• Properties with reported headache or nausea symptoms during the heating season
• Heaters running more than four hours a day during peak winter
• Open-flued radiant heaters in heritage cottages (Sandy Bay, Battery Point, South Hobart)

Why warranty position matters.

Most manufacturer warranties on Type-A space heaters and ducted gas systems are conditional on documented servicing. Rinnai, Braemar, Brivis, Vulcan, Pyrox and Real Flame all require either annual or two-year service to maintain warranty coverage. A gap of more than two years routinely voids warranty on parts failures that would otherwise have been covered. Service stickers and digital service certificates are the proof you need to keep on file.

Year-over-year tracking pays off.

Once we’ve serviced an appliance two or three times we have a gas-pressure history, a CO ambient history, and a clear picture of which components are wearing. Year four and beyond, the annual service routinely catches drift before it becomes a fault — a slowly rising CO reading, a gas pressure that needs progressively larger adjustments, a thermocouple millivolt reading that’s falling toward the safety shut-off threshold. That trend data is what tells us whether to repair or recommend replacement.

Related services

CO leak check is included in every annual service but can also be booked standalone if symptoms have appeared between services. Flue and chimney inspection is a separate visit on older heritage flues where camera work is needed.