Boiler's down. Check these first.

No heat, no hot water. Where do I start?

Five checks. Two minutes. In order:

1. Pressure gauge. Needle below 1 bar? There's your suspect.
2. Controls. Thermostat turned down, timer knocked onto the wrong schedule, someone "just adjusting" it yesterday. It happens more than anyone admits.
3. Other gas appliances. Hob dead too? The problem may be supply, not boiler.
4. Frozen condensate pipe. In a cold snap, the small white pipe running outside can freeze and shut the boiler down. Warm water — not boiling — poured along it often brings the boiler back.
5. One reset. Once. A boiler that needs resetting daily isn't fixed, it's nagging.

Is 1 bar low?

Borderline. Most combis want around 1 to 1.5 bar when cold — your manual has the exact figure. Under 1 bar, expect sulking: lukewarm water, heating that cuts out, a low-pressure error code. Top it up through the filling loop, following the manual, and close the loop when you're done.

Over roughly 2.5 to 3 bar is too high — often a filling loop left open or an expansion vessel fault — and can send water out of the relief pipe on the outside wall. High pressure that won't settle, or a gauge that climbs on its own, is professional territory.

Why does it keep losing pressure?

Because the water's going somewhere. A sealed system doesn't use water up; if the gauge drops week after week, there's a leak — a weeping radiator valve, a joint under a floor, or a fault inside the boiler itself. Topping up hides the evidence and feeds the leak fresh water.

Worth knowing locally: plenty of Ayr's older sandstone homes run long heating circuits that have been extended room by room over the decades, which means more joints in more awkward places than a modern build. That's not a reason to panic. It's a reason to get a slow pressure drop traced instead of adopting the top-up habit.

Error code on the screen. Do I care?

Yes — but as information, not homework. Write the code down or photograph it before resetting, because the reset wipes it and the code tells the plumber where to start looking. The manual (or the maker's website) will translate it: low pressure, ignition failure, fan fault, sensor trouble.

Codes about pressure or a frozen condensate pipe often have a safe DIY fix, covered above. Codes about ignition, flame detection, fans or anything you don't recognise: stop there. Repeated resets past a genuine fault ask the boiler to keep trying something it has already refused to do — and refusal is a safety feature, not a mood.

Smell gas? Stop reading.

Seriously. Out — everyone, now. Touch nothing on the way: no light switches, no flames, nothing that sparks. Don't hunt for the leak yourself.

From outside, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Free, staffed around the clock, and it's their job — not a plumbing line's, not this site's. Go back inside only when you're told it's safe. The plumber call can wait until the gas people say so.