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15 years of plumbing in Kempton Park
Geyser Installation
Kempton Park
Geyser installation in Kempton Park, priced as one job: the cylinder, a valve set rated at or below it, the drip tray and removal of the old geyser, all on the quote you accept.
Six ways a new geyser ends up in a Kempton Park roof
Each one is quoted with the cylinder, the valve set and the labour on separate lines.
Burst cylinder
A tank that has split cannot be patched. It is drained, lifted out and replaced, and the invoice names what failed for the insurer.
Planned replacement
An ageing geyser swapped before it fails, in the same position, on supports that are checked before the new weight goes onto them.
The valve set
Pressure control valve, temperature and pressure valve, expansion valve and vacuum breakers, chosen for the new cylinder rather than carried over from the old one.
A bigger cylinder
Moving up a size after a bathroom is added. Above 200 litres the cylinder has to stand on beams, not hang from wall brackets.
Moving the geyser
Closer to the bathrooms it feeds, so the hot pipe to each tap stays within the by-law limit of 4 litres.
A first geyser
For a new cottage, an extension or a second bathroom: a new cylinder with its own drip tray, valves and discharge pipes to the outside.
A street main allowed to stand at 90 metres
Ekurhuleni's water design guidelines (July 2024) set the highest pressure its network may hold when no water is moving: 90 metres, at any point. Engineers measure water pressure as a height of water, and 90 metres works out at roughly 880 kPa. For scale, the new Kempton Park water tower reported nearing completion in May 2025 is 43 metres tall, so the network may stand at about twice its height.
Static pressure is what the pipes hold when nobody is drawing water, which in a residential street mostly means the middle of the night. The same pipes also drop to nothing: Glen Marais, Norkem Park and 17 other Kempton Park areas were in a 50-hour Rand Water shutdown in July 2025, and Kempton Park was in a 96-hour one from 29 May 2026. The City manages pressure on its own mains too. In Norkem Park, after an asbestos-cement main burst five times in 11 months, it said "a pressure-reducing valve" had been installed.
A geyser sits at the end of all that, and its valves stand between the street and the tank. The pressure control valve on the cold feed brings the supply down, and the IOPSA compliance table for SANS 10254 says its rating may be lower than the cylinder's own rating but must never exceed it. The temperature and pressure valve and the expansion control valve let water out when the tank needs relief, and the same table asks each of them to carry "the same pressure rating as other valves used in the system". Vacuum breakers on the hot and cold pipes cover the other extreme, when supply falls away and the cylinder could siphon.
That makes a geyser installation one decision, not four. The cylinder's rating sets the ceiling, and every valve fitted to it has to sit at or below that ceiling and match the others. A valve kept from the old geyser was chosen for a different cylinder, so a new tank with an old valve set is a mix that has not been checked as a whole. Kwikot, which makes geysers, says manufacturers "require that products be installed in accordance with SANS 10254".
For a house in Kempton Park this comes down to two figures on the quote: the cylinder's rated pressure and the rating of the valve set going onto it. If the second is higher than the first, or the quote names neither, the set has not been chosen yet. Santam's 2023 figure for an average replacement, R7,500 to R10,000 installed, is one market marker, and a May 2026 cost guide puts fittings at R500 to R1,000 of a 150-litre installation. Whatever the total, the valve set deserves its own line.
Get both numbers in writing before you say yes: what the new tank is rated to hold, and what its valves are rated for. The valves should never be the higher of the two.
When a geyser is due for replacement, and what goes in
Read across: what you see in the roof or on the wall, what it usually means, and what the installation includes.
Geyser installations, Kempton Park
| What you notice | What it usually is | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Rust at the tank seam, water standing in the tray | A cylinder corroded through | A new cylinder with a matched valve set |
| A new geyser's overflow running from the first day | A valve rated above the cylinder, or no pressure control valve | A valve set rated at or below the cylinder |
| An old geyser with no vacuum breakers | A cylinder that can siphon when the supply drops | Vacuum breakers on the hot and the cold pipes |
| A cylinder over 200 litres wanted on wall brackets | Not allowed above 200 litres | The cylinder stands on beams, each foot supported |
| Hot taps far from the geyser run cold for a long time | More than 4 litres standing in the hot pipe | Geyser moved closer, or the pipe run shortened |
Each row is a separate line on the quote, so you can see what the installation includes.
Four things a geyser installation quote spells out
Drawn from what goes wrong with replacements: prices that move, valves nobody named, and a new geyser that leaks with nobody answering.
Two ratings, side by side
The tank's pressure rating and the rating of every valve going onto it appear on the quote, so you can check the valves sit at or below the tank.
One figure for the whole job
Cylinder, valves, drip tray, pipework, removal of the old geyser and labour are inside the price you accept. Anything found in the roof that changes it is shown to you and priced before work goes on.
Replacement shown to be needed
If the old geyser is being replaced because it failed, you see where. If a valve or an element would fix it, you are told so and quoted the repair instead.
Checked before the plumber leaves
The overflow and every new joint are checked dry under pressure before the job is signed off. If anything changes once the geyser has heated, the same form reaches the installers.
Old cylinder out, new one heating: the four steps
You approve each stage before the next one starts. Dates are agreed with you, never assumed.
Send the form
Say whether the geyser has burst or is simply old, and its size if you know it. On the call back, the plumber asks how the roof is reached and gives the site-visit charge.
Inspect the roof space
The plumber looks at the cylinder, its supports, the valves and where each discharge pipe ends, and shows you anything that has failed.
Quote with the ratings
Cylinder, valve set, drip tray, pipework and labour each get a line, with the pressure ratings named. The work is booked once you accept.
Install, fill, heat
The old geyser is drained and removed, and the new one is fitted with its valves and filled before the power goes back on. The discharge pipes are checked again once it is hot.
Related work in Kempton Park
Replacing a geyser: what Kempton Park owners ask
Not answered here? Add it to the call-out form and raise it when the plumber rings.
What goes into the price of a replacement geyser, and when do I see it?
You see it in writing after the roof space has been looked at, because access, supports and the old pipework change the job. The quote lists the cylinder, the valve set, the drip tray, pipework, removal of the old geyser and labour separately, and nothing starts until you accept it.
As a market guide only: in August 2023 Santam gave R7,500 to R10,000 as the average cost of replacing and installing a geyser (FAnews), and a May 2026 cost guide from flowleads.co.za gives R7,000 to R11,000 for a 150-litre geyser installed. The plumbing prices page explains how the visit itself is charged.
The insurer is paying for the burst geyser. Can I pick who installs the new one?
Ask the claims line before anyone is booked, because the policy decides. Complaints about insurance replacements show that insurers can appoint their own plumber.
If the insurer accepts a plumber you choose, the quote here is set out the way an assessor reads it: what failed, the new cylinder, each valve and the labour, on separate lines.
How will I know the new pressure valve suits the pressure in our street?
The valve is chosen against the cylinder, not the street. Ekurhuleni designs its network for static pressure of up to 90 metres, and the pressure control valve brings that down to a level at or below the cylinder's own rating.
If you want to know what your street actually delivers, a gauge on an outside tap gives a reading on the visit. Weak flow is a separate problem, covered on the water pressure repairs page.
We want more than 200 litres. Can it hang on the wall brackets like the old one?
No. The IOPSA compliance table for SANS 10254 says no water heater over 200 litres may be attached to a wall with brackets or hangers.
A larger cylinder stands on supports in the roof, with each foot on a support beam and the drip tray under it. Whether your roof space can take that is checked before the size is settled.
The bathrooms are at the far end of the house from the geyser. Can the new one move closer?
Often, and a replacement is a sensible moment, since the old cylinder is coming out anyway. Ekurhuleni's Water Services By-laws say the pipe from a fixed water heater to a tap may hold no more than 4 litres of water, so a long run is a reason to move the geyser or add a second one.
The plumber measures the runs on the visit and prices the move as its own line, so you can compare it with a straight swap.
Will the valves from the old geyser be put back on the new one?
Not as a rule. The IOPSA table asks for the pressure control, expansion and temperature and pressure valves to share one rating, at or below the cylinder's, so the set is chosen for the new cylinder.
A newer valve that already matches can stay. If it does, the quote says so and it is not charged as a new part.
Is a burst geyser a good moment to switch to gas or solar?
It can be, because the old cylinder is coming out anyway. Each has its own conditions: gas needs a spot outside where the cylinders may legally stand, and solar needs roof space and its own certificate of compliance.
The gas geyser installation and solar geyser installation pages set out what each involves. If the insurer is paying, ask the claims line what it will cover before you choose.
What if the new geyser starts dripping a few weeks after it goes in?
Send the form, say it is a new installation, and the people who fitted it phone you back. A drip on a new installation is checked against the work that was done before anything is charged.
In the meantime, switch the geyser off at the board if water is reaching the ceiling, and close the cold supply valve to the geyser if you can reach it safely.
Where we work
Every suburb inside Kempton Park, from Birchleigh North down to Bonaero Park on the airport fence.
- Kempton Park CBD
- Allen Grove
- Aston Manor
- Birch Acres
- Birchleigh
- Birchleigh North
- Bonaero Park
- Bredell
- Cresslawn
- Croydon
- Edleen
- Esther Park
- Glen Erasmia
- Glen Marais
- Isando
- Kempton Park West
- Nimrod Park
- Norkem Park
- Pomona
- Rhodesfield
- Serengeti
- Spartan
- Terenure
- Van Riebeeck Park