How to turn on the heating

When the cold first arrives, many boilers are still in summer mode and only give hot water. Before you call us, check these three things: it takes a minute.

1. Put the boiler in winter mode

Look at the boiler display: with the heating on you'll see a radiator . If you only see the tap, it's in summer mode.

Press the mode button until the radiator appears. On the most common Ariston boilers it's this one (circled in red):

Control panel of the Ariston Clas One boiler, with the mode button circled in red — Ariston Clas One MODE button, at the bottom, to the left of COMFORT.

Control panel of the Ariston Alteas One · Genus One boiler, with the mode button circled in red — Ariston Alteas One · Genus One MODE button, below the display, on the left.

Control panel of the Ariston Cares S · Cares Premium boiler, with the mode button circled in red — Ariston Cares S · Cares Premium The long button on the left. A short press: if you hold it down for a few seconds, it goes into filling mode.

Control panel of the Ariston Clas Premium boiler, with the mode button circled in red — Ariston Clas Premium MODE button, the first of the three small ones below the display.

Control panel of the Ariston Genus Premium boiler, with the mode button circled in red — Ariston Genus Premium MODE button, below the display, to the right of the on/off button.

If the display is completely blank, see our guide to a boiler with a blank display.

2. Check the thermostat

Make sure it's on. If it runs on batteries and the screen looks faint or blank, replace them.
Make sure it's set to heating, not off, frost protection (the snowflake) or holiday mode.
Turn it up 2 or 3 degrees above the temperature in the house. If it has a timer programme, switch it to manual or check that it's within an on period.

3. Check that the boiler starts up

When the thermostat calls for heat, the radiator on the display changes:

Clas, Alteas and Genus: the radiator appears inside a box.
Cares S and Cares Premium: the radiator appears with an arrow next to it.
The flame appears straight away: the boiler is heating. On Alteas One, Genus One and Genus Premium a blue light also comes on.

The radiators take about 10 to 15 minutes to feel warm. If one is cold at the top, it has air in it: here's how to bleed your radiators.

If you've done all three steps and the boiler doesn't start, or a code appears on the display, book an engineer and tell us the model and what you can see. The most common codes are on our error codes page.

Control panels: Ariston user manuals. Other brands usually use the same radiator symbol.

Still not sorted?

Book an engineer and we'll tell you what it is and how much it costs before touching anything.

Book an engineer +34 871 559 176