East New York · Emergency
No Heat in East New York?
Five things worth checking before you pay for a visit — and a 24/7 number for when the answer isn't one of them.
A dead boiler in January is the call we run most in East New York, and it isn't hard to see why. Most of the neighborhood is two- and three-family houses built between the 1900s and the 1940s, a large share of them still heated by their original one-pipe steam systems. Those boilers are reliable right up until the winter they aren't.
Not every no-heat call needs a technician, though. A meaningful number of them come down to a thermostat, a tripped breaker, or a switch at the top of the cellar stairs that somebody bumped. It costs you nothing to rule those out first, so start there — and if none of it applies, we're based at 657 Hinsdale St in 11207 and answer emergency calls around the clock.
Heat fully out in freezing weather, a gas smell, or a CO alarm? Skip the checklist.
Call 347-957-7054 nowBefore You Call
Five Things Worth Checking First
All safe to do yourself, and each one resolves a real share of the no-heat calls we take.
The thermostat
Set it well above room temperature and listen. Dead batteries and a thermostat knocked off Heat onto Off or Cool are genuinely two of the most common causes of a no-heat call.
The emergency switch
Most East New York houses have a red switch plate at the top of the cellar stairs or beside the boiler. It looks like a light switch and gets flipped by accident constantly. Make sure it's on.
The breaker and the plug
A boiler needs electricity even when it burns gas or oil. Check the breaker panel for a tripped breaker, and confirm the circulator or burner unit is still plugged in if it runs off a cord.
The water level (steam systems)
If you have a one-pipe steam system with a sight glass on the boiler, look at it. A low-water cutoff will shut the burner down on purpose when the level drops — that's the safety working, not a failure.
The reset button — once
Press a burner reset button one time. If it locks out again, stop. Repeated resets on an oil burner flood the chamber with unburned fuel, and on a gas unit you're overriding a safety that tripped for a reason.
Don't Wait
When No Heat Is an Emergency
Any one of these means call now rather than booking for the morning.
You smell gas anywhere near the boiler — leave the building first, then call the utility from outside
A carbon monoxide detector has alarmed, or anyone in the house has a headache or nausea that clears when they go outside
Water is pooling around the base of the boiler or running from a relief valve
Temperatures are below freezing and the house is cold enough that pipes in the cellar, extension, or exterior walls are at risk
There are infants, elderly residents, or anyone with a medical condition in the building and the heat is fully out
The boiler is making a loud banging or hammering noise instead of running normally
Our Process
What We Check on a No-Heat Call
Identify the system
Steam, hot-water, and combi units fail in completely different ways. Before touching anything we confirm which one you have — a lot of bad no-heat repairs start with a technician assuming.
Trace the call for heat
Thermostat, wiring, aquastat or pressuretrol, and the controls in between. If the boiler is never being told to fire, replacing parts on the boiler is money wasted.
Test ignition and safeties
Pilot, igniter, gas valve, flame sensor, and the low-water cutoff. We find out which safety tripped and why it tripped, rather than clearing the fault and leaving.
Check distribution
Circulator pump on a hot-water system, vents and traps on steam. Partial heat — some radiators hot, some stone cold — is almost always a distribution problem, not a dead boiler.
Local Patterns
Why Boilers Fail Here
- •A failed or clogged low-water cutoff on an original one-pipe steam boiler — extremely common in the neighborhood's 1900s–1940s two- and three-family houses
- •Dirty boiler water causing surging and erratic shutdowns on a system that has never been skimmed
- •Seized circulator pumps on hot-water systems that sat idle all summer
- •Failed thermocouples and pilot assemblies on older standing-pilot units
- •Clogged or stuck air vents leaving upper-floor apartments cold while the cellar is hot
- •Water damage to boiler controls after a cellar flood on the low-lying blocks toward Spring Creek
- •A boiler simply undersized or worn out for a house that has been converted into more units than it was built for
Renting?
NYC Heat Season Rules
Heat season runs October 1 through May 31. During it, building owners are required to keep apartments at these minimums.
Day — 6 AM to 10 PM
If it's below 55°F outside, inside must be at least 68°F.
Night — 10 PM to 6 AM
Inside must be at least 62°F, no matter the outdoor temperature.
Hot water — all year
Must be available 24 hours a day at a minimum of 120°F.
If your building is below those temperatures and your landlord isn't responding, you can file a complaint with 311 or NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which can inspect and issue violations. We're hired by owners and managing agents, so we can't enter a building without the owner's authorization — but if you pass our number along, we'll take the call from them the same day.
FAQ
No-Heat Questions
We treat total loss of heat as an emergency and dispatch the same day, including nights, weekends, and holidays. Our shop is at 657 Hinsdale Street in 11207, so East New York calls generally aren't waiting behind a drive in from another borough.
In freezing weather it's an emergency — both for the people in the building and because unheated cellars and exterior walls are where pipes split. Call right away if you smell gas, a CO detector has alarmed, water is pooling at the boiler, or anyone in the house is elderly, an infant, or medically vulnerable.
Usually not. Partial heat points at distribution rather than the boiler itself — stuck or clogged air vents and failed traps on a steam system, or a circulator and balancing issue on a hot-water system. It's a real repair, but it's a different and typically smaller one than a boiler replacement.
There's a $125 diagnostic visit fee, waived when you move forward with the repair. What the repair itself costs depends entirely on what failed, and we'd rather tell you after we've seen the system than quote a number over the phone that changes in the cellar.
We're hired by owners and managing agents and can't authorize work on a building without the owner. If your landlord isn't responding, you can file a heat complaint with 311 and HPD, which can inspect and issue violations. Pass our number along to your landlord or managing agent and we'll take the call from them.
No. Press it once. If the burner locks out again, something tripped a safety, and repeated resets can flood an oil burner's combustion chamber with unburned fuel or override a gas safety that shut the unit down for a reason. That's the point to stop and call.
Most no-heat calls are a repair — a control, an ignition component, a cutoff, a pump. Where a boiler is genuinely past its service life we'll say so, and we'll be honest about which parts of the job can be finished tonight to get heat back and which are better done properly in daylight rather than improvised at 2 AM.
Yes. The rezoned corridors along Atlantic and Pitkin Avenues brought in sealed-combustion combi and modern hot-water systems, and our technicians carry what they need for those as well as for a century-old one-pipe steam boiler six blocks away.
All regulated plumbing, gas, and permit-required work is completed by appropriately licensed partner professionals in accordance with New York's licensing and permitting requirements. Routine repairs and installations are performed directly by our own technicians.
No heat in East New York right now?
We answer emergency calls 24/7 from our shop at 657 Hinsdale St.