LavaTap KoGE Boiling Water Tap Troubleshooting Guide

If the display shows an E followed by a number, this table takes you straight to the answer.

Please do not open the boiler to investigate — it is not user-serviceable, and opening it will affect your guarantee.

Water under the sink or around the tank

Switch off at the socket first, then close the isolation valves under the sink. Dry everything with a towel and watch for a minute to see where the water is actually coming from — the connections, the body of the tank, or the base of the tap. That one observation saves a lot of time.

Two causes account for most of these:

• Connections tightened with a spanner. The 3/8 inch BSP connections on the tank are meant to be hand-tightened. A spanner can crack the internal seals, and the leak often appears days or weeks after fitting rather than straight away.
• Water pressure above 5 bar. The system is designed for 1.5 to 5 bar. Above that a pressure-reducing valve is needed, and high pressure will find the weakest seal eventually.

Neither is something to fix yourself. Send us a photo or short video of where the water is coming from and we will take it from there.

The tap drips or runs when it is turned off

There are three causes, and the first two cost nothing to fix.

A few drops after drawing boiling water is normal. The expansion chamber clears itself, and very small draws make it worse. Draw off around half a litre in one go rather than a splash at a time, and avoid drawing less than 150ml. Then unscrew the aerator at the end of the spout, rinse it and refit it.

Check for a syphon. This one surprises people. Look under the sink at the pipe running between the tank and the tap. If it dips down and back up in a U shape or a loop anywhere along its length, that U can act as a syphon and quietly pull water out of the tank and out through the spout — even with the tap firmly closed.

Lift and re-route the pipe so it runs in a continuous downhill line with no dips in it. That alone very often stops the dripping, and it is worth checking before you assume anything is broken.

A constant trickle that is not a syphon is usually the tap cartridge. Close the isolation valves under the sink and contact us — there is a bucket test we or your installer can run to confirm it.

What normal actually looks like

This is the one that surprises people most, so it is worth knowing before you decide something is broken. The boiling side of your tap is not pressurised — it is fed by an open vent, by design, and it will never run like the mains side does.

In practice, a mug takes around 20 to 25 seconds to fill. There is also a short pause before boiling water arrives, and a slightly longer one just after somebody has drawn a lot off. Neither is a fault.

So is yours actually faulty?

• It has got slower over weeks or months. That is the filter, nine times out of ten. Replace it with a genuine KoGE filter — this is also a condition of your guarantee, and they need changing at least every six months regardless.
• The filter reminder light is flashing. That is your six-month prompt rather than a fault. Fit a new filter, then switch the unit off and hold the set-up button for five seconds to reset the reminder.
• It has always been like this since it was fitted. It may well be normal, using the figures above. If it is well below them, the likely causes are supply pressure outside 1.5 to 5 bar, or a hose kinked behind the units during installation. Contact us.
• Nothing comes out at all. Check the isolation valves under the sink are open, then unscrew and rinse the aerator. If both are fine, contact us.
• On a 4-in-1, the filtered cold is slow. Same answer as boiling — change the filter first.

First, what do the two numbers mean? The left number is the temperature the water in the tank has actually reached. The right number is the temperature it is trying to reach. So a display reading 14°C on the left and 98°C on the right means the tank is cold and either heating up, or has stopped trying.

Has there been a power cut?

This is the most common cause of a tank that will not heat, and it is not a fault. After a power cut the unit switches itself off and loses its target temperature. To bring it back:

1. Hold the On/Off key (A) for three seconds. The display should light up.
2. Press the Temperature key (B) repeatedly to cycle through 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 90 and then 91 to 98°C. Stop at the temperature you want.
3. The display flashes three times to confirm.
4. Wait three to five minutes. The left number should start climbing.

If the left number rises towards your setting, the unit is working normally. If nothing has happened after ten minutes with the target set to 85°C or higher, contact us — that points at the element or a sensor.

Other reasons it may not be heating

The display is dead. This is the power supply rather than the tank. Check the plug is in, the socket is switched on, and the fuse and circuit breaker have not tripped. The tank draws 1.5kW, so it can trip a busy kitchen circuit if the kettle and toaster are going at the same time. If the display stays dead with power confirmed, contact us.

The circuit keeps tripping. Unplug the kettle, toaster and microwave, reset the breaker and try the tap on its own. If it works, the circuit is overloaded rather than the tank being faulty, and an electrician can sort it. If it still trips with everything else unplugged, contact us.

It heats, but not as hot as I set it. The tank does not top up continuously. It waits until the water has dropped 5°C below your setting before it reheats. So if you set 98°C and the left number reads 93°C, that is the system working as designed. If it drifts further than that and does not recover, contact us.

It has never heated properly since it was fitted. Please tell us this when you get in touch. A tank that was powered up before it was filled with water will have burned out its element on day one, and that is a different conversation from one that has stopped working.

Cloudy or milky water is almost always air, not a problem. Very hot water holds dissolved air, which comes out as tiny bubbles and makes the water look cloudy for a moment.

Here is the test: pour a glass and watch it. If it clears from the bottom upwards within about a minute, that is air and there is nothing wrong. It is most noticeable on a new installation and just after a filter change.

If it does not clear, or there is grit, or the water tastes different, change the filter. After fitting a new one, run two or three litres through to flush the line before you judge it.

Steam or spitting from the boiling spout means the water is at boiling point. Open the tap halfway to release some water, then lower the set temperature by 5 to 10°C. If you live high above sea level, water boils below 100°C, so set the maximum at least 2°C below your local boiling point.

Spraying or a scattered stream on the mains hot or cold is usually the aerator at the end of the spout, either blocked with limescale or damaged. Unscrew it, rinse it thoroughly and refit it. If the mesh is torn or deformed it needs replacing — get in touch and we will sort one out.

Please check your tap and tank for damage within 24 hours of delivery and before anything is fitted. Look at the tank casing and lid, and along the tap body.

If something is damaged, do not fit it. Photograph it where it lies, keep the packaging, and contact us straight away. We will replace it.

This one matters: once a damaged item has been installed, a claim becomes much harder to make. Two minutes of checking on the doorstep protects you completely.

Have these to hand and we will usually resolve things in one exchange rather than three:

• Your proof of purchase, and the date it was installed
• Whether it has ever worked properly
• When the filter was last changed, and the receipt if you have it
• Any code showing on the display

A short video helps enormously. Film the display, the tap running, and the pipework and connections under the sink. If it is a leak, show us where the water is actually coming from. We need this to make a claim with the manufacturer, so it saves a step for everyone.