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Heat pump defective: “My children had to freeze”

Julia Holzinger and her children were without heat and emergency heating in their home for two weeks.(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

After two weeks in the cold and without hot water, a family in the Salzburg municipality of Grödig is at the end of their tether. Their heat pump has a long history of faults - and it remains to be seen what needs to be done. It will definitely be expensive ...

With two small children, Julia Holzinger from Grödig finds herself without a functioning heating system just before Christmas. The family has had a heat pump for eight years and has had constant problems with it. Despite a maintenance contract, the appliance had never heated for more than three months without a fault, and several parts had been replaced. In mid-November, the Vaillant heating system broke down completely.