120 years of innovation, quality and service

Willis Heating & Plumbing Co. Ltd. was founded in Belfast in 1887 and was born out of the demand for piped water and town gas supplies that were being installed in Belfast at that time. Willis Heating and Plumbing have just celebrated their 120th birthday after years of revolutionary design. Willis are synonymous within the Plumbing and Heating Industry for continuous business, marking years of growth innovation, invention and memories. Willis Heating and Plumbing have had an eye for niche markets over the years and those various markets can be seen in our innovation throughout the years.

The company spans through four generations of the Willis family, and is very much a family orientated firm.

Within the company we have become a family of our own and when you look at the amount of time that people have been here it shows how we work. From the beginning most employees started out as an apprentice and ended up being with us their entire working life. That is still the case with many employees having worked for us over 20 or 30 years.

The Company’s early success was built on William Willis’s prowess as an inventor and continued through the generations with Frederick Willis, Jack Willis and currently John Willis. All have had their own success in constantly innovating and developing new ideas to ensure the company lives on.

1887 - Present

As our history shows, the Willis name has always been associated with innovation, quality, service and performance. This remains true of the Company today.
Our success and reputation has ensured repeat business and negotiated orders over the last 120 years, an unrivalled record which speaks for itself.

The Willis
Solasyphon

Fourth generation John Willis, Jacks Son’s team invented the Willis Solasyphon. The invention came about through the company’s work within the renewables sector. With over 300 retrofit installations of evacuated tube solar heating systems they kept coming up with the problem of having to replace the hot water storage cylinder. This was a waste of perfectly good copper water cylinders and was also very expensive and time consuming.

So the team got to work creating the Willis Solasyphon – a vertical heat exchanger that simply connects into the system without the need to rip out the hot water storage cylinder.

The Willis
Immersion Heater

Third generation, Jack Willis, Fred Willis’ son, invented probably the best known of all the Willis inventions, the Willis Immersion Heater. At one time there was hardly a household in Northern Ireland that did not have a Willis Immersion Heater, and a high proportion still have.

The Willis
Hydraulic Ram

William heard of an invention by Etienne Montgolfier (of hot air balloon fame) called an hydraulic ram, that utilised the force of water from a flowing stream to drive a pump capable of lifting water to a higher level.

William Willis turned his mind to developing and improving on the idea and came up with the Willis Improved Hydraulic Ram. His design was to prove so successful in terms of performance and reliability that there are still working Willis rams about the modern countryside today.

The Willis
Grate Back Boiler

Fred Willis, William’s son, invented one of the first domestic open grate back boilers. The Willis Grate Back Boiler was soon to become a household name, not only in Northern Ireland, but further a field. Many homes still have these boilers fitted and working today.