Pasarell
Well-Known Member
A warning to check the valves on any refurbished Calor cylinders!
I replaced an empty 3.9kg cylinder on my boat yesterday and as I was opening the valve I could feel a cold breeze on my hand where gas was leaking from somewhere. I could also smell it easily. All the installation on the boat is quite new and professionally installed. Within 20 minutes the dealer who supplied the bottle (and refurbished the system) was there with his test gear and quickly found the cylinder valve was faulty.
Replaced the cylinder without question.
Last night I switched the gas on to cook some dinner at about 8PM and at 11PM the gas alarm went off. Low in the boat by the sensor I could smell gas, also in the cockpit and most definitely in the gas locker. I turned the cylinder off, switched all the valves off and put both the leaking cylinder and the spare - also new to me yesterday - on the pontoon. Then spent a couple of hours lifting all the floor boards and flapping a board around to try to disperse any gas left. Fortunately by then there was a breeze through the boat as well so I think I cleared it all. Certainly the alarm didn't go off a 2nd time.
This morning the dealer has checked the cylinder to find it also had a faulty valve. 2 in 24 hours! The leak is around the connector onto the boats system. Mine was quite new but this morning we replaced with another one newly made up and the problem was the same. Not sure about the 3rd cylinder as it was taken away sharpish.
Calor in Southampton say they haven't heard of any other cases, but I wouldn't have known about the 2nd cylinder if the alarm hadn't activated.
My boat is a centre cockpit Moody 33 that was built with a drain from the cockpit gas locker into the cockpit. A previous owner added a drain from the back of the locker down and out through the topsides. He also put a plug of sealant into the drain into the cockpit. Lesson for me this morning is that the plug has gone so there were 2 active drains from the locker. One overboard and one straight into the boat. I had no washboards in as it was so warm so the lip from cockpit into the boat was about 6 inches.
If you have a 3.9kg Calor cylinder with a nice shiny new valve I suggest you check the connection to your system with some soapy water to see if it leaks!
I replaced an empty 3.9kg cylinder on my boat yesterday and as I was opening the valve I could feel a cold breeze on my hand where gas was leaking from somewhere. I could also smell it easily. All the installation on the boat is quite new and professionally installed. Within 20 minutes the dealer who supplied the bottle (and refurbished the system) was there with his test gear and quickly found the cylinder valve was faulty.
Replaced the cylinder without question.
Last night I switched the gas on to cook some dinner at about 8PM and at 11PM the gas alarm went off. Low in the boat by the sensor I could smell gas, also in the cockpit and most definitely in the gas locker. I turned the cylinder off, switched all the valves off and put both the leaking cylinder and the spare - also new to me yesterday - on the pontoon. Then spent a couple of hours lifting all the floor boards and flapping a board around to try to disperse any gas left. Fortunately by then there was a breeze through the boat as well so I think I cleared it all. Certainly the alarm didn't go off a 2nd time.
This morning the dealer has checked the cylinder to find it also had a faulty valve. 2 in 24 hours! The leak is around the connector onto the boats system. Mine was quite new but this morning we replaced with another one newly made up and the problem was the same. Not sure about the 3rd cylinder as it was taken away sharpish.
Calor in Southampton say they haven't heard of any other cases, but I wouldn't have known about the 2nd cylinder if the alarm hadn't activated.
My boat is a centre cockpit Moody 33 that was built with a drain from the cockpit gas locker into the cockpit. A previous owner added a drain from the back of the locker down and out through the topsides. He also put a plug of sealant into the drain into the cockpit. Lesson for me this morning is that the plug has gone so there were 2 active drains from the locker. One overboard and one straight into the boat. I had no washboards in as it was so warm so the lip from cockpit into the boat was about 6 inches.
If you have a 3.9kg Calor cylinder with a nice shiny new valve I suggest you check the connection to your system with some soapy water to see if it leaks!
