DIY gas cooker installation?

[eddystone]

I'm finding it difficult to locate a marine gas fitter in the Southampton area. The one I was recommended at Ocean Village is long tern sick. However he did indicate that he wouldn't touch my Flavel Vanessa for the usual reasons and that the hint of yellow on full flame is indicative of internal corrosion. So, if I get a new cooker I should have more time to spare getting the gimbal fitting right than a fitter would. But I also need a new braided hose and I've no knowledge/experience of how to make the connection to the cooker and to the rigid pipe except you have to use an olive. I don't have any immediate insurance issues so would I be stupid to try this myself with prior knowledge or is it fairly straightforward? The regulator and attached flexible hose seem OK and are in date.

 

[{151760}]

The connections are exactly the same as water plumbing compression fittings but smaller. They couldn't be easier to fit. You put the main body on one side (permanently fixed on the braided hose) the nut on the other bit, the small copper pipe protruding from the cooker, with the olive between, then tighten the nut. Some put sealant on the threads, others say not. There will be lots of people telling you that only a qualified gas fitter should work on gas.
I replaced my Flavel with a Spinflo Nelson, which is exactly the same size, though the swinging arrangement is different. I had the installation checked by a qualified fitter, so don't flame me!

 

[Tranona]

While just connecting the cooker is straightforward, given the age of the installation you may want to check and possibly change the whole lot - or at least the regulator on the bottle end. Pretty sure your bottle installation would not meet the latest recommendations so you might give some thought to that as well. Suggest you pop into Calor Southern in Southampton as they have a good guide on installations plus will find a fitter for you if you want to go that route. To reduce costs when I redid mine, I exposed all the pipework so the fitter just had to run the new pipe and connect the cooker then give it a certificate.

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

Washing up liquid is your friend. Use it diluted on all joints you make, and any others for that matter too.
Things you can do that will i9mpress any inspector.....
From the bottle top regulator use flexible hose to a bubble leak indicator, from there use preferably solid pipe to a 1/4 turn service tap at the back of the cooker. Then its braided hose and compression fitting as described by StormNorm.
You can get flexible installation hose, flexible in that you may bend it once or twice then clip down, its good for commercial land installations, maybe good for boats too, saves a whole load of pipe bending jiggery.

 

[VicS]

I'm finding it difficult to locate a marine gas fitter in the Southampton area. The one I was recommended at Ocean Village is long tern sick. However he did indicate that he wouldn't touch my Flavel Vanessa for the usual reasons and that the hint of yellow on full flame is indicative of internal corrosion. So, if I get a new cooker I should have more time to spare getting the gimbal fitting right than a fitter would. But I also need a new braided hose and I've no knowledge/experience of how to make the connection to the cooker and to the rigid pipe except you have to use an olive. I don't have any immediate insurance issues so would I be stupid to try this myself with prior knowledge or is it fairly straightforward? The regulator and attached flexible hose seem OK and are in date.

I would have suggested Gas check Marine who seemed to have a good reputation but they have apparently been taken over by Apollo gas

Worth a try, it you prefer not to DIY ............... http://www.apollogas.co.uk/

 

[VicS]

Washing up liquid is your friend. Use it diluted on all joints you make, and any others for that matter too.

Washing up liquid is generally frowned upon because they say it is corrosive.

A spray can of leak detector wont break the bank.

 

[stav]

Scary thing to fit and a scary thing to advise on, gas is dangerous stuff. But I have always done my own and am not qualified but then my dad was a plumber and I spent hours 'helping', otherwise known today as child slave labour......

It isn't rocket science but care is needed on simple things like not overtightening, taking care with routing the pipe etc.

Videos on youtube show some basic but not many on actual gas work, wonder why? I bought a handheld lpg gas detetcor for about £30. As for internal corrosion, mostly just the cast iron burners need cleaning. Did mine only the other day (on a diferent cooker) but might still consider changeing the cooker to aquire flamefailure as stikes me as quite important. Canalboat forukm seem keen to discuss such like.

To get you started:

https://youtu.be/eQGL8MBLlaE

Look at the second half, fitting copper pipe. On my pipes I lightly tigthen so the olive starts to engage then undo and add a smear of gastite just where the olice sits in to the fitting then tighten up.

Take care with it and check, check, check.

 

[VicS]

There is agood guide to using compression fittings on lpg systems here

http://www.thomson-caravans.co.uk/advice/diyprojects/gascompressionfitting.htm


Note copper olives and no jointing compound!

 

[pvb]

It does no harm to put a smear of jointing compound on compression fittings. Just as it does no harm to use a sudsy solution of washing-up liquid for leak testing.

 

[vyv_cox]

Washing up liquid is generally frowned upon because they say it is corrosive.

A spray can of leak detector wont break the bank.

I believe that salt is used to thicken washing up liquid. The corrosive effects may be overstated when discussing a yacht in a marine environment.

 

[matthew99]

The chap who helped me replace ours used a pressure tester to check the integerity of the system. His view was not to use any paste or PTFE tape on the joints on the basis that the olives are meant to work without and something is wrong if you need to use a packing. I'm not an expert, he was, and both seem good principles.

If you go down the DIY route the pressure tester gives you piece of mind. The routing and fixing of the pipework might be the trickier of the tasks.

 

[Pasarell]

If you want someone to do the work for you contact Dave Stopard of MSEL at Ocean Quay, just down the road from Ocean Village. e-mail: info@msel.co.uk or call on 07971 624295.
He did all the work on my last boat, including replaced old Flavel Vanessa with Nelson Spinflo. Replaced flexible pipes and fitted regulator in the gas locker, tested the whole system and supplied insurance certificate.
He's also the person who arranged the gas explosion on the YM project boat a couple of years ago. As far as I know that was a one off!

 

[eddystone]

If you want someone to do the work for you contact Dave Stopard of MSEL at Ocean Quay, just down the road from Ocean Village. e-mail: info@msel.co.uk or call on 07971 624295.
He did all the work on my last boat, including replaced old Flavel Vanessa with Nelson Spinflo. Replaced flexible pipes and fitted regulator in the gas locker, tested the whole system and supplied insurance certificate.
He's also the person who arranged the gas explosion on the YM project boat a couple of years ago. As far as I know that was a one off!

It was Dave Stopard who emailed me that he was not working at the moment due to long term sickness.
My system was checked out less than 3 years ago and new (proper) regulator and flexible hose fitted and new braided hose and cut-off. It's just that until I realised what was happening spills from the cooker were pooling and caused corrosion of the braided hose. I'm generally hostile to the notion of replacing old things that still work but a few times I've turned the cooker off at the tap and forgotten to turn off at the knob - you can guess what happens next so flame failure devices seem like a good idea.