Gas safety

Sorry, but that is the predictable response of somebody who is too close to his area of expertise to give an objective view. I'm sure that you have seen things which have not been done properly....and I can hear the tooth sucking from here.

However, you have not answered the question about all the other potential risks involved with boating. I would argue that far more accidents and deaths occur as a result of things other than gas and that therefore these are more important.

It probably also shows that, by and large, DIY gas installations are done well. If they were not we would be having explosions far more frequently.

We have to balance the risks...all the risks. I've seen too many problems caused by "professionals". I prefer to DIY.

As an aside 5 years ago I did consider getting someone in to do the gas on my boat. I even contacted a Corgi fitter. He's still not phoned me back as promised.
 
So what are your areas of expertise that have allowed you to reach your conclusions on life the universe and everything? Done any heart surgery recently..purely DIY you understand ?

Maybe then I can have a 'pop' at you in the way you seem happy to disparage me and others who are quite evidently 'too close to our areas of expertise to have an objective view' on safety matters. Patronising or what!!!!

Tim
 
Not patronising at all, though you are free to take it that way if you wish. You really shouldn't take these things personally.

I am saying that you are too close to look at it objectively because you are looking at just one area of safety in the boating world and ignoring the others.

Perhaps you could answer the point about other safety issues being more important? Do you think that we should always use professionals for engine maintenance, electrical work, plumbing etc? Why is gas more important?
 
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Why on earth does every potential danger have to mean that we should use professionals?



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Of course you don`t have to …feel free to fit a gas cooker …water heater or any other appliance in your boat…you are not breaking any laws ….you can pipe up warm air heaters and fit new pipework to your hearts content …..nobody cares……until something goes wrong ….then everybody cares …

If you have to do it yourself at least get someone to do a safety check and issue a certificate…if only to keep your insurers happy…

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[quoteIf you have to do it yourself at least get someone to do a safety check and issue a certificate…if only to keep your insurers happy…
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Nice try but my insurers accepted my surveyors report that everything was OK. So I won't be using the Corgi closed shop just yet.
 
You think youre covered .....believe me if you have a gas related accident the first question will be ...who fitted that....

Why do you think they employ loss adjusters..??

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So you are quite happy to let him put other people's lives in danger then?


[/ QUOTE ] Giblets, if you had read my post you would see that I did complain . . . my comment indicated that I did not feel my complaint had been taken very seriously.

As I have used two CORGI installers in total and both made potentially lethal errors I think my opinion is justified - how many more idiots should I allow to make an attempt on my liofe to see if I have just been unlucky?

Seems to me that the only people defending CORGI on here are CORGI installers themselves.

Anyway, the rest of you do what you want but a) I couldn't find a CORGI installer to come to my boat if I wanted to and b) if I could I couldn't afford it and c) even if a) and b) were not true I would still rather do it myself as I don't believe a piece of paper saying a tradesman is competent if necessarily worth the wood it was made from.

- W
 
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if you had read my post you would see that I did complain . . . my comment indicated that I did not feel my complaint had been taken very seriously.


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Regretfully you complained to the wrong people i.e. Calor, who are, after all, just another company registered to carry out gas works. Had you complained to CORGI then I feel you may have received a very different reponse.
 
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You think youre covered .....believe me if you have a gas related accident the first question will be ...who fitted that....

Why do you think they employ loss adjusters..??

....

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Ahh! The old fear tactic used to defend the self interest of a closed shop.
I am no more concerned about that than I am concerned about the insurance company turning down a claim if I were to hit a rock and didn't have a professional navigator on board.

But, as you want to imply that it would be a problem......How many insurance claims have been turned down as a result of not having a Corgi installation?
 
As a self-confessed bodger, and as I have no wish to find my testicles proceeding my eustachian tube in an upwards trajectory I did use a Corgi fitter, and didn't feel ripped off by the price.

Mind you, I could be influenced by the fact that I've seen the result of a gas cylinder exploding. It demolished the changing rooms at my school and killed a workman.
 
Yes, I've seen the result of a gas explosion too. Twenty feet away from where I was sitting in the garden. A whole room destroyed. Luckily there was a weak point and it blew out through the bay window.
Yes, we had the professionals in at the time!
 
My tuppence worth.....?

I'm shortly to do a replacement kitchen, which will involve inter alia moving the 40A cooker 'lecky control panel, and running the gas supply to a different position. Yes, I want a proper, safe job - just like the original installation, which I did 20 years ago. Today, the Regs insist I must employ TWO professionals, and my wife reminds me of the CORGI-registered fitter who came to install our replacement combi boiler a few years ago.

I found him doing a 'live' 'lecky wire-in, without isolating the mains or anything, and while sitting on the damp floor of the undercroft ( by the combi boiler ) physically right on top of the T/T earth spike and earth bonding cable. He couldn't understand my expressed concern, and got quite miffed when I tripped off the main supply until he'd finished......

When I spoke to CORGI about it, they couldn't quite stifle their extreme lack of interest. "We presume he's insured," they said.

The issue for me is not that I have no confidence in professional tradespeeps - but how do I find one who WILL work professionally? The letters painted on the side of the van are no guide to competence in practice, and I know from warnings that the firm that sub-contracts the Local Authority's 'Part P' 'lecky safety checks are simply cowboys with an LA contract. What's a customer to do.....?

And that's why I have a collection of 'old-code' electrical cable..... so I can make damn sure that minor alterations are done properly.


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Ahh! The old fear tactic used to defend the self interest of a closed shop.


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Drat !!!!!….Ive been rumbled …and there`s me so desperate for work I was hoping you would have me travel across to do some overpaid work on your boat….

Looks like the old scare tactic is wasted on you …you saw right through me…

well done..


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Hi

WOW, just dug this up showing a colleague what happened, I was on the TS Royalist the very moment the explosion happened in Poole, Lord Trenchard moored alongside us, thankfully the Steel Hull may have saved countless lives as it defelcted the explosion out into the harbour itself.
 
One thing to remember with boats is that they move a lot more than houses.
I believe a gas system needs to be looked over by the skipper of a boat more than once a year.
It does not need an expert to spot chafing, damage, loose bottles, loose fittings etc, but these all happen on boats due to stuff moving in weather etc.

It also amazes me how many people don't understand that gas is in fact a gas not a liquid, therefore will not all drain downwards but will diffuse in all directions. Gas lockers open at the top to any confined space are not worth the name.

Gas is remarkably safe if used halfway sensibly. Carbon Monoxide is arguably more dangerous, and the oil fired stoves favoured by people afraid of LPG can be more prone to CO problems.

Also think about how much gas you use and when the bottle runs out. I know of a boat where we could not find a leak, but after we changed the cooker and all the piping, gas consumption fell remarkably. Food for thought?
 
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