Worcester Bosch Greenstar 24i Boiler Failure

[Valvebloke]

I'm afraid the cynical among us might suspect that The Gas Safe Register aren't entirely disinterested when it comes to advising us on whether we need to call out one of their members.

VB

[ppppenguin]

There is no doubt about working on gas appliances as a paid job - you must be an RGI. Working on your own appliances is less clear. Unless things have changed recently the law says you must be competent to do so but doesn't define competent. So it's a retrospective judgement - if you and your house survive then you were adequately competent, otherwise not. Even less clear is doing work informally for a friend without payment.

As for the competence of RGIs that's another question. The law says they are competent by virtue of having passed the relevant exams to become an RGI but real life experience suggests otherwise in too many cases.

As for CORGI, that's now just a members' club and carries no official recognition.

[Valvebloke]

There is no doubt about working on gas appliances as a paid job - you must be an RGI ...

Weeeeeelll ... even The Gas Safe Register concede that some work can be carried out on a gas appliance by 'other tradespersons' (see the pdf link above). They argue that it needs one of their people though if the work involves, for example, 'disturbing a module that controls the combustion process'. Is there really no doubt about what that means ?

VB

[ppppenguin]

There is always a grey area. That PDF cites the trivial example of removing a control knob but let's take something more controversial: Connecting/disconnecting the bayonnet fitting of a gas cooker. If you take a very strict view, this must be done by an RGI, despite the fact it's trivial to do and needs no tools. Of course there could be a fault with the fitting or you might not tighten it until it clicks. But we are at liberty to connect and disconnect LPG cylinders from room heaters etc, a process that's hardly different.

[boater sam]

And those LPG or propane cylinders are a greater risk as the gasses are generally heavier than air, the gas can disperse into drains etc rather than into the upper atmosphere, and at greater pressures.

[pwdrive]

Lots of boats down here, a few tragic bangs over the years as well.

Lawrence.

[boater sam]

The newer Propane and butane cylinders have a fire plug that melts to vent the gas, they don't go bang anymore but the flame through the vent must be horrendous.

Living on a narrowboat, I ensure that the bilge can never be full of gas by having the bilge scavenged by the engine box cooling fan and the combustion air for the engine (diesel) is also drawn from the bilge.

The only flexible gas hose is on the bottle after the regulator and gets changed every 4 years for the boat safety inspection.

But I change the hose, the bottle and the regulator (occasionally ) myself as does every liveaboard owner I know. None are registered to work on any gas let alone bottled gas. I was Corgi registered years ago but it no longer counts as "competent " in the legal interpretation.

The boat inspector uses a manometer to leak test, on the test nipple fitted in the gas pipe, which he removes, and refits afterwards. But he is not registered as Gas Safe.

He cannot use a test nipple that is part of an appliance, as otherwise he would have to recommission the appliance  which he is not qualified to do.

Very few liveaboard owners do NOT do their own gas fitting I have found, the fittings, appliances and spare parts are readily available from any decent chandlery without question.

Considering this, very few boats do go bang. Most are fired by accident involving petrol, candles or vandalism.

[Valvebloke]

... very few boats do go bang ...

Very few houses do too, and even fewer are actually the result of a fault rather than carelessness (a cooker ring or gas fire turned on but not lit) or tragedy (people taking their own lives). I'm much more frightened by the risk of CO poisoning.

VB

[ed731pdh]

Gas regs are all very well but from personal experience I can say that even the professionals can get it wrong.

Witness me moving out of the smoke and buying my first house, a two bed bungalow in the sticks. Every so often when I walked into the lounge I'd get an odd whiff of gas in the nose, and then it was gone. This went on for a couple of months with no obvious sign of where. Finally, I moved on and started decorating the room. The fireplace was open as the gas fire that was there had been at some point in the past disconnected and removed. I wanted to chisel out the hearth a bit to install a new fireplace and flush burner, which required the removal of the old fireplace carefully around the sealed off 8mm gas pipe. At this point the smell of gas got really strong, and old carpet being pulled out around the corner where the pipe eminated was saturated in gas. Tracing the pipe back I found that the so called gas engineer who had taken the burner out had left the pipe union finger tight if that and the whole union was breathing like a paper bag.

Gas off, pipe off, cleaned up, correctly dressed and tightened. Gas on and tested with soapy water and a brush. No issues.

Like I said, even the professionals get it wrong.