Specialist

Gas and the great outdoors

Outdoor gas cooking and heating equipment needs to be safety checked in the same way as gas appliances used inside the home. Here, we look at the requirements and best practice, and find out the challenges and common problems in this specialist field.

Now that summer is here and people are spending more time in the garden with their families and friends, it’s important to make sure that gas appliances used outside are maintained in safe working order.

If you’re asked to carry out safety checks or maintenance work to gas garden appliances, whether they are fuelled by LPG or natural gas, you must hold the ACS element Leisure (LEI1) along with the relevant core safety element and change-over element if required.

Outdoor cooking and heating equipment should be treated with the same respect and caution as those inside the home – and your customers should know that if it rains in the middle of their barbecue or event, they must not relocate any outdoor gas appliances indoors.

Testing a garden appliance

The following is guidance and advice on what you should check when you’re working on leisure equipment. The list is not exhaustive and may not include every item: remember to consult the appliance manufacturer’s instructions for more detail.

Most leisure appliances are intended for outside use only and must be used strictly in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, observing basic safety guidance.

The combustion products from gas appliances are very hot and contain harmful gases, and under no circumstances should they be used in an enclosed space such as inside a tent, marquee or close to umbrellas. If the manufacturer’s instructions allow, an appliance may be used under an awning, provided that the awning doesn’t impede the escape of products of combustion.

Take care when positioning the appliance close to balconies or terraces so that the products of combustion do not affect people or property at burner level. If the appliance appears unstable in high wind, it should be turned off and repositioned in a more sheltered location. Do not move appliances when they are alight.

Gas appliances must be assembled by a competent person in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and should be tested for gas tightness and safety before they are used. The maintenance requirements for leisure items should be detailed in the appliance MIs, and inspecting ancillary items such as the cylinder, its location, controls and hoses should be part of the safety check.

Essential checks

The following should be checked: • Cylinder location and position in relation to the appliance and general surroundings • Cylinder stability • Cylinder isolation valve (does it shut off?) • Cylinder must be the correct type for the appliance (ie, butane or propane) and the size specified by the manufacturer’s instructions • A suitable regulator must be fitted (28mbar butane or 37mbar propane). The gas type and pressure required will be specified by the appliance manufacturer’s instructions • The gas type and pressure should be supplied and regulated in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions • The regulator must be in good order and functioning correctly • Hose condition, age and suitability for purpose • All final gas connections should be checked using a suitable leak detection fluid.

The condition of the hose connecting the regulator to the appliance inlet should be checked each time the cylinder is replaced. If any defects are found, it should be replaced with a hose conforming to BS 3212 type 2.

After changing a cylinder, if a persistent smell of gas is present, the appliance(s) must not be used and the gas supply should be shut off at the cylinder valve. The smell must be investigated and rectified before the appliance is used again.

Flexible hoses, tubing and associated assemblies shall only be used for the connection between a cylinder-mounted regulator, the appliance or to the rigid pipework installation if applicable.

Where flexible pipework is used, it shall be as short as possible while preventing excessive strain on its end connections and must allow smooth swept bends with no kinking. Support flexible pipework if necessary.

Do not use flexible pipes if they show any physical damage, environmental deterioration or service failure. Where flexible connections are used, electrical continuity shall be maintained where applicable. Unless specifically designed for the application, flexible pipes shall not be subjected to temperatures in excess of 50°C and must not pass through walls, floors, ceilings or partitions.

Flexible pipes shall be marked with their appropriate standard BS 3212, BSEN 1763-1 or BSEN 16436-1. Typical hose markings can be seen in the diagram above.

Finally, if nice weather arrives, enjoy it, stay safe – and always make sure the chicken is properly cooked through. ■

Identification of hoses, tubing and assemblies for use with LPG

Flexible tubing conforming to BS EN 16436-1 shall not be used after the declared expiry date. While no expiry date, specific service life or exchange interval is specified for flexible hoses, tubing and associated assemblies in BS 3212 or BSEN 1763-1, it is unlikely that the service life would exceed 10 years and therefore replacement at this age is recommended. For hoses conforming to BSEN 16436-1 (class 2 and 3) no expiry date, specific service life or exchange interval is currently specified and it is unlikely that the service life would exceed 10 years, so replacement at this age is recommended.

Source: British Standard 6891

Liquid Gas UK CoP 24 Part 1 provides guidance on the installation, maintenance, and repair of appliances for leisure purposes (barbecues, patio heaters, etc).

Your customers can find useful guidance from Liquid Gas UK at:

www.liquidgasuk.org/domestic/consumer-guidance-sheets

Rings of fire

Gas engineer Gary Mellor has become something of a specialist in installing and repairing fire tables and fire pits. Here he talks to Registered Gas Engineer about his experiences and the challenges and pitfalls.

Gary has seen demand skyrocket for his skills and knowledge in installing fire tables and firepits. The west London sole trader knows only too well the problems that can arise without careful planning before any installation takes place.

He often works within the affluent communities in leafy Surrey, in homes whose owners want to add an eye-catching fiery centrepiece to their garden. His first fire table installation was in 2014 and initially he was fitting two or three a year. Now he says that’s jumped to three or four a month. “Previously it was just a summertime thing and that was nice – boilers in winter and fire tables in the summer. But now I install them all year round.”

Much of his business comes from Solus Decor, which has a showroom in Cobham and recommends him to customers who have set their heart on a fire table. The LPG and LEI1-qualified engineer says he often works with landscapers and complications can arise if he isn’t involved in the plans from an early stage.

“Most of the time, customers would prefer natural gas but that’s a whole lot more work [than using LPG],” he says. When a customer wants to use natural gas to supply their fire table, Gary has to consider not only the amount of gas that the domestic meter can deliver, on top of any other appliances in the property, but the pipework route too. “The problems arise when the pipe’s already in and I know that the meter’s not big enough – and the grid can’t upgrade for another two years. Or it’s the wrong type of pipework in the wrong place, and it’s undersized. That’s when we end up with problems.

“Getting me in at the beginning to do a site visit or sending photos would pre-empt all these problems, otherwise they’re just going to run into issues that are harder to sort out – after you’ve already buried the wrong-sized pipe and put a patio on it that’s going to have to be dug up.”

For this reason, most fire table installations run on LPG. “One of the big things I have to point out to customers is where they can site the gas cylinders and where they can site the fire table itself. You can’t put the fire table in a sunken area. A lot of landscapers are putting a sunken patio area with steps all the way around, rising up to the garden: it would

be like filling a bathtub with propane, in the event of a leak.”

However, fire tables, bowls and pits are straightforward to install and service and Gary describes them as quite basic internally.

Encouragingly, the “don’t DIY with gas” message mainly rings true with his customers, but he does sometimes find problems that have arisen because the gas engineers who have worked on the appliance previously do not hold the required qualifications. “They’re working out of scope because they need to have LPG and Leisure,” he says. Mistakes he’s found include the wrong fitings and wrong-sized pipework and, in one instance, the installer had used a radiator fitting on the gas supply and used a soldered fitting but didn’t solder it.

Different gases

Although fire tables make up more of Gary’s business than they used to, he does still work with

local customers on domestic boiler repairs, servicing and installations.

Having started out as a medical gas engineer, he moved into the domestic gas world in the 1990s before taking a break and working in graphics and web design, satisfying his other creative talents. “The medical gases background prepared me for what I’m doing now in a weird way: it’s specialist because it’s a different kind of gas to natural gas.”

When he returned to domestic gas in 2012, he studied hard and passed his City & Guilds NVQ Level 3 covering the whole spectrum of gas work, including LPG and leisure “becoming highly qualified in what I’d been doing for 20-odd years before that”.

Despite it being unusual to work with LPG in London, he says it’s an up-and-coming field that seems to be resilient to rises in the price of gas, driven by people spending more time in their gardens than they used to. ■

The great escape “I was doing a repair and the customer said to me: ‘I’ve been sitting here smoking cigarettes with this gas leak for the past two years, just flicking cigarettes at it’. At least this one was in LPG, which is heavier than air and sinks – had that been in natural gas, it would have been catastrophic.”

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The same safety advice applies to fire tables and fire pits as to all leisure appliances: however, the low-level design of these appliances will require extra attention and caution to be applied when locating the cylinder and hose and when providing guards to prevent accidental ignition of clothing and people coming into contact with the appliance.