Your worst unsafe situation.

[Paul Barker]

I was called to an unsafe situation T had cut off due to leak from gas valve of Mexico.

Without investigating further, except to check ventilation provision was satisfactory (which it was), I ordered the sit valve. (the smaller mexicos have a sit).

Went and fitted it yesterday, fired up boiler, kitchen full of steam, I mean instant sauna.

Took boiler apart, oh dear bad news it isn't the boiler coaked up. Up on roof, oh dear the terminal is an excellent one (one of those £50 touches) and the flue is lined and my electricians fibreglass rods found their way back into the boiler. No visible obstruction top or bottom, no dead baby seaguls.

BUT flue position was very poor, 3ft from main wall of building on back addition with a whole story of main building towering above it.

Back down to boiler, bomb in flue. Not a single hint of a whiff came out of flue terminal, entire house like world war I nomans land after an over the top order.

Never seen spillage like it. How the previous occupants are allive I have no idea. I recon I've saved three lives yesterday anyway.

New Alpha band A regular boiler going in Friday and I have a spare sit gas valve for my mexico at home.

 

[namsag]

Here are just a few situations found over the years.. Standard gas fire fitted as balanced flue... Fires fitted back to back in same flue.... Soap used to seal fittings instead of solder (with the comment when it drys out it smells a bit so i put more on).... 8mm joined to 15mm with electical insulating tape.....Gas meter removed and bypass made of bicycle inner tube used.... Numerous cookers fitted on garden hose pipes. God knows how many DIY flue alterations.. Gas fire chimney capped off with a concretre slab an used every day for a couple of months unbelievable that they never died... Back boilers with 2 feet of copex at the bottom an 2 feet at the top with nothing in between..... Amazingly none of these people died and even better some where done by people who are now Corgi. And one that sounds more dangerous than it actually is, Gypsy`s dug up a medium pressure plastic main and cut the top off it then set light to it to get a heat in middle of winter quite an impressive 30 foot flame.

 

[ChrisR]

LPG 24kW fan flued water heater with no flue, installed in an underground shower room. It was a Zanussi , in a cave hotel in Tunisian desert.

 

[nickso]

my last bad one was a brand new baxi back boiler commisioned 4 hrs before i got there......copex jammed right thru flue hood and resting on the shelf below.....no annular seal.....15mb at the inlet from a 15mm pipe running more than 11 metres to the meter.....vitiation tube blocked with stag red sealant....gas leak on gas cock....no ventilation and finally an airlock in the pump.

couldnt believe he left so many faults on one install

said i was taking the **** when i riddor'd him

 

[Alfredo]

I've not been in the industry all that long, and only had one that really frightened me earlier this year.

Called out one evening to "No Heat" (housing assoc). Got there and found it was a young family i knew (they'd moved). As I entered the kitchen that 'sickly' incomplete combustion smell hit me, and i took the front straight of the elderly Mexico CF slimline to see a very wavy lazy yellow flame. I turned it straight off, opened doors/windows and asked if anyone had not been well....All of them..so I hit the panic button and got em straight off to hospital where it was confirmed they had CO.

The boiler had sooted up from a failed/leaking heat exchanger cooling the combustion. All the usual paperwork. Lucky escape thanks I guess to 1) wind howling in through ventilator in kitchen 2) Boiler not being in sitting room where they spent most of their family time 3) boiler being switched off at night.

And all they were initially worried about was the rads not getting hot enough. Their recovery was thankfully swift and they now have a G Worm 30CXi

On a lighter note I brought some appalling self installed pipework from a gas fire home to show the lads next day. I showed it to my 17 year old son who took a look at it and concluded "Hmmm...Comedy Pipework" He was spot on.

Alfredo

 

[scatmanjohn]

they now have a G Worm 30CXi

what a bummer

 

[Gas2Air]

A few but..Transco follow up job. CO detector going off. Customer had moved in a month before and luckily taken his COD with him. Previously rented via private landlord. No CH boiler, just a water heater which was ok.

Found the fire in lounge, looked fine looking at it, no signs of spillage etc however, Valor Homeflame fitted into a cavity wall. That was it. No chimney/flue to speak of, no closure plate, just a cavity wall, chopped out to take the flue spigot.

Have no idea who carried out the work but it seemed 2-3 years old at the time.

Needless to say i left it on.

 

[andsam]

Got called to a Glow worm ultimate still under warranty and leaking. The cable connecting it to the power supply looked like a cooker flex and it was plugged into a socket.

It was connected to a sealed system feeding 2 cylinders. There was a filling loop to help pressurise but that is all they fit.

No pressure guage
No blow off
No expansion Vessel.
No interupter on boiler.
No pump.

They had fired it up and then complained when the heat exchanger started to leak. How the building was still standing was beyond me. ( glow worm cast iron ht/ex are well made )

Now I was starting to panic a bit because I couldnt work out if the boiler was still on and no one could speak good English. I isloated the boiler and quickley left the building and reported it .

It was obvious they thought it was a combi but swore blind a CORGI installer did it but they could not find his details. I felt angry as I felt my own life was in danger.

Andsam

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

and to add.... no return air on an j/starley 55/65 who customers had SPENT 8 GRAND ON THE INSTALL.

It goes on, you make them safe and us RGI's take the flack for a proper repair with costs it incurrs.

David

 

[Gas2Air]

and to add.... no return air on an j/starley 55/65 who customers had SPENT 8 GRAND ON THE INSTALL.

It goes on, you make them safe and us RGI's take the flack for a proper repair with costs it incurrs.

David

True, ive seen a few, that and when fitted always being undersized!

 

[Gasguru]

Fibre cement flue removed from the warm air unit located in the kitchen cupboard.

The properties new owners surveyor told them the flue was dangerous (asbestos) and the surveyors recomended contractor removed the flue (and sealed up and plastered the flue hole in the ceiling).


Flames coming out the front of a warm air unit - the heat exchanger was totally blocked with soot (the adjustable primary air port rings had
swivelled around).

Flames coming out the front of a Baxi BBU. Luckily the wiring and thermostat box had gone ionto meltdown shutting off the unit.

Various open ended gas pipes left after biulders had finished renovations.

 

[namsag]

Gasguru... flames coming out of a bbu . when doing local auhority contracts we used to take a weeks turn at doing these anyone who found them passed them back to the one guy.... In winter we would do 30 a week.. and take an hour a night cleaning the soot off you

 

[bobw1956]

Whilst doing a service on a gas fire, and a flue flow test.

I noticed a strong smell of smoke in the bedroom above,

on investigation, removing the floor boards, I found that the previous owners had removed the chimney breast, to make more space in the bedroom, and left a 12"x9" hole under the floor boards.

the fire had been working for the last three years,capped off and made safe

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Not the worst I've come across but seeing as we all love eye spy in the Gas Installer here's a very recent one with the story in pictures. Don't ya just love camera phones?

Coffee and Mini Rolls on the job as you can see. Nice.
Hearth a little on the NCS but I can see its an old fire by the 12mm pipe just not used much.
Burns well no signs of any bad combustion.
Hmmm A brick fireplace. Wonder how the back plate is doing?

UH OH !!!

Time for a closer look

WTF?

Slapped!

Capped!

 

[fitz1]

simi detached with downstairs stack removed.Flat wall with fire on , ehh dont seem right.someone had built a false wall 3inch off existing with 3by2 and ply fronted it. the 3by2 formed a channel up on an angle to the upstairs part of the old flue where it had to take pot luck on whether the fumes went up and out or between ceiling and joist.Not only did we not understand how fumes hadnt killed them , more so how the timber hadnt gone up in flames.