ARGH! this is driving me potty!

[penpusher]

I have an installation in a first floor flat with one baxi combi 80e and one gas cooker (lyric 50 i think). Tenant has complained of smell of gas for month or two now.
Every time I send out contractors to check they get 0mBAR drop on system with/without appliances.
Tenant keeps calling out TRANSCO who say there's a leak and shuts her off.
This is causing the tenant, the contractor and I untold grief.

Can anyone suggest anything that we might be overlooking? (personally i think the TOFO's are being overcautious but maybe I''m just an old cynic)

 

[Bahco]

Other properties or gas main outside?

Does the smell of gas disappear when transco turns off the supply or is it still around?. If still smell, call Transco back and let them enjoy finding it.

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

get them to check the boiler for leaks as when then do soundness test boiler will be off and leak could be coming from gas valve or burner which would only leak when boiler is on

 

[penpusher]

thanks guys, covered those bases unfortunatley.

Bit more info for you....

Tenant called Transco last night, they found 2mB drop on s/test, boiler/cooker still attached but off.

We checked this morning and no drop with or without appliances, checked boiler to no avail.

We are considering the possibility that the Transco engineer has come out, found no leak but shut it off to cover his own back as the tenant claims to have smelled gas.

Cant account for 2mB drop on paperwork though? Seems to have "healed" itsself overnight.

Has anyone had any similar experiences with Transco and phantom leaks?

 

[chrishutt]

Cooker taps can get temperamental with age (like people really) and may explain occasional leakage. The grease in the taps dries out, but can be replaced quite easily. How old is the cooker? If more than 10 years I would suspect it.

 

[penpusher]

thought of that too, cooker is probably five to ten years old, am going back on Friday with a gasco seeker. Don't want to touch the cooker as it belongs to the tenant.

 

[Baxi-Remeha]

is there an open window or vent near the boiler flue?????

fumes could ne blowing back in!!!

 

[matz]

Don't laught but two experiences with "gas " smells. One at our previous house, we could smell gas in the kitchen, had the gas man round etc who said nothing wrong, it turned out to be the drains just outside the back door.

Number two was at a workshop I rented. I had LPG powered room heaters put in fueled by outside bottles. A week later I could smell gas. The farmer on site said he could smell gas. I had the installer back who couldn't find anything wrong and it turned out to be a decomposing rat the other side of a breeze block wall next door to my workshop.

I'm sure this post may be ridiculed but I swore it was gas both times!!

 

[Paul Barker]

Three possibilities

Transco covering backsides

occasionally leaking gas valves on cooker

Attention seeking Tenant from Hell.

 

[ChrisR]

A digital manometer is handy for proving gas leaks or otherwise.
Saves arguing with vested interests about whether the water is moving or not!


I luv em. More often than not there's a slight leak even on the pipes, so if the customer's a **** you can cheerfully slip the disc into the meter union (which he won't see) and say "I've made it safe" with a cheery smile as you present the bill. If YOU want to be a ****, put one on BOTH meter unions

 

[ollski]

Be looking at gas taps and ffd on the cooker.

 

[CH4]

Perhaps the leak is being balanced by let-by from the meter control valve. Hence, no net pressure change in the soundness test.

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Make sure you do full 3 min test, had a weird one years back, BG said no leak, went back myself, drop on guage, BG changed anaconda and said sound, went back, drop on guage, turned out to be TWO brand new dodgy anacondas, thing was BG blokes were only doing 30 second test which didn't show up a leak, each time I went back and did what was then the 4 minute jobby it showed up, strange thing was you could watch the water line and there was no drop for a good minute, then all of a sudden it would start dropping pretty quick
Check everything else the other guys mentioned particularly the cooker.

 

[COG]

Whats the standing pressure. Ive had a sytem leak at standing pressure 28-30 mb but sound at below 21mb and transco tend to go by the book (ish)

 

[Mars]

I had Transco out a couple of times to my workshop before they found the leak was from the shut of tap near the meter.
The first bloke changed the flexible pipework and the pressure valve. Still leaked.
It just needed tightening up with a spanner.