My gas cooker blew up so I went to look for a replacement at a local discount appliance warehouse.
I was told that I can't install the appliance myself (by law), that cookers are not supplied with flexi-hoses fitted (By law) and that I can't fit one myself (By law) and that hoses can't be reused (By law)!
Apparently the *only* way you can have a gas cooker fitted is if a corgi registered engineer does it!
I was under the impression that any "competent" person can do it themselves, in their own home.
Both the above are true. It's your ability to demonstrate competence that is in question. There are those who believe this is assured by CORGI registration only (Grrr), those that believe CORGI registration assures this (splutter) and the others. You other option is to do it and not tell anyone and to accept the frankly unquantified) risks. Naturally you shouldn't do this. The system including the cooker should be leak tested after installation using a manometer at the meter - you are certainly not competent if you don't do this, for example.
|My gas cooker blew up so I went to look for a replacement at a local |discount appliance warehouse. | |I was told that I can't install the appliance myself (by law), that |cookers are not supplied with flexi-hoses fitted (By law) and that I |can't fit one myself (By law) and that hoses can't be reused (By law)! | |Apparently the *only* way you can have a gas cooker fitted is if a |corgi registered engineer does it! | |I was under the impression that any "competent" person can do it |themselves, in their own home. | |Has the law recently changed on this?
Health and Safety gone mad again they are just covering their backs.
Just done this myself, if you have a domestic gas bayonet fitting, just plug the new one into the place the old one fitted, two minute job. I fit a new hose to a new cooker. It needed ptfe tape to seal the iron thread joint. Ten minute job plus the time taken to buy the flexible pipe from the local plumbers merchant. I consider myself competent to do this.
Aw give over - the whole reason for the bayonet fitting to exist is to make the job easy to do. Just how bloody competent do you have to be to press the bayonet home and twist??
Did you check ventilation, check size of supply pipework, do a drop test, check for clearances, check for combustable materials, use gas tape (not ptfe plumbing tape), fit a stability device and check the operation of flame failure devices etc etc?
I have a manometer and pipe pressure testing gauge and test with leak detector solution. At the end of the day it isn't rocket science, is it?
What gets me is that there's all this fuss about gas safety and what people believe the law to mean, yet people are free to fix the brakes on their own cars!
A far higher percentage of people get killed due to botched car repairs than DIY gas!
On 24 Jan, 16:55, "powerstation" wrote: fitted is if a
law regarding this then clearly you do not know
Twaddle!
How are you meant to know about the law and whether there have been any changes, unless you actively find out? Are you seriously suggesting that Corgi engineers never ask any questions, even when presented with differing information, under the assumption it would render them incompetent??!
Surely the competent thing to do when presented with conflicting information is to check it out (As I'm doing) rather than ignore it?
With the greates of respect I have seen Corgi engineers fit cookers and they simply do what DT said above. Attach the hose (With tape) connect the bayonet and fire the thing up.
Ah but we were talking about competency. CORGI engineers get a bye and are assumed competent even when they are not. If you wish to do the job as a real "competent person", not so designated by being a CORGI, you should do it competently, including the testing. As it happens I knows a CORGI who is also a friend and he did the lot, including testing and advice that the earth bonding to the gas supply pipe was insufficient and how to do it properly.
You stole my thunder; I would have prefaced my remarks by saying regular posters know that I support competent DIY gas fitting.
My not directly analogous it's amazing how many people here claim that boilers and cookers are easy to fit and then proceed to show how they have done /will do the job without checking and/or by cutting corners.
A similar level of electrical work would not have been bragged about using the wrong fittings, no earth, wrong cable size etc.
Frinstance a large number of cookers now have straight threaded ground-face fittings for the gas inlet and the use of the cooker hose directly would be wrong, (even with the right tape).
Yes because screwing the other end into the cooker _does_ constitute 'gas work'. Also the new appliance is being installed and commissioned and those activities are also 'gas work'.
so your reply to the post "The use of the bayonet connector does not constitute 'gas work' within the meaning of the law." is incorrect because the context was the installation and commission of a new gas appliance.
A bit of commonsense is called for here. The OP didn't say he was
*installing* (for the first time) a new cooker, just *replacing* his existing one. He didn't say that he was refurbishing the whole kitchen and so I assume that he will have to replace like-for-like and replace his existing cooker with one of the same size in order to fit in the same hole that the old one is vacating.
In other words, he doesn't say that he's going to be replacing a four-ring, single-oven, eye-level-grill cooker with an eight-ring, double-oven range cooker or anything bigger than he's got now, so the supply pipe that has happily supplied his old cooker for x-amount of years, and the ventilation, and the clearances etc., etc., should all be OK - if they were OK to begin with, of course.
In the OPs case, you're still only talking about screwing one end of a flexible pipe (making a gas-tight seal, of course) into the cooker and pushing the other end into a bayonet fitting. Installation from scratch is, of course, a different kettle of fish altogether and quite rightly so.
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