Gas Installation

[The Weary Wizard]

Having recently purchased a gas cooker, I need to get it installed. Does anyone know if British Gas or Transco offer this service?

[DIY]

BG yes, Transco no.

[Bob Eager]

British Gas would. At a price. And probably not very well. Ask around for a good local gas fitter. Really.

[DIY]

I'll second that.

[Psst]

That is rather unfair IMHO. True they would be pricey but quality of workmanship can be variable no matter who you work for. Its down to the individual,his skill,and price in his work.

Transco no longer exists.

[Bob Eager]

Which is why I said 'probably'. My experience of BG has been mainly but exclusively bad. I was trying to point out that using BG (or 'the gas board') is no guarantee of quality. But it is bloody expensive.

[zaax]

If there is a pipe already there the delivery plp will connect it. If there is not pipe get a corgi registered person to take a pipe there.

[the_constructor]

I got a corgi chap to fit my gas cooker and got a certificate from corgi. At least I have, probably not worth the paper it is written on, something to show if owt goes wrong

[John Stumbles]

Not unless they're CORGI registered. Installing a gas appliance in the course of business without being CORGI reg is illegal.

[Sylvain VAN DER WALDE]

I bought a replacement gas cooker some years ago, and fitted it myself. It didn't come with a flexible hose, so I had to get one. I think that there were 2 types (natural, butane?), so you must make sure that you get the correct one. There already was a "T" junction there, so all I had to do was to get the correct female bayonet fitting (it was a tapered thread, and I used P.T.F.E. tape. I've had no trouble with this DIY job.

Sylvain.

[Lobster]

And you did use the proper gas-grade PTFE tape, didn't you?

David

[Sylvain VAN DER WALDE]

Probably not. Please tell me more.

Sylvain.

[Ed Sirett]

I was about to make the same point but I thought better of it. I had given someone a "mildly" negative response the other day about bypassing safety controls to make a temporary repair, and thought that I'd probably over stayed my welcome on reading out the gas fitting book.

The very fact that you didn't know the difference means that you should not have been doing the job. Did you check the ventilation, clearances, gas pressures or gas rates and the new joint for gas tightness.

IMHO you should read the FAQ before doing any more.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Gas grade PTFE is much thicker. It often comes on yellow spools. You overlap it by half the width, so it is always 2 layers thick. (You can use it for water too, but you mustn't use the water grade PTFE for gas.)

[Owain]

You couldn't possibly overstay your welcome here :-)

Owain

[Sylvain VAN DER WALDE]

I did say _replacement_ cooker. I do have an air vent fitted to the window. There's plenty of clearance around the cooker. I did use soapy water to test the new joint. I use a carbon monoxide detector (I didn't skimp on the cost). Thanks for your comments.

Agreed.

Sylvain.

[Sylvain VAN DER WALDE]

Where do I get that tape? And don't worry, "my eyes aren't bigger than my stomach". In other words, I'm well aware of my limitations, and act accordingly.

Sylvain.

[Andrew Gabriel]

B&Q certainly used to (might be one of the things they're ditching in their move to the soft furnishing market). Any plumber's merchant.

[The Weary Wizard]

Did last time I checked!

[The Weary Wizard]

Well I have now taken delivery of my cooker from Comet, having ordered connection too. A very unexotic job, simply consisting of disconnecting my old cooker and connecting the new one. The representatives have no interest in doing their jobs, manufacturing reasons each time why they shouldn't. And from what I can gather, with gas regulations being what they are, they can always justify walking away if sufficiently determined. I was astonished at this. When raising this matter on an internet forum, I received 191 responses in

24 hours from people who'd had this experience with comet. It seems they use sub-contractors, who get paid come what may, who have no interest in or intention of doing their jobs. They come in, look for the first excuse they can pluck out of the air for not doing it and they're away on their toes. They've played games with me no fewer than 4 times now, with another so-called connection scheduled for this Tuesday. I'm already listing the potential excuses they plan to come up with.

I've raised a complaint with both Comet's managing director now and Trading Standards. My mother is disabled and has been without a fully working cooker for weeks. These cynical parasitic scum should hold their heads in shame.

She's a woman of very modest means and is nervous of hiring a local CORGI tradesman, simply through fear of the bill being 'creative' shall we say. Can anyone advise me as to what she should expect to pay for a relatively unexotic connection?