Gas & Compressions Fittings

[Richard Conway]

Hi all,

Will be fitting the hob in the kitchen refurb soon and was working out what I need. The hob is replacing a cooker in the same space and will have an electric oven installed below it. The cooker is connected to a standard bayonet socket with a flexible hose. I know I have to connect the hob with solid pipework. The new hob has a female iron connection on it.

My plan is to remove the bayonet connector and replace it with an isolating valve (probably

and then use copper between this and one of these 15mm - 1/2" MI fittings which will connect to the hob

My main question is as follows. I will need two elbows on the fixed copper section in order to get it from the gas pipe position to the hob. Am I okay to make these with compression fittings or would that be considered bad practice? My assumption is that as the connections to the isolating valve and the hob will all be compression that it should be okay - but I was wondering what people here thought. I know compression fitting on gas have to be 'accessible' - does a removeable oven constitute access?

TIA, Richard.

[Lobster]

Given that the isolating valve will be in the same void as these elbows, then presumably the valve must be defined as being accessible (otherwise why do the regs insist on it!) so I would assume the elbows would be accessible too. But IANA Corgi. (But why can't you you use soldered fittings, anyway?)

The Corgi who recently installed a hob for me used 10mm (ie flexible) copper tube for the job - maybe that would make life easier?

David

[Ed Sirett]

There is nothing wrong in using soldered fittings. It is just that if the fitting is a compression type it must be accessible. i.e. not under a floor. behind an oven is just about accessible.

Most cut offs would have compression attachments although the soldered type are also available.

[Richard Conway]

I can - and am happy to do so, but I don't have the gear to do it (i.e. blowlamp, flux, etc.) Might just go and buy all the stuff I need and sue soldered joints - its an excuse to buy more tools if nothing else :) I can justify it to SWMBO on the grounds that we'll be saving money not getting a CORGI in :)

[Lobster]

It's very cheap kit... and if you're just talking economics, compression fittings are so much more expensive to buy than soldered ones that payback would be after only a handful of joints!

David

[Clive George]

And there are things you can do with soldered fittings you can't with compression. Fitting a tee to a bit of 15mm which had been frost damaged and hence a bit stretched was my favourite. Replacing the entire pipe would have been incredibly tedious and a lot of work, but stretching a solder fitting to fit worked very well.

cheers, clive

[John Stumbles]

If you don't even have plumbing soldering kit then with all due respect you're probably not competent to do this type of work within the law. Have you read Ed's gas fitting faq? Do you know what type of solder to use for gas work and how to apply it? What sorts of fittings you are, and are not, allowed to use for connecting to the hob? Do you have the kit and knowledge to test your pipework? To check that the hob's working OK?