DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad – Maintenance Workers

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I was at a clients late in the week to undertake the yearly gas fire service and install a new Carbon Monoxide detector. Her old detector was a throw away unit which was not designed for battery replacement. While on site she asked if  could explain the warning she received from British Gas when they came to do the yearly boiler service a few weeks earlier. I took a look and they had  written up the outside pipe work from the pressure relief valve was improperly terminated.

I made my way to the communal back garden area and found the problem as pictured. It looks like at some point in the past the position of the rain gutters or downspouts had changed by a few inches thus leaving the open end of the pipe work open to spray down upon the children playing in the backyard. For the sake of a six inch piece of copper tube someone could have been badly burned!

It is important to note that when a pressure relief valve opens under pressure it open SUDDENLY! Scalding hot water will be ejected under a high pressure and it will burn the skin. It is also important to note (which British Gas had not) that if the pipe work were terminated in the gully as I suspect it was or will be shortly, there be a tundish must be fitted inside the property to allow for a visual check. Sometimes the spring in the pressure relief valve can become weak and allow a slow but constant drip of water to flow. When that happens the boiler pressure starts to fall and people find themselves topping up the boiler without knowing why. If the tundish was in place they would see the visual clue. A wet tundish!

We’ll be sorting out the pipe work tomorrow and installing a tundish inside the property and most importantly showing the flat owner what to look for. No use having a tundish and not knowing that it should be checked periodically.

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