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0.5mb drop on tightness test - Should I be worried?

Discuss 0.5mb drop on tightness test - Should I be worried? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

ShaunCorbs said:
As it’s acceptable and safe

Let’s say you’ve had a 2.5 mbar drop you spend 1/2 a day looking around and testing you find it and fix it

Give the customer a bill of let’s pick a figure £200 every other engineer hasn’t picked this fault up / says it needs repairing

Customer says how much, they phones gas safe up and say I want to see if something sounds right with you

I’ve had a gas leak of 2.5 mbar and the engineers found it and repaired it but it’s cost me 200 did it need repairing

They will ask the customer a few questions or send an inspector out etc

And they will say no it’s within acceptable limits Customer won’t pay the bill etc
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Ok I get where your coming from with that side of things.
I thought you were meaning I wouldn’t be doing something safely.
I wouldn’t do that though tbf, if I chose to do that just for my own piece of mind then any extra time taken would be on me.
 
JTplumbingservices said:
Ok I get where your coming from with that side of things.
I thought you were meaning I wouldn’t be doing something safely.
I wouldn’t do that though tbf, if I chose to do that just for my own piece of mind then any extra time taken would be on me.
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Thing is if you take that stance good luck as you could be buying new cookers and gas valves/ fires for people out if your own pocket and can’t charge for
 
bogrodder said:
Complete carp! Any legal establishment on this island would merit any safety based repair, regardless of whether it’s within spec.
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Nope and your other post your test is only valid for that day / the time your there say you have a massive gas leak a month after your not responsible/ no liability
 
bogrodder said:
A gas leak .. is a gas leak, and may progressively get worse.
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So do / could do boilers so you id most boilers you come across them
 
Wasn’t the op’s initial post about panicking about being told she had a leak, I would put a hefty wager that any homeowner would react the same... to be told they had a gas leak. Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t go making a meal to the custard about having a gas leak,in the view to creating extra work( as long as it’s within tolerance)
My reply to you previously, was about ‘being done’ by the gas police.
 
Craig Watson said:
So if in that situation, you had a 3mbar drop on a g4 metre, your conscience gets the better of you and you decide to investigate. You isolate the appliances and prove the pipework is sound. You then test each appliance individually and find the gas valve on the fire is passing. What then? Do you leave it or have to condem it?
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Things like that are what the tolerances are for so as long as it was within it would be ok.. however, I would inform the customer of the situation and explain to them about the permissible drop and that it is safe to leave.. or I could repair/renew it if thats what they wanted.
This way I have covered all bases.
 
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bogrodder said:
Wasn’t the op’s initial post about panicking about being told she had a leak, I would put a hefty wager that any homeowner would react the same... to be told they had a gas leak. Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t go making a meal to the custard about having a gas leak,in the view to creating extra work( as long as it’s within tolerance)
My reply to you previously, was about ‘being done’ by the gas police.
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they would say its within safe limits why did you go looking for the leak when you didnt need too
 
JTplumbingservices said:
Isn’t 0.25 considered perceptible on a water gauge ? which can’t be seen so any visual movement is considered perceptible ?
And 0.1 on a digi?
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0.25 on digi and 0.5 on water / it used to be
 
ShaunCorbs said:
they would say its within safe limits why did you go looking for the leak when you didnt need too
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Agreed, there almost certainly isn't a leak, and none within the meaning of the regs. No system would be totally leak free - if you left it for a year the pressure would fall. As others have said, change of temperature could easily cause that sort of pressure change. A fall of about 0.15°C is all it needs for the pressure to fall by 0.5mb.
 
bogrodder said:
we don’t use steel for gas pipes in domestic properties. The permissible drop is to cater for old gas valves on appliances, pipework only has to be totally tight.
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How come, I come across quite often steel gas pipes which are either under the floor connected to copper or bedded in concrete? However, the point I made is to check for weaknesses and cracks which could be hidden due to slag or other debris.
 

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Matchless.plumb said:
How come, I come across quite often steel gas pipes which are either under the floor connected to copper or bedded in concrete? However, the point I made is to check for weaknesses and cracks which could be hidden due to slag or other debris.
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you test at op and thats it
 
JTplumbingservices said:
A domestic gas installation should be tested at 1 bar for 30 mins ?
Standing pressure is usually well below 30mbar and working pressure 21 +\-2 so probably a bit overkill.
I do agree with zero tolerance though, that’s alway what I aim for anyway even if it’s within permissible drop.
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Overkill ? Sorry mate but I disagree with that term. A gas pipe should be tested with a lot higher pressure than just 30mbar. You have to check the pipe under a load test which means with higher pressure than the one you will have when the pipe is in use. You will test the material and joints for weaknesses , hairline cracks or pinholes which are covered by slag. Due to the higher pressure you make sure to find those weaknesses or cracks which you won’t find by mbar.
 
Matchless.plumb said:
Overkill ? Sorry mate but I disagree with that term. A gas pipe should be tested with a lot higher pressure than just 30mbar. You have to check the pipe under a load test which means with higher pressure than the one you will have when the pipe is in use. You will test the material and joints for weaknesses , hairline cracks or pinholes which are covered by slag. Due to the higher pressure you make sure to find those weaknesses or cracks which you won’t find by mbar.
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so do you remove the boiler cooker and fires to do the test as these can only take 20 mbar
 
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