Showing posts with label Gas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gas. Show all posts

Monday, 14 December 2009

Marine Spanner

sparkless, allegedly
Received this helpful advice from 'Keeping Up' on the boating forum. With the amount of hot tea and coffee we both drink, I expect to be changing bottles quite regularly.


The arrow on the auto changeover valve shows red when the bottle that it is pointing to has no pressure, it shows white when the bottle still has pressure.

The usual way of using it, is that you start with two full bottles both turned on; whichever way you turn the valve it shows white. When it turns red you have an empty cylinder but the valve automatically starts to take its supply from the other cylinder. At the first opportunity you need to change the empty one. You wait until you have the chance to change it, then you turn off the empty cylinder and rotate the switch which should then show a white arrow.

It is then safe to disconnect the pigtail from the gas bottle (an anti-clockwise thread); there should be non-return valves both in the changeover valve and in the pigtail, so you can leave the unused one dangling until you connect the new full cylinder.

Tighten it up and turn it on, then listen to make sure there's no obvious leak. Do not touch the auto changeover valve, which stays white until your second bottle becomes empty and you repeat the process with that one instead.

Sorted. The whole process is much less unfathomable and intimidating now.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

More Gas

bottle 1
Couldn't figure out how to light the cooker and boil up the kettle. It's fitted with a flame safety device, which i haven't mastered the knack of yet. Guessed the gas supply had probably been isolated somewhere too, but couldn't find the switch. Or maybe the bottles had been caned, and not replaced? Still not sure. but I felt brave enough to make my first foray into the storage bins to investigate.

Took these pics, so I can ask other boaters for their advice. Steve, the marina mechanic is going to make sure everything is safe with the gas installation, before starting on the other electrical work. Which is a relief, and a big peace of mind.

So, I went without coffee for two days, and drank a lot of fruit juice instead. Which is probably for the best.

bottle 2

Friday, 20 November 2009

Gas Bottles


Great. Bread, rolls, cakes and pasties can be baked. But we're not looking forward to changing the gas bottles. Fear of gas leaks has been drummed into us from an early age. We're assured that (handled properly) they are perfectly safe. And there's an autoswitcher between the bottles to minimise hassle. But this is definitely something we are going to need help with.