Gas conflict
I have a classic Range Rover that I have owned for 20 years. About 10 years ago I had it converted to LPG and it has served me well. However an incident occurred yesterday which has left me concerned. I had finished filling up with LPG at my local garage and disconnected the filler pipe from the connection at the rear.
Instead of the usual small hiss of escaping gas a huge jet of LPG shot 8 feet across the forecourt. Clearly the non-return valve in the filling line had failed and the whole of my 90 litres of LPG was attempting to escape.
Fortunately I was able to put the filler pipe back on the fitting and apart from a bit of shock no harm done. I turned off the hand tap on the tank and all was well.
On enquiring from my installer I discovered that these systems have two non-return valves and in fact both had failed. There is no way of knowing if one has failed, thus the presence of two is only half a safety system. I thought I ought to report this to the Health and Safety executive as a vision of a ball of fire over a filling station filled me with horror.
Guess what? One cannot ring the HSE unless there has been a serious accident causing injury or death, and though they produce loads of forms for reporting accidents none of these are suitable for a member of the public to report an incident involving their own property. My local council was unable to assist me.
Instead of the usual small hiss of escaping gas a huge jet of LPG shot 8 feet across the forecourt. Clearly the non-return valve in the filling line had failed and the whole of my 90 litres of LPG was attempting to escape.
Fortunately I was able to put the filler pipe back on the fitting and apart from a bit of shock no harm done. I turned off the hand tap on the tank and all was well.
On enquiring from my installer I discovered that these systems have two non-return valves and in fact both had failed. There is no way of knowing if one has failed, thus the presence of two is only half a safety system. I thought I ought to report this to the Health and Safety executive as a vision of a ball of fire over a filling station filled me with horror.
Guess what? One cannot ring the HSE unless there has been a serious accident causing injury or death, and though they produce loads of forms for reporting accidents none of these are suitable for a member of the public to report an incident involving their own property. My local council was unable to assist me.
Asked on 29 December 2012 by JA, Canterbury
Answered by
Honest John
We'd better give this some publicity, then. Not so sure it's as dangerous as you think it is. In Bangkok almost all the taxis a lot of minibuses and all the tuk tuks run on LPG or CNG. Long queues at the special fuel stations. And they fill them all up from a valve under the bonnet. Never heard of any disasters.
Tags:
lpg conversion
safety
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