"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:17:20 +0000, Hugh wrote:

Called out by a tenant this morning as she could smell gas - tested with
leak detecting fluid - couldn't find anything - it was obviously very
slight. Using our noses we homed in on the area round the governor - it
was
definitely there. It was a new meter 9 months ago, but the governer
looked a
good bit older and I noticed some corrosion around one of the annular
corrugations on the pipe. Got British Gas out and they confirmed it was
the
pipe between the incoming main and the governor, but maintained that
whoever
ran the pipe work from the meter had dropped flux onto the pipe and not
wiped it off - and had burnt throught the pipe in less than 6 months!!
We know that copper resists the corrosion by flux for many years - I
believe
it was dicussed recently - but this pipe (the flexible one) isn't copper
and
is apparently easily corroded by flux - be warned.
Unless he was telling porkies!

He wasn't this is a known problem, flux attacks stainless steel very
quickly. Were they refusing to fix it because of the negligent installers,
or just whinging?


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html


It was all changed without any fuss - he was just pointing out the probable
cause - and it appears he was spot-on in his diagnosis. I would have thought
a change of material for the anaconda pipe would be prudent considering how
easily it corrodes.
Hugh