Tuesday 6 January 2009

Traps For Young Players.

Last night while halfway through cooking tea our gas ran out which we were expecting as the last tank was changed over 61 days ago. No problem, just go out and turn the change over valve and we are back in business. Yeah right, when we re-lit the hob the flame kept going out. I tried the oven and grill without success. Eventually I got 1 hob element going, this 1 has a larger nozzle jet than the others, so we had to do everything on just the 1 hob. I'm guessing that the mixture in the tank is wrong or the valve is faulty and sucking air, either way we will have to get it exchanged.

After a quiet and pleasant week-end at Brownsover it was time for Tracey to return to work. However she has been seconded to the Birmingham office for the week so she was going to catch the train and had a taxi booked for first thing this morning. I took advantage of this and took the empty gas tank to Clifton Cruisers after dropping Tracey off at the railway station. Dave, the engineer at Clifton Cruisers said that he had a similar experience and he remedied it by just closing and opening the valve a couple of times to clear some muck off the valve. Back at the boat I fitted the new tank and then tried Dave's remedy but without success. Changing the main valve over to the newly purchased tank and allowing the new gas to permeate through the lines and BINGO problem solved. So the dodgy tank will be definitely going back for exchange next time we move.

Now we have noticed in some recent blogs that people have been having trouble with frozen stand pipes and hoses. The hoses are easily fixed, when you have finished with it and coiled it up, lay it flat on the roof and blow into one end. The water runs out quite easily with perhaps a couple of extra puffs down the pipe to keep the flow going. Even if there is a little bit of water left in the hose it won't completely block should it freeze up. As for the stand pipes, a bucket of hot water poured slowly into the metal casing over the tap and pipe work has always worked for us. We had the same problem on Saturday and it took two buckets of hot water to free the cold water tap but our hose that is stored in the gas locker outside was fine.

2 comments:

Paul (from Waterway Routes) said...

Have you considered the non-return valve in thr lead to the cylinder might be sticking. Try swapping the cylinders onto the other leads or try removing the lead and banging the end on some concrete. You should be able to blow through the lead if the valve is OK.

Both our valves stuck after about 13 months use. All it needs is a little condenstaion in cold damp weather.

Derek and Dot said...

Hi Paul
Thanks for your ideas will have a look at it.
Derek