Gas pipe installation

[Morakot]

I have an indoor kitchen with a gas cooker. The cooker is powered by a standard gas bottle, which for some reason is located in the kitchen cabinet right below the cooker.

This strikes me as an odd place in terms of accessibility and safety, and seems to be a waste of storage space.

What kind of pipe installation is recommenced that would allow to place the bottle about three metres away, outside in roofed open space?

How would the wall penetration be managed?

Any other important points?

Many thanks!

Edited October 23, 2014 by Morakot

[Crossy]

Most (including us) would use a long piece of rubber or reinforced plastic hose and drill a hole.

If you to go posh, copper pipe and fittings should be available from your local aircon installer.

[Morakot]

Thanks Crossy!

How did you seal the wall breakthrough? Builders foam? Will this be OK in contact with a standard rubber hose?

[lopburi3]

As said above - did use copper from air con shop some decades ago (for a hot water heater) but have always used double rubber/plastic hose designed for gas for cooking - as we cook outside enclosed area do not have to make hole in wall but easy enough to do so.

The easy access to gas container is so you can turn off when not in use - so if having outside and always on be best to get the better quality regulator with built in open hose protection (they are not that expensive).

[Crossy]

Seal? Thailand?

Our hole is just slightly bigger than the tube, but I don't think I would want PU foam contact with the rubber.

[ThaidDown]

For neatness put a short length of pvc tube through the wall first and cement in.Then put the reinforced plastic gas pipe through that.

For us, used half inch thin walled pvc , gas pipe just fits, no gaps. May need a different size pvc if your gas tube is larger/smaller, check first.

[Morakot]

get the better quality regulator with built in open hose protection (they are not that expensive).

OK. Do they come with a gauge to see how much is left? The protection is some automatic shut off in case the pipe bursts, is it?

[Crossy]

get the better quality regulator with built in open hose protection (they are not that expensive).

OK. Do they come with a gauge to see how much is left? The protection is some automatic shut off in case the pipe bursts, is it?

The trade name is 'gasfuse' the idea being that in the event of a major (note that) pipe failure the supply will be cut off. No protection from pinhole leaks.

[bankruatsteve]

It's not like you have a choice from what I have seen: You can get the 'regulator' with the push button for about B500 or one without for about B200.

FYI: I have my bottle underneath the hub but I have also had it outside. It's just what you want to do. I don't think there is any 'safety' issue either way. I would use acrylic filler for the hole space and patch up with left over paint.

[Morakot]

Thanks Steve. The main concern for me is really accessibility and space. In terms of safety, I understand that for example current UK regulations do not permit gas cylinders indoors. I guess this is not the case here in Thailand.

Acrylic filler sound good.

[Morakot]

Found this regulator called "Supergas" in a shop in Bangkok. This one has a safety switch, gauge, and automatic timer. Not bad.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Morakot

[bankruatsteve]

Well, the gauge and other stuff are cool, but when I'm out of LPG, I just order another and 15 minutes later I'm good. Why would you need or want that stuff?

[Morakot]

^^ That's exactly what my wife had asked me too and I said Crossy has told me this one is good.

To be honest, this is the only safety switch I could find. It either this one with all these functions or the just normal regulator.

I bought a new gas cooker from HomePro; their "staff" installed it, replacing the old one. They connected the new hobs to the old rubber hose and reused the rusty clamp to connect it. The following evening I order a gas bottle; the guy connected it, turned it on and drove off. When I went back into the kitchen some time later, I heard a strange hissing noise and found that the hose had been blown off from the connection point while the gas was flowing into the room. I somehow felt this is not really safe and I should replace the old hose and rusty clamps including the rusty looking pressure regulator. While I'm at I might as well move the bottle outside and do it properly as it was extremely ackaward to keep "climbing" into this cabinet to open and close the valve. I felt that I didn't want to leave the gas turned on any more since the last incident.

Whether this was rational or not I don't know. It looks and feels proper and why not have this "Supergas" regulator I thought. Yes, I agreed the gauge is a nice gimmick but was not really the deal clincher.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Morakot

[cliveshep]

I have a couple of comments if I may?

In the UK with copper pipe over time expansion and contraction do cause fatigue problems, and I would have thought that the cooling effect of flowing bottled gas through an otherwise hot pipe (Thailand being a lot hotter than here in the UK) might ultimately cause issues.

On boat systems the solution is to incorporate a loop in the copper pipe to accomodate expansion issues, use a proper armoured flexi with crimped ends to connect to the pipe and cylinder, and likewise to the appliance if it is movable, and also have an isolation cock close to the appliance if the cylinder is out of reach. (I build boats and buildings in the UK!)

Bottled gas has two unpleasant characteristics when it escapes, it is inflammable to the point of being explosive mixeed with air, and it is heavier than air, so any escapes near underfloor voids will allow a potentially expl;osive mass of gas and air to build up so best to keep leaks outside if at all possible and internal connections and pipe runs to a minimum..

Secondly a question - looking at the bottle valves in Morakot's post they look very similar to our Calor Propane regulators in bottle connection. Are they the same?

When we re-locate next year no doubt we'll find out when it comes to re-connecting our re-located LPG cooker!