DIY Gas Fitting

[Reg Man]

you can be done for having but not applying competence, so i read in gas engineer mag a couple of months ago!

there are other but more difficult ways of proving competence

Your right there: Know loads of people that have done ACS and don't carry this forward to their day to day working practice. This is worse than not knowing what your doing?

 

[adam84]

gas engineers should prove they can do their job and have the knowlege to do it, but the gas industry and in particular the retail side need to step up and take responsibility buy only selling gas critical parts to registered engineers, i was horrified in b+q a couple of weeks ago when i saw a DIY gas fire installation kit consisting of a small coil of 8mm a roll of gas PTFE and a cheap and nasty junior hacksaw, so how as gas engineers are we supposed to enforce safe working practice when companys like b+q sell kits like that to the general public and any other weekend wonder.

 

[fuzzy]

thats terrible, but not illegal unfortunately, you can fit your own gas stuff if your competent

 

[pobsdad]

I'm Gas Safe registered,but might only do a service every 2 or 3 months.After 6 pints at lunch time.Who's to know?Nothings gone bang yet!

 

[pobsdad]

DIY stores justify selling gas fittings by saying that genuine tradespeople buy from them.As opposed to plumbers merchants.

 

[Puddle]

DIY stores justify selling gas fittings by saying that genuine tradespeople buy from them.As opposed to plumbers merchants.

What really bugs me about these stores are that not only do they sell fires and boilers,they sell them incomplete,you see hobs with control knob or burner top missing fires with opened boxes with god knows what missing ect ,they are not removed from shelves but discounted due to missing parts,I have pointed this out sometimes,how dangerous these appliances can be, never mind with bits missing and item is often removed,then next day,there it is again,no doubt after they have checked their profit and loss which it seems is always more important than any safety issues that may arise

imho

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

Same old thing, you can buy any kind of knife you like if your over about 16. No harm in that It depends what you do with it afterwards that can be harmful.

Anyone should be able to buy gas fittings anywhere, it is what they do with them that makes the difference. Its a bit like buying Aspirins in a chemist. Should they only be supplied to health professionals? Take enough of many of the medicines on sale in chemists and you can kill yourself and other people just as easily as blowing yourself up or poisoning people with gas.

Anyway if people want to do their own gas fitting they probably will regardless of the law, its illegal to speed but how many do?

Its the people you need to teach about the dangers not ban or restrict gas material sales.

 

[unguided1]

Hmm!

Same old thing, you can buy any kind of knife you like if your over about 16. No harm in that It depends what you do with it afterwards that can be harmful.

Anyone should be able to buy gas fittings anywhere, it is what they do with them that makes the difference. Its a bit like buying Aspirins in a chemist. Should they only be supplied to health professionals? Take enough of many of the medicines on sale in chemists and you can kill yourself and other people just as easily as blowing yourself up or poisoning people with gas.

Anyway if people want to do their own gas fitting they probably will regardless of the law, its illegal to speed but how many do?

Its the people you need to teach about the dangers not ban or restrict gas material sales.

totaly agree, the government banned people from having registered hand guns in this country, hand guns dont kill people, people kill people and since the ban there are more illegal unregistered hand guns on the street.

 

[eco_mark]

Hmm!

Same old thing, you can buy any kind of knife you like if your over about 16. No harm in that It depends what you do with it afterwards that can be harmful.

Anyone should be able to buy gas fittings anywhere, it is what they do with them that makes the difference. Its a bit like buying Aspirins in a chemist. Should they only be supplied to health professionals? Take enough of many of the medicines on sale in chemists and you can kill yourself and other people just as easily as blowing yourself up or poisoning people with gas.

Anyway if people want to do their own gas fitting they probably will regardless of the law, its illegal to speed but how many do?

Its the people you need to teach about the dangers not ban or restrict gas material sales.

Totally disagree, and your analogies are wrong! Aspirin are not a controlled substance, but something like clinical grade heroin is. Can anyone walk into a chemists and buy that heroin? No. The reason is that it needs to be prescribed by a competent person.

If gas works can only be done by a competent person, and there are regulations in place to define what a competent person is, then there's no reason a non-competent person should be able to buy those things. It's not just about protecting people from themselves (the DIY'er who might think they can install their own gas boiler) but also unsuspecting people from dodgy cowboys.

The problem I see is that the definition of competent is open to interpretation in court and isn't as simple as 'is on the gas safe register'. If it was that simple then anyone not on the register shouldn't have a need to buy those things.

 

[fuzzy]

Totally disagree, and your analogies are wrong! Aspirin are not a controlled substance, but something like clinical grade heroin is. Can anyone walk into a chemists and buy that heroin? No. The reason is that it needs to be prescribed by a competent person.

If gas works can only be done by a competent person, and there are regulations in place to define what a competent person is, then there's no reason a non-competent person should be able to buy those things. It's not just about protecting people from themselves (the DIY'er who might think they can install their own gas boiler) but also unsuspecting people from dodgy cowboys.

The problem I see is that the definition of competent is open to interpretation in court and isn't as simple as 'is on the gas safe register'. If it was that simple then anyone not on the register shouldn't have a need to buy those things.

but there are situations when registration or even ACS is not required so how could it be controlled? Factory work is exempt for example, you can work on gas if competent, how do you check for competence as a shop owner? for example a family friend of mine worked in gas for 50 years, he taught at Bg and helped set up acops and ACS, his acs is out of date, is he competent?