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Discuss First Commercial LPG Job! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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cr0ft

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Why do I always get these jobs lol. 293KW direct air heater running on LPG. Was running it right at the start when I noticed a nice 4" crack in the end of the burner exhaust assembly.

Why do I get the feeling this is about to get expensive for the customer??

And check out the state of the burner before I gave it a good clean. Was disgusting. I swear there were 5 dead people's worth of dust inside the air heater too!

Direct air heater is, wait for it....

24 years old.

And no indication it's ever been serviced lol.

Reassuringly, the manufacturer suggests they can still make the part. Bet it's going to be cheap!!

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:D this the one in the paint shop?

and how much of a crack could it be welded?
 
Yup, that's the one.

I did think about that one tbh. Basically getting the burner out and back into the unit will be the best part of a day's work as most of the wiring from the control unit also needs to come out and go back in and the panel with everything on looks like it weighs a ton.

You can see the crack on the end of the exhaust (right hand side of the first photo). It's at least 4" long.

It probably could be welded as it appears to be cracked along the side of the exhaust rather than across any holes in it, but I doubt the weld would last that long given the power of the burner. If I could find a welder that would sign it off as being fit for purpose then I might try that but to be honest it's a fairly powerful burner and I wouldn't want to sign it off myself. Consequences if the part fails completely are fairly significant aren't they?

Guess we will look at options once we see what the price of the parts are.
 
Yep was it open flued ?

And if you do go down the road of a repair look for a coded welder
 
Haha, the usual I just open the door when I use it. Tis classed as a process though isn't it rather than a gas appliance so Gas Regs don't apply do they and he can get away with that can't he.
 
Think some still apply tho (safety things )
 
Hmm, I actually asked the tutor about my example because I already knew ventilation was non-existent for the unit. He said that because it's a process Gas Safety regs don't apply. In some circumstances for instance, a factory might want high levels of co2 in a room for example as part of the manufacturing process. Can't think why but that's why they are exempt.

I get the impression with commercial stuff that it's much more about common sense to be honest. He ups the roller door each time he uses the paint booth and knows why he needs to!

But then that said he stands in the paint booth with air coming in from a burner that's not been serviced in 24 years lol..
 
Hadn't killed him self yet :D so can't be too far off

Did you feel nervous when you started?
 
Was nervous before I got to the job. Once I got there I worked it all out fairly quickly to be honest. Think I'm going to like commercial work more to be honest. Much more is down to engineering judgement rather than following regulations isn't it?

Out of curiosity, how would you have classified the crack in the burner? I classified it as AR on the basis it wasn't currently dangerous where it was.
 
Was nervous before I got to the job. Once I got there I worked it all out fairly quickly to be honest. Think I'm going to like commercial work more to be honest. Much more is down to engineering judgement rather than following regulations isn't it?

Out of curiosity, how would you have classified the crack in the burner? I classified it as AR on the basis it wasn't currently dangerous where it was.

Yep and no tight little spaces like on combi boilers and normally people leave you alone :)

And ar / id depends on ratio if high ppm id

Either way it goes off
 
If it's a commercial direct fired warm air heater, the POC's are fired directly ( somewhat diluted), into the space they're heating.
In that case you would have no flue and you would need to check CO2 levels in the heated space, for Health and safety reasons.
Hence the question about the CO2 meter.

If it's indirect fired, it would have a heat ex/combustion chamber and a flue. The warm air is circulated on the outside of the heat ex / combustion chamber and the flame is internal, there would be a flue to remove the POC's.

I was thrown when croft answered my question about the CO2 meter and then you asked if it had a flue, which croft confirmed.

If it has a flue, you wouldn't need to check heated space CO2 levels !

Which is it Croft?
 
If it's a commercial direct fired warm air heater, the POC's are fired directly ( somewhat diluted), into the space they're heating.
In that case you would have no flue and you would need to check CO2 levels in the heated space, for Health and safety reasons.
Hence the question about the CO2 meter.

If it's indirect fired, it would have a heat ex/combustion chamber and a flue. The warm air is circulated on the outside of the heat ex / combustion chamber and the flame is internal, there would be a flue to remove the POC's.

I was thrown when croft answered my question about the CO2 meter and then you asked if it had a flue, which croft confirmed.

If it has a flue, you wouldn't need to check heated space CO2 levels !

Which is it Croft?

My mistake
 
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It's a direct air heater so no flue but it's ducted through the spray booth and out a chimney up the back with a manual damper on it.
 
So you're talking about the spray booth Oven/drying room?
I take it that no-one is in there when the thing is firing then?

I work on a lot of industrial and commercial warm air Heating equipment and one or two are direct fired so I was thinking about those.
 
Yes and no. It gets up to 60C in there when running so the booth is cleared before they bake the paint.
 
Nice bill for ÂŁ2k coming his way to supply and fit a new burner nozzle it seems..
 
Nice bill for ÂŁ2k coming his way to supply and fit a new burner nozzle it seems..

Nice job though!
Better than lifting floor boards and watching the decor!
It's great to get your teeth into stuff like that.
 
Yes definitely. Just had a trust that owns 5 schools get in touch as well wanting their annual boiler services done. Ideal Commercial boilers serviced and PAT testing too (2x boilers per school). Quoted ÂŁ125+Vat each boiler for the service and apparently I was the cheapest by ÂŁ45 per boiler so they want me to service them.

I think it's fair to say there is good money in commercial work!! Wondered where it was in the plumbing game :)
 
Yes definitely. Just had a trust that owns 5 schools get in touch as well wanting their annual boiler services done. Ideal Commercial boilers serviced and PAT testing too (2x boilers per school). Quoted ÂŁ125+Vat each boiler for the service and apparently I was the cheapest by ÂŁ45 per boiler so they want me to service them.

I think it's fair to say there is good money in commercial work!! Wondered where it was in the plumbing game :)

Do you know model of boilers ? And that's not too bad of a rate
 
They're Ideal Imax F120s.
 
Yes definitely. Just had a trust that owns 5 schools get in touch as well wanting their annual boiler services done. Ideal Commercial boilers serviced and PAT testing too (2x boilers per school). Quoted ÂŁ125+Vat each boiler for the service and apparently I was the cheapest by ÂŁ45 per boiler so they want me to service them.

I think it's fair to say there is good money in commercial work!! Wondered where it was in the plumbing game :)

Next time you will know you can quote slightly more too
 
ÂŁ125 + VAT isn't bad. I normally Charge Between ÂŁ135 and ÂŁ180 +VAT for commercial Boilers, if it's a straight forward service and depending on time taken.
 
Yes it's one of those things - figured I should come in a bit cheaper initially to build up my commercial client base. Also they're looking at a 5 year commitment to us and with The electrical testing side that's a good whack of recurring income.
 
Yes it's one of those things - figured I should come in a bit cheaper initially to build up my commercial client base. Also they're looking at a 5 year commitment to us and with The electrical testing side that's a good whack of recurring income.

Yep and you will find the same with most commercial places

I'm off to Leeds today doing some i Max's once a month every month
 
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