Gas tank inspection.

[tryagain]

I am supposed to have someone coming to recertify the gas tank in the car tomorrow, rang a couple of places a week or so ago to get some prices and he was cheapest (mobile guy) so booked in with him for tomorrow.

At the time he asked a couple of weird questions about how much gas was in the tank (which is fine) but also about how close the neighbours were etc seeming to hint about releasing the gas. As I had other things on my mind at the time I didn't really dig any deeper but I thought they generally transferred it to another tank whilst testing. Any other ideas?

So with the day almost here I thought I should probably dig a little deeper. Apart from a few 1 line business directory listings I have found (business name, number and suburb) I can't find any other information reviews etc, including on the ABN lookup.

Should I pull the pin? Does anyone know how to find out if he is licensed/accredited to restamp it?

[Bird]

Do you have any mechanic mates maybe ask them

[Hoyks]

If he has to drop the pressure to replace any valves of inspect the inside for corrosion, then I'd imagine they would just vent the tank to the atmosphere.

For the price of LPG and the fact it isn't restricted for atmospheric release like refrigerants are, the cost of a reclaiming machine and portable storage vessel of sufficient size would be prohibitive.

You can't do any running around to drop the contents to near zero?

[tryagain]

Good news is he knows his stuff, the bad news is that there is a bit too much rust on the tank, but he has removed it and is going to look for another one, worst case scenario is that it now doesn't have an out of date tank on the car.

Further to what I had already mentioned, an additional issue is that the solenoid on the tank is buggered, so can't run down the contents in the car, and the only way he can now vent the tank is to undo the screws that hold the valves on, which he said can bring quite a bit of unwanted attention in suburbia. He did have the setup on the back of the ute to be able to vac out gas if needs be, but as Hoyks mentioned, Probably not worthwhile most of the time, I also chatted to a larger place who rectifies tanks and they mentioned they vent them the same way.

All in all, happy with him so far and the price is quite a bit cheaper than the alternatives.

[rags]

If he has to drop the pressure to replace any valves of inspect the inside for corrosion, then I'd imagine they would just vent the tank to the atmosphere.

For the price of LPG and the fact it isn't restricted for atmospheric release like refrigerants are, the cost of a reclaiming machine and portable storage vessel of sufficient size would be prohibitive.

You can't do any running around to drop the contents to near zero?

The tank would want to be near empty to consider venting when LPG expands 270 times that of the liquid state as a vapour.

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Pilot lights on gas fueled hot water systems wouldn't help the situation either.

[tryagain]

The tank would want to be near empty to consider venting when LPG expands 270 times that of the liquid state as a vapour.

From chatting with a few different people, that seems to be the norm, ie run it down to empty, then vent the last bit. Looks like he has a bit to vent then with my tank being full.