Are you thinking of buying some caravan appliances?
Make sure you watch this video first!
The caravan renovation industry is kind of going nuts, like the caravan in this video. The owner said he got it for 200-300 bucks or something, and he’s been fixing it up. But it’s very important before you start charging ahead and buying caravan appliances that they must be fit for purpose. We’ll show you this one with a cooker inside. He has put a hot water system in. So we’re just putting a bayonet and a cooker inside, but it’s really got to be fit for purpose.
The Standards
Back in April 2021, they changed the gas regulations. We show you in the video the new bottle flexible hose and the new gas bottles that you need to have on your caravan. They’re trying to get rid of the old flexible hose and the main reason is so when you turn the bottle on, it’s got a safety valve in there so the gas can’t come out. If you still have the old school flexible hoses, the new bottles still work with them, which is great.
The Cooker
But the main thing is the cooker inside here which is an outdoor model. You can see the owner is an amazing tradie with all that he has done. Just everything he has touched is just absolutely beautiful. Check out this piping that he did for the hot water system, all the bends and how straight it is, just absolutely beautiful what he has done, plumbing wise. He has done all the water and we’ve just done all the gas for it. We actually offered him a job because this is just beautiful pipe work. That’s the thing with plumbing. Most of the stuff you do are put behind cupboards or buried and you don’t really get to see, but it’s good to still keep it all plumbed and level and stuff. That’s what Ben’s TAFE teacher back in the day, Mr. Humphreys, taught him. G’day Mr. Humphreys if you’re watching. He always said if a plumber can’t keep his pipes plumbed and horizontal, what good is he? It’s always stuck with Ben.
The Issue
But anyway, let’s talk about this little stove that he has installed. He has put this nice little stove, done a beautiful job on the bench top and everything like that. But the trouble is there is no flame failure device. If the wind comes in and blows this out, the gas will continue to come through. This is mainly an outdoor appliance. If you are going to spend time and money fitting something like this, because they might be $200-300, you should check if it has a flame failure device. This cooker has the ignition rod that it should have, but there should be another little rod sticking in there, and that’s the flame failure device. And all that is is if the gas ever blows out on the unit, that little flame failure device, or thermocouple they call it, cools down and it doesn’t allow electrical current which supplies a magnet to hold the gas valve open and then that shuts the gas off.
What We Did
We won’t be hooking that up today or ever because he has got to replace it and get a decent one like the Dometic, one of those ones, a proper one that’s fit for purpose. But he’s going to go away and modify the cupboards and everything like that. We have just put the gas main to come up through and just capped it off, so in the future there’ll be a gas valve on that and then we can connect it up when he has got it properly sorted.
Just to recap, before buying some caravan appliances, make sure that they aren’t suited for outdoors in a unit like this. It’s got to have flame failure device. Very important, especially when you’re sleeping in here and stuff. Anyway, stay safe and keep these caravan renovations… It’s great to see these old things back on the road. If you need any of our help with this, give us a call. We’ll be happy to help.
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