Gas pressure, how common is this.......?

[slim_boy_fat]

Hope this is in the right place , if not can a Mod please move.

Picked up a Y size bottle of pure Argon from BOC's Inverness depot yesterday and connected it up this morning, using a new regulator. The gauge is only showing 50 bar pressure when it ought to be 230 .

In fairness, I phoned BOC and they were very apologetic, and are arranging for a replacement to be delivered to me early next week [I'm 40 miles out from the depot] at no cost [Tues seems likely since they don't do runs on Mondays].

It's not really vital that I have it right NOW - but just wondered if faulty fills happen often, in the experience of the Collective?

 

[armalites]

We used to be an Adams gas stockist and we checked every single bottle before it went out. The biggest issue we had was bottles that had been filled on a warm Autumn day and we may be checking them on a frosty morning, they tend to show a little low. We started doing it after a regular customer drove 30mins home to find a bottle completely empty. It's not that common but it does happen. If you want to be sure just take a spare reg with you and stick it on the bottle while you are there. Only takes a minute and this is how we tested all of ours.

As pdg says it's a very small percentage but for us it did seem quite a common moan about BOC.

It is worth comparing with another reg too, we had a customer who said his bottle was low even though we had checked it, he then took it to his mates and found it was his reg that was out.

It was a double edge sword for us, when you openly check in front of people you find they are more concious of it and make a point of checking their gauge when they get home and will often ring to say it's down by 4bar

 

[Richard.]

only showing 50 bar

Should of told boc it was only showing 20 bar and used up a good lump till new cylinder arrived.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Just had a horrible thought this a.m..
What if the new regulator was faulty, and not the bottle at all? BOC would [rightly] charge me for second bottle, and deliver to here.

So I swopped over with my known, good regulator and the pure Argon still showed the low pressure reading - PHEW!! Mind at rest now.

 

[Richard.]

Just had a horrible thought this a.m..
What if the new regulator was faulty, and not the bottle at all? BOC would [rightly] charge me for second bottle, and deliver to here.

So I swopped over with my known, good regulator and the pure Argon still showed the low pressure reading - PHEW!! Mind at rest now.

That could Of easily be resolved with a splash of heavy welding and a bit of decanting before the boc Man arrives.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

So, no gas until Friday as their wagon doesn't come North until then. Understandable I suppose, with such a huge geographical area to cover and only three lorries at the depot. I did tell them I might need to use some of what's in the bottle and they were OK with that, but I'm not going to overdo it in case they get sticky about it.

I had a play this morning but was either blowing holes or getting 'flat' welds in 3mm mild steel, so gave up - maybe I'll have to clean it up properly before I try again.

 

[backpurge]

I really wouldn't be worried about using however much gas you want, the cylinder will be fully drained before being re filled anyway

 

[wilbur]

So, no gas until Friday as their wagon doesn't come North until then. Understandable I suppose, with such a huge geographical area to cover and only three lorries at the depot. I did tell them I might need to use some of what's in the bottle and they were OK with that, but I'm not going to overdo it in case they get sticky about it.

Nobody's going to care - for all anyone knows, the pressure's down because there's a leak anyway, so there's nothing to say that it won't all be gone by Friday whatever you do or don't do.

 

[Rob Heath]

I'm an Air Liquide agent and it does happen. I probably get half a dozen 'faulty' cylinders per year.

Also, don't worry about using a bit out of