Water In The Gas Supply Gives Your Appliances Indigestion (Transco)

Member Name: DaisyDuck

Product:	Transco
Date:	27/10/01 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Help you in a crisis.

Disadvantages: Not enough staff and equipment

Now we have all seen the cartoon when the plumbing is faulty and you turn on the hob and get a squirt of water in the face. Well water in the gas supply is not nearly so amusing or spectacular, just very anoying.

Back in September 1999 we noticed that every time the gas central heating came on, the gas fire would start to surge the flames up and down. So when the British Gas engineer came to give the boiler its regular check up we mentioned this. He said the boiler was fine but checked the gas supply for us, and said he thought there was some water in it.

We needed to call Transco.

So we phoned Transco, who told us to turn off the supply and not to touch any switches or light matches etc.They would send some one round within the hour.

An engineer arrived after about 20 mins which was excellent. He sealed the meter and condemned our supply. He then had to ring another team to come pump out the water.

It took a couple of hours for them to arrive. They pumped out the water and then our gas was back on. Well no it wasn't, they had to call the guy who originally turned it off to turn it back on and re-light the boiler. Now the boiler lights automatically and even I can light it, but we had to wait. So after about another hours wait it was all back to normal.

I asked the engineers who pumped it out if it was likely to happen again, they were optimistic and said that most of the leaks had been fixed in the area and it wasn't likely.

How did the water get in? Well I was told that it seeps in and if we get a lot of wet weather it can rise up and get into the domestic supply.

All is fine until spring 2000 when whilst playing outside with my daughter, I hear a swishing noise near the gas pipe at the side of the house.

I ring Transco get the usual advice and promised help within the hour. It is the same thing again, some one to turn it off, another team to pump it out and someone else to
turn it on again.

This time though we report it at about 5pm, by 5.30pm it has been disconnected.
We get a call at about 7.30pm saying that they are very busy with leaks and other emergencies but will come as soon as possible.
At 10pm on a very chilly early spring night, we get a call to say that they will not be able to sort the problem until the morning.

9.30am the team arrive but have a faulty pump and have to change it, by 11am the supply has been drained of water.

This team of engineers have a bit more sense as we have been without heating all night, they turn on the gas for me and light the boiler. Will it happen again they don't think so.

January 2001, a Sunday evening and the grill keeps going out and the oven is taking forever to cook a meal, I go and listen to the pipe and hear the familiar swishing.
To get enough pressure to finish the cooking I turn off everything except the cooker.

I ring them on Monday morning to report the water. Again someone has to condemn the supply before it can be dried out. I point out that I am now becoming an expert in this matter and could they just send out the pump. No they couldn't.

So after reporting it at 9am, I have to sit around in a cold house from 9.30 waiting for Transco. I miss the first day of an important course, and they finally turn up in the early evening. If I had known they were going to be so late I could have attended my course and got back to let them in.

When Transco arrive they are efficient, friendly and helpful. But as with every other service they are understaffed and poorly equipped.
The helpline staff do their best, but are bound by strict protocols. I am surprised that they are able to be so friendly, when having to cope with very difficult customers, that feel frustrated by the system and service.

Today the rain is pouring down, and I just hope that the water is no longer getting into the gas supp
ly.
What also worries me is where is it getting in exactly, and if water gets in can't gas get out.

So if you see me listening to the outside wall of my house, you will know I am just checking the gas.

Summary: