We use glp to cook here in brazil. A metal tank with the gas is hooked up to the stove, sometimes sitting INSIDE the kitchen. An explosion usually obliterates the kitchen and everything above it. This is not the worst part! The tanks are reusable and sometimes rusty. And they are transported on an open truck with a wooden bed. This truck rides around neighbourhoods playing an annoying music in loop. It baffles my mind the fact that an open musical wooden truck sells reusable gas tanks with flammable gas inside… Am I crazy or this is kinda… Dangerously dangerous?
This setup is very common in many countries that don’t have in-ground fuel distribution infrastructure (which is probably most of them). Both of my houses here in Thailand are like this. Even in new construction, such as condominiums, gas is piped into dwellings from a main tank somewhere on the property.
I’ve never heard of a kitchen being blown up because of a defective tank, but I don’t see how it’s any more dangerous than a gas leak in a more modern setup where a kitchen gets a gas feed from the street.
I’m curious why you think this is so dangerous? I mean propane grills use the same system in the USA, most gas stations sell them.
Sounds like an ice cream truck, which could bring a new meaning to Bomb Pops.
As for transporting the LPG, no biggie, as long as people pay attention to what they’re doing. Here in the US, there are a few accidents each year when people put 20-pound barbecue tanks in their car to refill or exchange them, and the tank is left to roll around in the trunk, or they leave the tank in the car on a hot day as they do their errands, and the tank’s pressure relief valve opens, filling the car with propane.
Do they play “Turkey in the Straw”? That’s a common ice-cream truck tune in the USA.
I was figuring this was about the Pharma industry, complaining about them not following Good Laboratory Practices. (At least that’s the first thing that pops into my mind when I hear GLP)
Yes, it is very common to keep the propane tank in the kitchen. My mother-in-law made cute covers for them, out of pretty fabrics.
I never heard about anyone having their kitchen explode though. Just like how I never heard of any Brazilians dying in the shower under their electric shower head—another scary fixture common to South American homes.
There are a few news stories of tanks exploding. Also, one idiot tried to fill his glp tank on a natural gas machine. The explosion opened his car like a sardine can and managed to destroy the gas station.
They do explode now and then, but it’s not common. And yeah, that’s the normal way to cook in much of the world.
I agree, not a big deal. I lived in South America for a few years and this was standard practice. I never heard of anyone getting their kitchen blown up.
I just did a google image search of ‘electric shower head’ that will give me nightmares.
people in rural areas of USA use 100 gal. tanks for cooking. people might transport there own in all sorts of ways. it’s not uncommon to see a stake bed truck full of those tanks making deliveries. usually kept outside because of the weight and neighbors not stealing them.
those electric shower heads are shocking though.
We have the same delivery system in Mexico where I live. When I exchange tanks I use a spray bottle of soap and water and check for leaks before accepting the tank. Many tanks are very oxidized due to the proximity of the ocean. I don’t think many people do this. Because the driver is surprised when I do this inspection. I don’t think explosions are common. I just don’t want to pay for gas that is leaking.
Those are also mighty common here in PR[li], and our key reg is to the effect of the tank *and *the line regulator valve having to be on a stable base outside the structure, so that any failure vents to the free atmosphere rather than into the enclosed space. It’s rare news to hear of damage or casualties from a malfunction of the LPG system itself (as opposed to, say, a malfunction in the indoor lines connectors or in the gas-powered equipment, which would apply to piped gas just as well; or, our old friend operator error).[/li]
Heck, after the 1996 Rio Piedras piped-gas explosiona lot of the ground-piped service in this part of town was discontinued altogether because it was understood the gas pipe network was beyond economically viable rehab outside large industrial/commercial centers so the city got itself quite a lot more of those tanked setups.
[*So are showerhead heaters. We live. Proper grounding and wiring to code.]
With the shower heads the trick is never to touch the shower head and kinda ignore the wires.
When we lived in Beirut, we had a gas canister in our kitchen to run the stove and oven. When the delivery guy replaced the canister, he would wave a lit match around the valve to make sure it wasn’t leaking. :eek:
I think people in many other parts of the world are more freaked out by the idea of natural gas as a utility, piped all over the city (which does, indisputably, result in periodic exploded houses, etc.).
Yes. I used the brazilian term (facepalm)