Gas stove in the house – how to ensure safety

Unfortunately, we often hear in the news “a gas explosion occurred in a residential building in the city of N, people were injured”. Together with the site Our site, let’s figure out what you can personally do to secure your home if it has a gas stove or hob.

According to statistics, almost two-thirds of Russian apartments are equipped with gas stoves. Yes, cooking with gas is quick and convenient, fuel is inexpensive for our country. But gas is dangerous:

1. This is a source of open flame, in fact, a gas fire. And where there is an open flame, there is a risk of fire;
2. The products of combustion of gas and they themselves can go;
3. If the leak was prolonged, the gas concentration exceeded a certain value, an explosion with destructive consequences is possible.

How to minimize such risks?

The first thing we recommend to you is to buy the right hose for supplying gas to the stove or hob. They must have a quality certificate. Rubber and bellows hoses are recommended by specialists, but metal braided, reinforced hoses are not! If you decide to move your gas stove, you will definitely need to call a specialist from the gas service. So he will then check whether you have chosen the correct hose for connecting to the gas supply. After all, leaks most often occur precisely at the points of connection to the pipe at the entrance to an apartment or house, as well as directly at the point of connection of the stove. Or due to cracks in the hose itself. Therefore, all these places must be checked by a gas operator, the connection points are securely tightened, insulated.

The second recommendation is not to neglect preventive examinations by specialists. According to the law, every three years the local gas service must go around houses and apartments to check how the stoves, boilers, and water heaters work on gas. If the device has reached the end of its useful life, it must be checked every year.

Sometimes such checks are carried out urgently, for example, after another explosion in a residential building. Gas service employees must warn tenants, for example, post a notice at the entrance, distribute alerts. And on the specified day, one of the owners must be at home to let the inspectors in. Otherwise, the gas supply may be turned off, and throughout the riser, neighbors will suffer due to careless owners.

There were cases when the entrance remained without gas for a week due to a leak detected, which the apartment owners did not allow to be eliminated – they simply did not open the gasman’s door. By the way, let us remind you that pressure testing of gas supply systems, as the portal already wrote, is carried out exclusively by specialists..

The third recommendation concerns the operation of gas stoves. Have you read the instructions? It is high time! Experts generally advise to ventilate the room every time before turning on the gas. And first light a match, and only then open the valve. Better yet, buy a stove with electric ignition. Monitor the condition of the flame. It should be blue, bright blue, not yellow or red. You should be alerted if the gas smokes heavily, the burner makes strange sounds, as if shooting, the flame whistles or hisses. All this is a reason to call gas workers, check the operation of the hob. Well, just do not forget to keep track of what is being prepared on the stove and turn off the gas after the end of the process. A teapot with a whistle, by the way, is a useful purchase – it will definitely call when it boils.

We also recommend that you think about buying a gas stove or surface with a modern gas control system. A very useful feature! A sensor is installed on such a stove, which will immediately respond if the flame has gone out. For example, due to a strong draft, escaped milk or overflowing water. The thermocouple signals the valve that the flame has gone out, the gas supply is stopped. Very convenient for families with elderly people and children. And in general – much safer.

The fifth recommendation is to buy a gas leak detector for your home or apartment. We have devoted an entire article to such important devices for the safety of residents, so we will not repeat ourselves. Gas leak detectors are especially useful if your stove is old and does not have a gas control function..

Sixth tip – take care of good ventilation in the kitchen! Remember that a gas explosion occurs when its concentration in the room reaches 6–17%. According to the regulations, 90 cubic meters of air must flow into and out of the kitchen with a gas stove every hour. Under such conditions, even an open but unlit hotplate will not cause an explosion. A powerful hood, valves on plastic windows, a ventilation window – all this will help to avoid trouble. At the same time, it is important that the general ventilation system functions normally in the apartment building, the mine is not clogged or blocked by negligent neighbors. The gas service should also monitor the condition of the ventilation system of an apartment building, regular checks and rounds of all owners are carried out in order to make sure that there is a draft from the ventilation or hood.

The seventh recommendation is banal, but still we repeat – if you smell gas (by the way, ethyl mercaptan is added to it specially for this purpose) – call 112 or 104! This applies not only to your apartment – the smell of gas in the entrance, in the courtyard of the house, from neighbors is also a reason to call specialists. Until the gas workers arrive – close the valve, open the window, do not turn on electrical appliances, wait until the source of the leak is identified.