Heater and cooker gas connection

All is going fine with our orange Dandy 4 - we went to Guernsey last week but now winter is upon us (we are in the Lake District) I want to fit the Riviera underfloor heater.  At the moment I simply have the cooker on a rubber pipe with a regulator on the end which I pass through the flap behind the cupboard to the gas bottle..
I will run the heater gas pipe into the side locker. I'd like two isolating taps for cooker and heater. The cooker sits on the floor when we travel so it is on a flexible pipe.
I tried to upload a picture but didn't manage

How do people connect it all up. Where should the isolation taps go and where/how do they arrange the feedpipe from the bottle and flexible cooker pipe? Do you use connectors and where do you get them. I'm hoping there is an obvious way to connect it all!

Hi,

on our Dandy there are two valves with 'taps' in the bottom cupboard on the left, that's what the pipe from the gas bottle feeds .... the gas hose for the cooker connects to one and the other is for the heater. Hope this makes sense as I can't explain it any better, hopefully someone else will probably be able to explain in more detail soon.

Thanks Helen. How is the gas bottle connected. Is it via a flexible hose permanently fixed in the cupboard and then do you pass the other end and regulator out through the flap?  Secondly is your cooker on a second flexible hose and do you disconnect it for travel. If you do, what sort of connector do you use?  I'm worried about quick connectors leaking in the Dandy (Hindenberg!) Thanks Robert

I can't remember how the gas connects (although I know it's a flexible hose with regulator) it doesn't go in via the flap though ...... I can get hubby to look tomorrow for you. I have my cooker on an extra long flexible hose and don't disconnect it ..... we just turn the gas off

We can't really help as we don't have a floor heater.

In Phoenix we have a flexi pipe connected to the cooker with a regulator on the other end, we thread this under the kitchen wall and connect to the cylinder which is placed on the A frame.

In Dylan we connect the regulator pipe to a connector on the front with a jubilee clip this is copper piped to inside the kitchen cupboard where there is a tap to turn it off and then we left enough flexi pipe to be able to pack the cooker without disconnecting it.

We could take a picture of this when away in a couple of weeks.

Right so Phoenix sounds the same as me

Helen I'd be interested how you get from regulator to Dandy - is there a connector?  What type where is it

Dylan - same question

I think all I need to know what and where you both connect when you arrive on site. Its the connectors that are making me nervous ie the bits that are undone when you get to site. I'm quite happy with the regulator/gas bottle as that has a rubber washer and I use a spanner

NB thanks to the forum I did replace the ancient hose!

Thank you

Just been and took these pics. The regulator is connected to the hose with a jubilee clip, the other end we connect the same when on site to the connector shown.

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Ours is a 2005 model so hopefully reasonably modern standards.
In the front locker there is a flexible pipe with a regulator on one end attached to the bottle. The other end connects to a metal pipe as Pheonix shows in his picture.

Inside the Dandy, the metal pipe connect to a long flexible pipe which stays permanantly connected. The connection is on the top of the left hand side of the bottom kitchen unit. I simply lift the top kitchen unit up off the floor onto the cupboards and poke the pipe down behind. There is no connecting to do on site it is permanently connected.

I don't think there is a gas tap inside the dandy but I don't have a heater. Maybe a tap is only needed if there is more than one appliance such as a cooker and a heater.

I think the metal pipe runs from the back of the gas box, through the front trailer wall and into the bottom kitchen cupboard.

The gas pipe is the black bendy bit here.

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Talk about no two Dandys being the same. I've only ever knowingly seen the pipe that comes out from beneath the floor being for a heater. So the connection on Daylan is foreign to me then I was shocked it is the same on a much newer unit such as naver's.

So I have two Designers with the floor based pipe:
The unit I bought this year has a non standard kitchen. The heater is unswitched (it has no tap) and there are two gas taps on the floor (these are non standard) one for the stove. the other possibly for a fridge?
My original Designer just has a line of flexible tube from the regulator that is T pieced to two tubes. One for the heater and one for the stove. Obviously both items need to be connected otherwise the gas would just flow from the unsealed tube.

I ran two gas fridges and a gas freezer through a one into 4 pipe with 4 valves. I bought this from TVS for a fiver. They may have had a rethink on Conway component prices but they will still be cheap. Don't know how true it is but I heard a story of how they ended up buying Conways stock and it was for next to nothing.

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I will fit that to the Designer. I also have used [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]for all sorts of clips T pieces and connectors, especially:

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You can buy all these sorts of things of eBay but Hamilton's are competitive in price (Calor invested in them last year so prices may go up) and I'd much prefer to buy from people who can give you some guidance.

Our late-model Destiny has a multi-valve manifold like the one Tow Itch has pictured. It's a 3-way one and there are 2-way and 3-way versions listed on ebay, but not for a fiver!

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The connection between the front box and the valves in the undersink cupboard is the same as Phoenix has described earlier.

There is a valve each for the fridge and the cooker and the third one is blanked off. Having also picked up an underfloor heater (thanks to Mr Itch's eagle eye) I will be connecting into this spare valve. I will probably also tee off the heater connection to an external quick-release connector mounted underneath the Dandy for BBQ / beer fridge purposes.

Hubby's had a look at our Dandy, the pipe from the bottle runs under our Dandy to a connector and is pushed on and secured with a jubilee clip  we don't disconnect this and it looks like that feeds both the heater and the cooker

So pleased you checked the hose and replaced it, it's surprising how many people don't know that they need doing over the years

p.s we don't have to disconnect any gas pipe as we have a long one on the cooker it just lifts right off and sits on the floor still connected, we do make sure the gas is turned off before we fold our Dandy x

Sorry, my gas pipe actually goes from hose in the gas locker to a metal pipe under the dandy and up through the floor. I thought it went through the front wall.

Hi All - thanks a lot for your help. I didn't realise that people left the cooker connected. I think the way I'll go is to have a hose from the gas bottle and regulator running to a manifold in the cupboard. I don't have a gas box so the regulator will come off every trip and it can enter through the flap. In other words as I do now but to a manifold rather than cooker. The cooker can have its own valve and long hose so it can stay connected and the heater can be hard piped via a valve from the  manifold. That way there is only one connection per trip and that is outside on the regulator.

One other thought - do people have a problem with muck falling into the heater when its running or do you all wear carpet slippers!? I can see my collie sitting on it and it filling with fur!

We have a very furry dog, he's a Sheltie and his fur gets everywhere ........ he tends to avoid the heater  As I said though his fur gets everywhere and for the seats and carpet I use a rubber bristle hand brush which I've found the best for getting it off ...... the heater does get some rubbish in it so we have a very thin hoover nozzle (from betaware) that sticks on the end of our normal nozzle and we use that to get out the bits from the heater casing ....... only occasionally though. Beware kids with maltesers ....... we once had an incident with them and they can make a mess

To service you blow through using high pressure air/compressor, take off the top of the viewing window (screws off) put the airline in just a little bit (don't push it down the hole) and give it a good blow through.

Thanks Helen I've got some comments on the ride height thread!

On some of the Riviera heaters the bottom panel has a screw thread on one end so the panel can be removed.
Don't push the airline all the way in? I did when I cleaned the Admiral's Heater jets. They burn blue now.

We've never pushed an airline all the way in for fear of banging and damaging something inside, and ours also burns blue

Helen wrote:We've never pushed an airline all the way in for fear of banging and damaging something inside, and ours also burns blue

Forethought and Delicacy. Two attributes I'm not particularly blessed with.

Your blessed in so many other ways Kevin