Can I connect my own gas cooktop or heater?

Plugging an appliance into an existing bayonet point is fine, which is what those points are for. Anything else is licensed work: hard-piping a cooktop, altering or extending a gas line, converting an appliance between natural gas and LPG, or installing a flue. An unlicensed gas connection is also the sort of thing an insurer will lean on after a fire.

How do I know if my gas heater is safe to use this winter?

You cannot tell by looking, which is the problem with carbon monoxide. Warning signs worth acting on are soot or scorching around the heater, a yellow lazy flame instead of a crisp blue one, a strange smell when it runs, or headaches and drowsiness in the room that lift when you go outside. An open-flued heater older than about fifteen years and never serviced should be tested before it is lit.

Do I need compliance certificates when I sell the house?

You do not need to produce a certificate for every old appliance, but any gasfitting done while you owned the property should have one, and buyers increasingly ask. If work was done without a certificate the fix is an inspection and test by a licensed gasfitter now, rather than an awkward discovery during the settlement period.

Gas fitting

What does gas fitting involve?

We are licensed gasfitters as well as plumbers, so cooktop and oven connections, heater installs and servicing, gas hot water, new lines and leak testing all come from one trade. Every job is pressure tested with a manometer and finished with a Victorian gas compliance certificate lodged in your name.

At a glance

Licence: Type A gasfitting with servicing endorsement, VBA licence 000000
Compliance certificate: Issued and lodged with the VBA on every gas job we do
CO testing: Negative pressure and spillage test with every open-flued heater service
Heater servicing: Every two years, and we will send a reminder if you want one
Gas leaks: Attended 24 hours; appliances isolated and tested before we leave

What a compliance certificate is, and why you want one

In Victoria a licensed gasfitter lodges a compliance certificate with the Victorian Building Authority for gasfitting work above the prescribed value, and you receive a copy. It is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the record that a licensed person did the work and tested it, it is what an insurer asks for after an incident, and it is what a buyer's inspector looks for when a cooktop has clearly been changed at some point. We issue one for every gas job, including the small ones where it is not strictly required, and we lodge it rather than handing you a form to chase.

Appliances and connections

Cooktops and ovens are mostly straightforward, but the detail decides whether they are safe. An appliance isolation valve of the right size, somewhere you can actually reach it. A bayonet or rigid connection to suit the appliance. The correct injectors if the unit came configured for LPG. And a clearance check against combustible surfaces in a joinery cutout that was drawn long before anyone thought about a flame. Space heaters and ducted systems get all of that plus flue and combustion checks.

Open-flued heaters deserve their own paragraph. A heater that draws combustion air from the room and vents up a flue can spill its exhaust back inside if the flue is blocked, or if a rangehood, bathroom fan or a tightly sealed modern house is pulling harder than the flue can push. That is the carbon monoxide risk behind the warnings every winter. Testing for it means a negative pressure test with the house's fans running, plus spillage and CO readings at the appliance, and it is exactly why every open-flued heater should be serviced every two years. If one fails, we condemn and disconnect it. There is no halfway position on that.

New lines, meters and pressure

Running gas to a new kitchen, a heater at the far end of the house or an outdoor barbecue point is a sizing exercise before it is a plumbing one. Every appliance has a consumption in megajoules per hour, every length of pipe has a pressure drop set by its diameter, length and fittings, and each appliance needs its rated inlet pressure with everything else in the house firing at once. Get that wrong and you have appliances that run rich, lock out, or behave perfectly until the ducted heater kicks in. We size the run, test the installation with a manometer, purge and commission each appliance, and check the meter has the capacity before adding load to it.

Gas fitting — common questions

Can I connect my own gas cooktop or heater?: Plugging an appliance into an existing bayonet point is fine, which is what those points are for. Anything else is licensed work: hard-piping a cooktop, altering or extending a gas line, converting an appliance between natural gas and LPG, or installing a flue. An unlicensed gas connection is also the sort of thing an insurer will lean on after a fire.
How do I know if my gas heater is safe to use this winter?: You cannot tell by looking, which is the problem with carbon monoxide. Warning signs worth acting on are soot or scorching around the heater, a yellow lazy flame instead of a crisp blue one, a strange smell when it runs, or headaches and drowsiness in the room that lift when you go outside. An open-flued heater older than about fifteen years and never serviced should be tested before it is lit.
Do I need compliance certificates when I sell the house?: You do not need to produce a certificate for every old appliance, but any gasfitting done while you owned the property should have one, and buyers increasingly ask. If work was done without a certificate the fix is an inspection and test by a licensed gasfitter now, rather than an awkward discovery during the settlement period.