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Thursday 25 February 2010

STOP PRESS. Potato stops leak.

plumbing

 

Now I'm an ex marine engineer and in my time I've had to resort to a few insane dodges in my time, However this one takes the biscuit potato.

A plumber British Gas Engineer called out out to fix a leak used a potato to correct the problem. (I've never done that, but I did jam the bum of a future Lloyd's surveyor into a sea filter box, to stop one of her Majesties ship's sinking in Antwerp harbour. But that's another story.)

Richard Pickles was amazed when the engineer, who had been at his property for two hours attempting to mend the leak, resorted to a potato to temporarily fix the problem.

Mr Pickles, who lives Lancaster with his wife Amanda and children, including a 10-week-old baby, said: 'The engineer said "I'm only supposed to be here for an hour" and rammed a potato on to stop the leak.

Have a good look at the picture above. The leak is on the drain for the system. The answer was:

I rang up the next day to tell British Gas what had happened and another gas fitter came. He sorted the problem in five minutes by turning a screw.

No doubt there was a small amount of scale preventing the valve from sealing positively. The answer is normally to back it off and then re-tighten it. Time taken: 20 seconds?

Why do they call these Numtpties, Engineers? In my day it took 4 1/2 years to gain that title.

H/T to the

daily fail

4 comments:

  1. That picture should be submitted to this site
    http://thereifixedit.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh my - Just discovered your blog! Oh What Now.... Oh Really Now???? Hmmmm, let me read on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Must be one of those new eco-friendly, biodegradable, environmental engineers then.

    You qualify by explaining how you feel about the pipes, and how the gas only needs to flow if it really wants to flow, and if it knows it will make a difference.

    And of course if someones bought some carbon offsets

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carbon Offsets! wash your mouth out with soap and water.

    ReplyDelete

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