Park Home Boiler Servicing in Kent

A park home boiler should be serviced once a year by a Gas Safe registered engineer whose registration covers the fuel it runs on, which for a home on LPG means the LPG categories as well as natural gas. As the owner of the home, arranging it is your job rather than the park's. The service sits alongside two other dates worth knowing, the LPG regulator and the flexible gas hose, both of which are replaced on age rather than waiting for them to fail.

We work on residential park homes lived in all year and on holiday caravans and lodges on the parks across Kent. Touring caravans and motorhomes are a different job that we do not take on. We are Gas Safe registered, covering LPG as well as natural gas, and below is what a park home service covers, the dates that go with it, and who looks after what.

Once a year, the same as any home

A park home boiler is a gas boiler like any other, and it wants the same annual service for the same reasons, safe combustion, a flue in good order and the manufacturer's warranty kept valid. Being on LPG changes nothing about the frequency. It changes who can do the work, because LPG sits under its own Gas Safe categories rather than coming free with a natural gas registration, so the question to ask anybody you book is whether their registration includes LPG.

The responsibility is yours as the homeowner. GOV.UK's guidance for park home residents is that you repair your own home when necessary, and the written agreement with the site owner sets out the rules, the charges and the services the park provides. If the gas reaches your home through the park's own supply, the agreement is the place to see where the park's part ends and yours begins.

What a park home service covers

The boiler gets the same work as one in a house. The flue gases are analysed against the manufacturer's figures, the burner and heat exchanger are inspected, the safety devices are proved, and the flue terminal and its seals are checked where the flue passes out through the wall or roof. Then the supply side is looked at, the regulator, the hose and the pipework, with a tightness test on the installation.

Park homes rely on fixed ventilation, the grilles and vents built into the walls and floor, and they need to stay clear. They are easy to cover with furniture or block against draughts, and they are there for the gas appliances as much as for the people. A carbon monoxide alarm should be fitted and tested, and HSE strongly recommends one in any home with a gas appliance, describing carbon monoxide as colourless, odourless and tasteless, which is exactly why the alarm rather than your nose is the warning.

Why LPG gets its own categories

LPG behaves differently from mains gas. It is stored as a liquid under pressure in a bottle or tank, it reaches the appliances through a regulator rather than a meter, and it is heavier than air, so a leak gathers low down instead of rising and clearing. That is why the safety advice for an LPG leak puts the low windows and doors first, and why the vents at floor level in a park home matter as much as the ones up high.

It is also why an engineer needs the LPG categories on their registration as well as natural gas. The pressures, the regulators and the safety devices are different, and so are the checks at a service, so an engineer qualified only for mains gas is not the right person for an LPG boiler, however good they are at the rest.

The regulator and the hose have dates

The regulator brings the gas from the bottle or tank down to the pressure the appliances use, and the flexible hose connects it. Flogas's guide to regulator safety gives the industry guidance plainly. A regulator should be replaced ten years from its date of manufacture, which is marked on it, and a hose should usually be replaced every five years, or sooner if it shows cracks, stiffness or wear. Neither is a job to tackle yourself.

Reading the dates on the regulator and the hose at the annual service works better than waiting for either to cause a fault, because both are replaced on age by the guidance above, and the dates are printed on them for exactly that reason. It takes a minute while the engineer is already there.

The regulator and the hose are replaced on age, not on failure, and the date is printed on both.

If you let your home or static

Letting changes the paperwork. HSE's guidance treats a let caravan or holiday home as landlord accommodation, and the duties for LPG appliances are the same as for natural gas, so the appliances you provide need a gas safety check every year. Ours start from £120, and the landlord check covers the appliances and flues you provide, not anything a guest brings.

For stays under 28 days, HSE expects a legible copy of the record to be displayed in a prominent place, which is the arrangement most holiday lets use. Letting a holiday caravan on Sheppey works the same way as anywhere else in Kent, and booking the check before the season keeps it out of the way of the first guests.

If you smell gas

On LPG, ring your supplier's emergency line, which is printed on the tank, the bottles and the bill, and follow the park's own procedure if it has one. Calor's emergency advice is a sound model for what to do meanwhile, shutting the valve outside, opening doors and windows with the low ones first, and keeping away from switches and flames. If the home is on a natural gas supply, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. A Gas Safe engineer repairs the fault once the supply is safe.

Booking a service

Tell us the park and the pitch, whether the home runs on bottles, a bulk tank or the park's supply, and the make of the boiler if you know it. That way the right parts come with us, rather than a second visit. Our LPG, oil and park home work covers servicing, repairs and replacement boilers, and if your home is off the grid on oil instead, an oil boiler service is OFTEC work with its own checklist.

So, service the boiler once a year with an engineer whose registration covers LPG, read the dates on the regulator and the hose while they are there, keep the vents clear, and display the record if you let. CTL Plumbing & Heating covers park homes and holiday statics across Kent from Bearsted, with free home visits and free quotes across Kent. To book a service, get in touch.