What's the current standard for Gas Detection and Confined Space entry?

Not sure if they are "certified", but some heatinig and AC supply houses have gas leak detectors for hydrocarbons. I got a used TPI from Ebay, which works fine. Runs on D cells.

ChristopherNOSPAM A. YoungINVALID Learn more about Jesus

And I can't just check a form and have a box of nifty things magically appear behind my truck the next morning for free anymore. (Darn!)

As of now, all I can do is sniff for flammables, pop the hole, drop in the manhole blower hose, and ventilate thoroughly before going down, but I really should get something - and without spending $5,000.

Is a good old (and still fairly cheap used - $800 - $1800 for NOS??) MSA 2A Explosimeter still "enough" to pop the lid? Or do you have to get one of the electronic detector and aspiration sample kits that cost a bloody fortune.

One of the Pocket style Multi-Gas detectors sounds good for once you're inside, but real world comments from the Plant Managers and such among us would be appreciated. Especially things like "It failed after 1 year and two days, and when I asked about the warranty they told me to Pound Sand..." or "The sensor replacements every 4 years costs more than the whole unit - and the battery pack is almost as bad..."

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Hydrocarbons, or halogens?

Hydrocarbons. I tested it by using the natural gas range top, but not yet lit. Didn't work. I called TPI customer service, and he walked me through a couple things, and now it detects hydrocarbons just fine.

My halogen detector is by Tif, whole different sensetivity.

Christ>

Hydrocarbons, or halogens?

I got the TIF 8800 Hydrocarbon detector when I needed to track down an Idiots' multiple leaks on a dryer line - threaded multiple short nipples and couplings through a wall and didn't know how to apply dope or use a pipe wrench... (Before TracPipe came out.)

It would be enough to know if opening the manhole lid was going to set off a "Kaboom!" Or even just a little "whoompf" which could be almost as bad.

But of course if anything goes wrong or the Helpful OSHA Rep happens to be wandering by it won't be the "right" tester for the job with an aspirating tube and bulb/pump setup.

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Bruce, I've been retired a couple years, but the biggie for confined space entry in an industrial setting was oxygen in addition to flammables. I think our company probably lost way more folks to passing out in an inert atmosphere than ever got blown up. Sometimes followed by another going into rescue and passing out for the same reason. Lots of things can deplete or displace oxygen in an enclosed space, from rusting to rotting vegetation. There was also a requirement for ventilation and a trained standby person with SCBA. Confined space entry was such an exercise that most departments had a policy of NO confined space entry except by emergency personnel and an annual audit to locate and label all such spaces.

I don't remember the brands of our oxygen testers. I think the flammables testers were MSA. Worked well, kept on ticking. Pretty rigorous testing and documentation on both. I mostly dealt with area O2 and flammable monitors due to nitrogen purging of equipment in Class I Div. 2 process research labs.

Pete Keillor

You could always get a canary.

John

That only works in Coal Mines.

And I doubt you'll get a Class 1 Group A B C D rating on a Canary - by the time they complete the testing regimen and the certification paperwork it would die of old age, and they'd have to get another chick and start over.

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