Does my gas tank need replacing?

QWe have a motorhome just coming up to 10 years old and it is fitted with an underslung 25-litre gas tank. I have been reading that, apart from a standard service of gas appliances, the gas tank needs to be recertified.

Can you clarify what the requirements are to comply with the new regulations?

AUnderslung gas tanks tend to suffer from rust as they get pebble dashed by grit off the roads; they are nearly always fitted in line with the wheels. We had an underslung tank fitted to an earlier motorhome, and also fitted a rubber mud flap immediately in front of the tank as a barrier to stone chips.

A careful visual inspection by laying underneath will soon reveal this. If you have any rust other than a very slight dusting, then replace the tank. There are special stone chip-resisting paints to protect gas tanks available.

Previously, under current UK and EU law, private end-user owned refillable gas bottles or gas tanks did not need to be legally tested every 10 years, unlike normal refillable gas bottles such as Calor.

To be safer than sorry, many suppliers recommend that they are checked and inspected 10 years after first use or install.

However, all this changed in 2011 and today, under the UK Transportable Pressure Equipment Directive, privately owned refillable gas bottles or gas tanks now need to be legally tested every 10 years, the same as normal exchange-type gas bottles.

The reality is that testing is not possible or financially viable in most cases, so replacement with either new or recertified cylinders is the only sensible solution. I am advised that currently there are no test houses operating in the UK.

However, as well as fitting an underslung LPG tank to one of our motorhomes and the following motorhome, our current motorhome has two refillable Alugas bottles in the gas locker, which are easy to take out should inspection and testing or replacement be required. They are also far less likely to get pebble dashed and corrode.