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Q: Do you have problems with gas?
No, not another post about flatulence, i'm actually concerned about this huge gas canister I have sitting in the kitchen and how safe it is. I had a student of nine turn up to school a few years back and tell me his mother had died in the shower, apparently due to a gas-leak. And I do occasionally get a whiff of gas off these things. I used to have my ciggies in the kitchen in the old flat, right next to one of these huge, potential bombs. It did sometimes concern me that I might wake up in hospital with a ringing in my ears. So how safe are they? Is there anywhere in China with a mains supply?
We have gas coming through pipes, so no big metal thingy to lug around. The only place gas is used is in the kitchen for cooking, the water-heater is on the wall outside the kitchen window. The kitchen has a gas detector, and the cooker is of a modern kind (Japanese brand) that doesn't leak gas without it being ignited.
Make sure the connection between hose and canister is good, that the surface on both is clean and free of corrosion and you should be safe.
(I did fart during writing this, not enough to make the dog leave the room though .... or did it pass out?)
mArtiAn:
Your dog's probably lying there now thinking 'Who farted?'
I think there was a horse entered into the professional racing circuit with the name 'Hoof Hearted' in actual fact. As I understand it they didn't twig on the play on words until a commentator was shouting out the name during a race on live television.
Do you mean natural gas or piped-in gas or bottled gas or propane or what?
mArtiAn:
I mean those big scary bottles they stick under the cooker. I don't know what's in them but i've seen Bruce Willis shoot them with a gun and they blew out about three apartments. I guess that's the answer right there. No more inviting Bruce Willis round for dinner when he's armed and been out on the piss, it's just asking for trouble.
I have mains gas here in Kunming. In Hebei I had one of those big gas cannisters, it always scared me cos i constantly could smell it.
So bad that my Chinese name is Leilong (Thunder Dragon). 
But no, no problems with gas gas in my house. Most of the pipes and heating stuff are brand new. And the gas is supplied by an actual pipe into the house, not tanks.
ohChina:
Thunder dragon? It could also mean Brontosaurus or Apatosaurus! Did anyone tell you that before?
The gas in the portable tanks is propane. It of course has no smell itself, so they put an additive in it so your sniffer can detect if it leaks. If someone dies of suffocation from it they are clearly not paying much attention. In short the best course of action is to get a spray bottle with soap and water and spray it on the tank and connections. Find the little bubbles from the leak and address the issue promptly. It will never cause an explosion from smoking as you would need to have just the right mixture of oxygen and gas then introduce a source of ignition. Even if you did get the right mixture it would only cause a brief flash fire and then continue to burn in a small flame at the source of the leak. Hollywood movies are bogus on this aspect. If the leak is small then you would have very little chance of even that happening. Shooting a pressurized container is another story altogether so keep Bruce out of the house no matter what!
mArtiAn:
Smell's added, soap and water mixture to find leak, stay away from Bruce Willis. Got it.
