The Cooking Gas Cylinder delivered to your home comes with the different numbers written on it, and these numbers indicate various aspects of the cylinder like content, weight and the expiry. Here the most important aspect is the expiry date if the particular cylinder, and after that, the making use of the same can cause unpleasant results, which includes the explosion of the cylinder…
How to read the expiry on the Domestic Gas Cylinder?
It is very easy when the delivery man delivers the Cooking Gas Cylinder to your residence, the first thing you do is look at the number written inside the handlebar plate (as shown in the image here below.
The Number is the mixture of Alpha-Numerics which includes the letters A,B,C & D, and these letters indicate the four quarters of the year, for example, the letter A means first quarter of the year starting from January till March and Letter B means second quarter of the year starting from April to June and so on.
Generally, most of the consumers are unaware of this fact that the cylinders, too, have an expiry date which is printed on the plates of the cylinders. Cooking gas cylinders have an expiry date for its capacity to hold gas and to face wear and tear. In order to know this, we have to find the specific number of gas cylinder delivered at home. The ladies in the house should be aware of this so that they can refuse to accept expired date gas cylinders.
According to the sources, there are many cases wherein the gas cylinder have exploded causing the huge amount of loses which includes the loss of many lives too. But the little bit of a knowledge of the basic things can avoid such unforeseen circumstances.
Where to find out the specific number?
The gas cylinder is having at the top round portion and bottom gas filled portion. Both the portions are connected by three vertical plates. Inside it, you can notice some numbers. One such number will be in the following series like A15, B 12, C13 and D17 etc.
If you understand what is A, B,C,D, then it is easy to know the expiry date. A means March, B means June, C means September and D mean December. The numerals following alphabets denote the last two digits of validity year. For example, A15 denotes that the cylinder is not to be used after March 2015. C13 means that cylinder is not to be used after September 2013 and so on. This simple things house ladies should know so that they can check when the cylinder is received. Indian oil Corpn has done this in order to take care of lives of indane gas users.
There are speculations in the media that making use of Domestic Cylinder after the expiry dates have resulted into an explosion of the cylinder, and all the cases of blasts are connected to this but, there are no valid evinces for the above speculations. According to the Indian Oil officials, the number written on the cylinder is not the expiry date but the testing date of the cylinder. Now, what does that means? That means, if the cylinder crosses the month and year mentioned on the plate, then it needs to undergo another pressure test. But what happens to the test is not done, or the particular cylinder missed out, or still remained in the godown of the dealer which may be delivered to the consumer? There is no satisfactory answer to this from the concerned authorities, and hence our reports suggest that the checking the number before taking the cylinder is in the interest of the consumer. If you have any more information on this, please do share with us.