Reliable test needed for gas cylinder contents

These past few days we heard in the media about the beefing up of “regular metrology tests” on equipment used to measure and weigh anything for sale to the public.

It has been a public concern for many years and no authority has ever been consistent with spot checks to answer daily grievances.

My personal concern has always been the measure of content inside an LPG gas bottle. Everywhere you turn, you get the same answer: “Weigh the bottle”. The problem, however, is not the weight of the bottle but the volume of product inside the bottle.

A perfect example came along a few months ago before Easygas came on the market. I had a 25kg catering size LPG gas bottle, which seemed to be empty due to lack of pressure. When I had it weighed, the industrial scale was showing five kilos over and above the weight of an empty gas tank but no gas was coming out of it. So what was the five-kilo extra weight? There seemed to be a form of liquid inside but it was not LPG.

I am not in a position to point fingers at anyone considering that the gas bottle passes from the bottling company to the distributor and eventually to the consumer. But what I would like to see from the metrology tests is a credible test that would measure weight, volume, pressure and quality of product.

A simple weighing of a gas tank is unacceptable as means to determine what is inside the container. For all I know, it can be half filled with water!