How To Check The Expiry Date Of Your Gas Cylinder To Avoid Explosion

Majority of people using cooking gas don’t know that their gas cylinder has an expiry date. They don’t know when the gas cylinders will expire and when it does, it can results to leakage that can lead to explosion. There have been many cases of gas cylinder explosions and when this happens, lives are lost and properties worth millions are also lost in the fire that follows. So many lives have been lost and this is a call to concern.

According to a State Coordinator, Standard Organisation of Nigeria [SON], “If a cylinder of 12kg explodes, it is capable of bringing down a two storey building. Cooking gas cylinders must not exceed five (5) years.” According to the SON Director, most people using gas cylinders hardly remember when it was bought. Once you discover that your gas cylinder has expired, stop using it in order to avoid explosion.

This is the process to verify the expiry date of the LPG cylinder
The expiry date of cooking gas cylinder can be found on one of the metal strips that connect the body of the cylinder to top ring (handle). It is printed or pasted on the inner side of the strip. Alphabets from A to D is painted on it along with a number. The process of decoding the expiry date is very simple. The alphabet A, B, C, D represents the month it will expire while the number beside it indicates the year the gas cylinder will expire.

A year is divided into four quarters which are:
A – January to March
B – April to June
C – July to September
D – October to December

The letters represent the month of expiry while the number indicates the year of expiry.
For example, if a cylinder has ‘B 20′ printed on the metal strip. The letter B represents the month of June, and 20 indicates the year 2020. So a cylinder having B 20 mentioned on it means it will expire in June 2020.

After the expiry date, a gas cylinder has a grace period of 3 – 4 months because the cylinder cannot be extracted immediately out of circulation. There have been several reports on how distributors tamper with the expiry date because they are written with paint. When next you buy or receive a gas cylinder, make sure you check the expiry date and stay safe.