Only a year and a half into my appientiship I was put on-call one weekend (althought I refused a number of times because I knew I wasn't ready)

I got a call on a saturday morning to a burst pipe in a wall right next to a underbench cyinder in a kitchen cupboard, after a investigation I discovered it was the hot outlet pipe off the cylinder.

the one thing I didnt notice was that the open vented cylinder was vented via a welded tee in the wall (which i couldnt see, there was just one pipe from the top of the cylinder going into the wall)

 

So I simply shut everything down and cut the top copper pipe above the cylinder and drilled a 20mm hole down through the bottom of the cupboard and through the floor and cut the same pipe (the outlet) below the floor and by-passed the leaking pipe in the wall with copper inside the cupboard.......I FORGOT THE BLOODY VENT!!!!   

I bet you can guess what happened next??

I got a call when I was out on a job on monday to come into the office....one of my bosses (operations manager) told me what happened - the cylinder had poped, and not exploded THANK GOD!!! and he was a good bugger about it!!!

So he said to me we need to go and tell the "scary" big boss, so as my operations manager was telling the big boss what happened you could see my boss' face going red by the second!!! he went mental at me saying how "You could have killed someone!!!" I was scared shitliss!!!

So I went up to the job with a regestered plumber in our company and we both installed a new cylinder (and reparied the correct leak and connected the vent!!!

That was 6 years ago now.......lesson learnt!!!!

Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/dodgy-plumbing-or-great-plumbing/4/under-bench-hot-water-cylinder-bursts-my-fault-apparently/1092/

Totally agree an apprentice should never be left on call!! I have seen a similar issue in Wellington I was called to a burst cylinder for some people who had just bought a house it was a low presuse valve vented cylinder. After some investigation I found the relief valve poking out side the wall with a 20mm cap on it. I talked to the owners who gave me the contact details for the real estate agent, anyway after some heavy talks and threats I found out the cap was put on by a 1st year apprentice who was left on call the damage caused cost thousands and the scary part is the company that this guy worked for still does the same thing and everyone knows about it but still gets away with it!!

I wonder was he charging you out at apprentice rates??

thanks guys i agree, oh well, im licenced now, and everything i learnt i tought myself throughout my whole apprientiship, seems i was only employed to make my boss money!