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piping a water heater mm 02-10-2008
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Posted by mm on February 10, 2008, 11:15 pm
A friend tells me he smelled gas in his apartment and told his
landlady, and she tells him that 3 gas company cars and a fire engine
showed up. They told him there was nothing wrong with smelling a
little gas at startup of the water heater.

A couple weeks later, the landlady had a plumber in because of clogged
drains. He looked at the same water heater and said that it was
against code (in Maryland, Baltimore City) to use flexible gas pipe
for a water heater..

Is this true?

My friend wonder if there were three gas company cars and a fire
engine, how come none of them complained about the flexible gas pipe??


The plumber wanted 250 to replace the flex pipe with the right pipe.
She thought it was too much. What sounds right to you guys?

Thanks.

AppliancePartsPros.com, Inc.
Posted by Dr. Hardcrab on February 10, 2008, 11:16 pm
check the code first...


>A friend tells me he smelled gas in his apartment and told his
> landlady, and she tells him that 3 gas company cars and a fire engine
> showed up. They told him there was nothing wrong with smelling a
> little gas at startup of the water heater.
>
> A couple weeks later, the landlady had a plumber in because of clogged
> drains. He looked at the same water heater and said that it was
> against code (in Maryland, Baltimore City) to use flexible gas pipe
> for a water heater..
>
> Is this true?
>
> My friend wonder if there were three gas company cars and a fire
> engine, how come none of them complained about the flexible gas pipe??
>
>
> The plumber wanted 250 to replace the flex pipe with the right pipe.
> She thought it was too much. What sounds right to you guys?
>
> Thanks.


Posted by on February 10, 2008, 11:42 pm
I'm honestly not familiar with the code in your area, but I find it
hard to believe that water heater manufacturers would sell something
that was against code everywhere:

http://tinyurl.com/2yldmg <--------- a place to buy flexible
connection kit.

Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on February 10, 2008, 11:37 pm

> A couple weeks later, the landlady had a plumber in because of clogged
> drains. He looked at the same water heater and said that it was
> against code (in Maryland, Baltimore City) to use flexible gas pipe
> for a water heater..
>
> Is this true?
>
> My friend wonder if there were three gas company cars and a fire
> engine, how come none of them complained about the flexible gas pipe??
>
>
> The plumber wanted 250 to replace the flex pipe with the right pipe.
> She thought it was too much. What sounds right to you guys?
>
> Thanks.

At one time many gas codes forbade flex pip as it would start to leak after
years of vibration. Now many have required it for seismic reasons. Make a
phone call to the gas inspector to be sure.

$250 sounds a little high but I can't see from here what may be entailed.



Posted by DerbyDad03 on February 10, 2008, 11:42 pm
> A friend tells me he smelled gas in his apartment and told his
> landlady, and she tells him that 3 gas company cars and a fire engine
> showed up. =A0They told him there was nothing wrong with smelling a
> little gas at startup of the water heater.
>
> A couple weeks later, the landlady had a plumber in because of clogged
> drains. =A0He looked at the same water heater and said that it was
> against code (in Maryland, Baltimore City) to use flexible gas pipe
> for a water heater..
>
> Is this true?
>
> My friend wonder if there were three gas company cars and a fire
> engine, how come none of them complained about the flexible gas pipe??
>
> The plumber wanted 250 to replace the flex pipe with the right pipe.
> She thought it was too much. =A0What sounds right to you guys?
>
> Thanks.


Depending on where you live, it might not be code to *install* a WH/
stove/dryer/whatever with flex pipe, but that doesn't mean that all
existing installations need to be changed. There's a good possibility
that if the unit was installed to what ever code existed at the time
of installation, it could be grandfathered and would still be
"legal".

I doubt the gas company or firemen would bother to try and determine
the date of the installation and match it against the relevant code
unless they found something seriously wrong with the current setup.

If that's the case, then the plumber may simply have been less than
totally honest to try get the landlady to change the pipe. If he said
"Ya know, you can't install a WH with flex pipe", he wouldn't be lying
if that's the current code. If he then offered to replace the flex
with solid, he could be considered to be rather sneaky, but not really
dishonest.

Please note that I'm not saying the use of flex pipe was ever allowed
or that it wasn't, because I don't know that answer. I'm only offering
one explanation as to why the gas company or firemen didn't say
anything about it.

Page 1 of 2       1 2 > last >>
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