Mine died last weekend and I had to replace it. $650 to do myself, and that included same day delivery.
It failed the prior night, noticed it mid-morning, ordered at 2pm, received it at 5, and had it installed by 7. Was kind of a pain but not nearly as awful as I feared.
As a DYI maniac gas lines piss me off so much. Conceptually they are so god damn simple but the consequence of messing one up is your house fucking explodes. Every time it comes up I want to do the work myself so badly but I just can’t take that bet. Realistically I would be more careful than the average plumber but I still can’t get over the negatives.
I work in development and permitting, and in one of my old stories we had a gas story that I use as a warning to this day.
Guy decided to save some money when he installed a fireplace in his new backyard patio by just tapping into the gas line in the hot tub.
The thing about gas lines is that flames don’t travel backwards in them because of the positive pressure and the lack of oxygen in the gas. One day he was burning a fire when the pool heater kicked in and briefly put a vacuum on the line, allowing the fire to get inside the wall of the chimney on the deck and burning down the house.
And since he hadn’t permitted the gas line, insurance didn’t pay for the fire.
I replaced the gas valve on my heater system in my house and it was simple, but yeah scary. Just shut off the gas main outside of the house, did the deed, turned the gas back on and tested everything I touched with an electric tester before turning anything on. Someone mentioned soapy water which is a brilliant idea and I’ll remember that for next time.
Gas is verrrry simple in almost all single family home applications. If you test all the joints with soapy water (with the gas turned on) you will find any leaks very quickly. I know it’s scary, but water will do much, much more damage in a small amount of time than gas. Of course, if you’re simply not comfortable doing it, hire a professional, but trust me, if lazy apprentices who don’t think past their next vape hit can do it, so can you.
I know, but there’s still a part of me that wants to avoid it. The last time I had a guy do it he didn’t even shut the gas off when he replaced a valve. He said “it’s low pressure, it’s fine”. I’m pretty confident I would be more careful than that haha
He probably didn’t want to deal with the air he would’ve introduced into the system. Or he was extremely lazy. Or both aha.
Realistically, the pressure was probably less than 1 PSI, as residential gas is measured in “inches of water column,” especially after the regulator. Where I did gas work, even before the regulator was never more than 2 PSI.
Mine died last weekend and I had to replace it. $650 to do myself, and that included same day delivery.
It failed the prior night, noticed it mid-morning, ordered at 2pm, received it at 5, and had it installed by 7. Was kind of a pain but not nearly as awful as I feared.
I thought about DIY buttttt I didn’t want to fuck with the gas shit lol
As a DYI maniac gas lines piss me off so much. Conceptually they are so god damn simple but the consequence of messing one up is your house fucking explodes. Every time it comes up I want to do the work myself so badly but I just can’t take that bet. Realistically I would be more careful than the average plumber but I still can’t get over the negatives.
I work in development and permitting, and in one of my old stories we had a gas story that I use as a warning to this day.
Guy decided to save some money when he installed a fireplace in his new backyard patio by just tapping into the gas line in the hot tub.
The thing about gas lines is that flames don’t travel backwards in them because of the positive pressure and the lack of oxygen in the gas. One day he was burning a fire when the pool heater kicked in and briefly put a vacuum on the line, allowing the fire to get inside the wall of the chimney on the deck and burning down the house.
And since he hadn’t permitted the gas line, insurance didn’t pay for the fire.
I replaced the gas valve on my heater system in my house and it was simple, but yeah scary. Just shut off the gas main outside of the house, did the deed, turned the gas back on and tested everything I touched with an electric tester before turning anything on. Someone mentioned soapy water which is a brilliant idea and I’ll remember that for next time.
Gas is verrrry simple in almost all single family home applications. If you test all the joints with soapy water (with the gas turned on) you will find any leaks very quickly. I know it’s scary, but water will do much, much more damage in a small amount of time than gas. Of course, if you’re simply not comfortable doing it, hire a professional, but trust me, if lazy apprentices who don’t think past their next vape hit can do it, so can you.
I know, but there’s still a part of me that wants to avoid it. The last time I had a guy do it he didn’t even shut the gas off when he replaced a valve. He said “it’s low pressure, it’s fine”. I’m pretty confident I would be more careful than that haha
He probably didn’t want to deal with the air he would’ve introduced into the system. Or he was extremely lazy. Or both aha.
Realistically, the pressure was probably less than 1 PSI, as residential gas is measured in “inches of water column,” especially after the regulator. Where I did gas work, even before the regulator was never more than 2 PSI.