Originally Posted By: lewens This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
William
This is a good one. The same rule applies here, but, apparently only to a point. Inside the home it seems to be ok to use copper to hook up a gas water heater. Having just witnessed this in my own home, by the gas company no less, I questioned it and was told it was to " code". The last 4 or 6 feet of the hook up were copper.
Originally Posted By: jquinn This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Larry,
In fact most new installations inside the houses around here will be copper. It has to be labelled every three feet with yellow "gas line" stickers. There is also a flexible gas line with a yellow vinyl (or some sort of plastic) jacket. I think the line itself is stainless steel, and its a costlier option, but saves lotsa time so it's a good trade off. I have both the copper and the fexible in my house. The flexible took me about 3 minutes to pull from the rear of my basement to the front of my garage. No bending copper, making joints midway, all that crap. Beautiful stuff.
Originally Posted By: wdecker This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Again, that is all well and good, but where I live and work, Black Pipe is the only allowed stuff. We can only use flexible for hooking up stoves and dryers. Everything else (Water heater, Furnace, wall runs, etc, MUST be in black pipe and have no flex.
So, again. What is black pipe, how is it different from galvanized and why for use with gas?
Originally Posted By: jquinn This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
hey William,
does there happen to be a steel mill in your neighbours"s yard ??   
Originally Posted By: wdecker This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Jeff; As may be, but not in Illinois. Chicago codes and the codes of almost all the municipalities around Chicago (which kind of dominates the area) say only black pipe.
My question is, what is black pipe and why for gas?
Originally Posted By: mboyett This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Will,
To take Jeff’s thought a little further here’s my take on this. Galvanized pipe uses a zinc coating to provide the long term corrosion resistance. This zinc coating can and will flake off over time in the acidic atmosphere of the natural gas with hydrogen sulfide additive. This would obviously cause residue problems in the piping resulting in clogged valves, burners, etc. Black iron pipe, on the other hand, is not galvanized with zinc but is, to my knowledge, simply iron pipe with an oil coating resulting in less chance for reaction to the hydrogen sulfide. (This is obviously a layman’s interpretation, I don’t really know what I’m talking about ).
Originally Posted By: rcloyd This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
And now for the rest of the story, Black pipe is the only thing allowed for gas piping in your area because the unions say so. That is why it is written into the codes.
Originally Posted By: wdecker This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Probably. Unions are pretty strong in Illinois.
I kind of leaned this during my training, but wanted other people's takes on it.
Had a client (home repair, old Jewish couple) who read the article about water heaters in the Chicago Tribune that I was interviewed for. They wanted me to drain their water heater because they had never done it and it was about a year old. Drained it, and just to pass the time, I checked the gas hookup because I noticed that a part of it (about 4') was galvanized. Sure enough, at two junctions (45 elbom and union) there was a gas reading. Not much but still there. Galvanized pipe and the wrong (not gas approved 'yellow') pipe dope.
I will change out the pipe for them next week. Just wanted to make sure that I fully understood the issue. I had never actually thought about the galvanized issue. Just knew it was a no-no.
Originally Posted By: cradan This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Approved or not, we’re starting to see a good bit of CSST, particularly in the last 8-9 months. When we inspect in the City, 99.9% of the gas piping in the house is black metal. In the burbs, it’s a mix. Waywayanda in farmland, still see anything and everything you can imagine, including copper, brass and believe it or not…aluminum on occasion.
Originally Posted By: wdecker This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
CSST is allowed only in runs of 6’ or less from the black pipe to a dryer or stove or other movable gas appliance, kind of like when a flexible armored cable is allowed for a whip at the end of conduit. For perminent stuff (water heater, furnace, gas fireplace, etc) it must be rigid black pipe all the way.
Originally Posted By: John Clayton This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
wdecker wrote:
CSST is allowed only in runs of 6' or less from the black pipe to a dryer or stove or other movable gas appliance
Are you confusing a flexible stainless steel appliance connector with CSST? If you are seeing CSST (such as tracpipe, gastite, ward flex) being used for connecting directly to a movable appliance you should write it up because it is not allowed...
The manufacturers installation requirements would take precedence in this instance whether the local-state code allows CSST for that use or not.
Originally Posted By: jpope This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Nice call John.
There is quite a long thread that shows (I believe) the confusion about the difference between CSST vs. Appliance Connectors and their appropriate use.
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