I know I am going to get yelled at but here goes. What is the story with the flexible yellow gas line? You can only find it in plumbing supply stores where I live, and you have to be certified to install it in order to buy it-or so I have heard.
I am always looking for faster, better, and less expensive and this product looks ideal for remodeling work, especially in tight corners. The hang-up looks to be the crimping of the joints-please.
Anyway, go ahead and start yelling, but if anyone has actual info to pass on it would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
It's what my plumbers have been passing off on me. And the BI accepts it.
Don't know what you want to know. I've used it a few times. There are different companies out there with different connections. Don't know what you mean by crimping. Maybe it's one I haven't heard of.
Training usually consists of watching a video for 30 minutes and then writing a test where the instructor gives you the answers anyways.
A 3/4 inch flex line if I remember correctly doesn't have the same capacity of a 3/4 inch black pipe or 3/4 inch soft copper.
Fittings are usually VERY expensive though running the pipe is fairly quick. The piping isn't cheap either. Pieces left over is like money in the garbage. Left over copper can be silver soldered and used and bits of black pipe can always be used.
Wasn't happy with the leak testing either. Had more leaks than a golf course sprinkler system.
Would I use it again? Maybe if there wasn't an alternative and there is always an alternative.
roger
Here, anybody doing work on gas lines professionally needs to be licensed for it anyhow.
Does your insurance cover you for doing gas work?
If you need to do it this much then get licensed and trained so you can buy it.
The down side is that the fittings are hard to do right. Easy to get a leak there.
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Guy I work with cut one with his circular saw by accident (how does a person manage to not see bright yellow gas line and back over it with saw while cutting floor in a closet? (He said he knew it was there and thought he had stayed away from it with saw--apparently not!) He asked me if I smelled gas and I told him to turn off the saw--then smelled and heard the gas! Ran out of garage and turned off main. Then found out you had to be licensed installer and the guy had to hire someone else to install--delayed our job.
I saw that it is considered way inferior as far as fire spread issues. something about it being the cause of more severe structure fire, vs. black pipe or CU.
The corragated SS don't fare well to flame exposure.
In the last ten years a new innovation in the construction industry has caused fire investigators great concern. Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing, or CSST, used for whole-house gas piping systems. CSST is continuous flexible gas line used today in many new and retrofit applications. The rise in popularity of CSST is due to the ease and speed of installation. Many hours of labor are saved during the construction of a single-family dwelling by using CSST instead of conventional black iron pipe. Some inherent problems are associated with this product regarding the energizing of the structure, or the surrounding area from a lightning discharge. Any time the electrical potential of the tubing and any nearby conductive material are different, it is highly likely an electrical arc will occur between the two. When the arc is of sufficient energy, a hole can be burned through the thin tubing wall (approx .035). This arc can easily ignite the pressurized flammable gas inside of the tubing as it escapes into the atmosphere. The escaping gas will continue to burn as long as the gas supply is not interrupted.
The installation of CSST is addressed in NFPA 54 (The National Fuel Gas Code) as well as in NFPA 70 (The National Electric Code). The electrical bonding or the isolation of the tubing are the accepted practices to guard against an electrical arc. Fire investigators and electrical engineers from Donan Engineering have teamed up to lobby for more stringent codes regarding CSST. Donan Engineering is an industry leader in the analysis of the failure mode regarding the involvement of CSST in fires.
from http://www.donan.com/services/fire-origin-explosion-cause/residential-fires
edit: Here ya go..
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Edited 1/3/2008 8:13 am ET by Sphere
Edited 1/3/2008 8:14 am ET by Sphere
Interesting.
"The corragated SS don't fare well to flame exposure."I did not see a thing in there said anythng about exposure to flame.Where the weakness is in damage to the pipe, from lightning, that allows the pipe to release gas.I don't know when that was written, but I have seen comments about new codes that require more bonding to reduce this problem..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
There are two regional home horror stores that sell it.Menards (upper plains and midwest states) and Sutherlands (MO and south and west).Sutherland has detailed book that they sell with it for something like $1.25. Don't know if you have to take a test, self test, or just certify that have read the booklet or in fact do anything to buy it.Don't know the brand that they sell.Also I have heard that in some places plumbing supply houses will sell it make up with the fittings. That gets it out of needing to be cerfitied.But in any cases you still have what ever local code issues that there are to work with gaslines..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yeah I know, thats why I looked it up and posted the REAL info, I was just trying to remember what it was I had read, and didn't edit out that part.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"