Just got off the phone with my plumber and he indicated he will limiting the amount of Gas Tite he will be using. Apparently there have been 29 instances in Texas where lighting strikes have caused arcing in Gas Tite and resulting in significant damage to homes.
Anyone else hear of anything like that?
Bruce
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Replies
A simple arc usually will not harm CSST (Gastite).
But lightning strikes range from 1,000 amps to 200,000 amps. That can damage CSST & sch 40 gas pipe as well as any other metallic system.
While not foolproof, bonding CSST will reduce the chance for damage.
Most of the damages that I have read about were do to improperly bonded systems.
Thanks for the heads up. My friend is about to do some csst and I will mention bonding. He taught electrical for 20 years. He was also hit by lightning last year. We dont get much lightning in Yakima but he got one. It knocked some bark off the tree,killed his TV, computer and the motor on his air compressor. It also blew the wires out of the phone line near the tree.
All the new CSST we put in is bonded and my plumber knows it, he is just concerned about getting stuck in some class action CSST lawsuit or something. It seems odd that all you hear about is CSST failures due to lightning strikes but never hear about regular pipe failures due to lightning strikes.
Have you heard on regular pipe failures in that way?
It's an odd fact of law that new products are fodder for liability lawsuits while identical failures in older products would essentially be regarded as "acts of God".
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Like I said, the reports I have gotten out of the industry ASPE (American Society of Plumbing Engineers) has been a result of a lack of sufficient bonding.
Iron pipe systems are bonded by standard installation practice.
& yes I have seen an arc blow thru sch 40 pipe, but it is tougher to get thru sch 40 than it is thin wall.
I could ask how many CSST systems broke during an earthquake verses sch 40 iron.
Nothing is perfect, & they all have pluses & minuses.