jamesgangnc wrote:
On Jun 18, 11:21 am, "Joe J" wrote:
We bought a used gas dryer and it came with a flex gas line. Hooked
everything up and we smelled gas. Called the gas company and they
came out and identified the problem as a leak in middle of the flex
line. While there, he had his sniffer out and said we had a slight
leak on the water heater gas supply line. He put some wrap on it and
said it would be fine until it was tightened up.
I'm stumped how to do that. black pipe runs down to a T and the leak
is
in the center of the T that supplies gas to the water heater. There
is a shutoff and union in the line. Other side of the T drops down
with a 3" nipple and is capped. There is about a 6" run from the
center of the T to the water heater.
If I open the union and begin to tighten the line into the T, at the
same time I'm tightening at the T, I'll be loosening the line that
runs to the water heater. If I try and rotate the T, I'll be
rotating it away from the supply line and it won't reconnect, unless
I managed to get 1 full turn more.
The gas company guy said it just needed tightening. I'm thinking that
actually means I need to completely disassemble this from the union
down, clean all the parts up and start over with new pipe dope and
reassemble from the heater back to the union. Or am I missing an
easy fix?

No, you're right. You have to back down from the union. And that
nipple on the T needs to point down. It's a trap sort of thing. There
is teflon tape for gas now if you prefer that. It comes in a yellow
roll. Not supposed to use the regular stuff but beats me why.

I've had far better luck with pipe dope than with teflon tape in getting good
tight joints.