On 1/23/2011 2:24 AM, DD_BobK wrote:
On Jan 21, 9:19 pm, wrote:
Was at Lowes tonight picking up stuff for hooking up my HW heater this
weekend and found out they did not have anymore 1/2" Tee's in black
iron for my gas line. But they had galvanized 1/2" Tee's.
Can I mix the 2?

I asked this question of my mechanical engineering mentor nearly ~35
years ago.
He's long gone& I have mixed installations that has been in service
for over 30 years.

He's comment to me back in the 70's was........

"The myth that natural gas causes galvanizing to flake off is an old
wives tale that has debunked by testing, go ahead and use it"

Here is a link to pretty detailed thread on the subject, including
cites from the IRC.

http://www4.iccsafe.org/cgi-bin/ulti...c;f=2;t=002632

a couple guys go back& forth but I'm putting my money on the IRC,
posts in the cited thread by dsjtecserv& my mentor.
He had YEARS of industrial mechanical engineering experience,
including being the chief engineer on design& construction of a
natural gas to fertilizer plant.

YMMV but has been pretty good so far

cheers
Bob
Well, when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, someone told me that
black iron pipe is used for gas because, when tightening a joint,
the pipes grind into one another making a tighter seal. I don't
know one way or another .... that's just what I was told. I've
heard all the other "tales". The gas (propane) in my new house is
neither. It's a corrugated flex line, covered with yellow plasticy
rubbery stuff ... looks like yellow heat shrink tubing.