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. ½ 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?