I just moved from a town that had no city gas to a town that has city
natural gas. I have the service in my new home for a pool heater and hot
tub heater. I want to buy a gas dryer and install it myself.

The install seems pretty straight forward. Someone installed a conduit
that goes from the dryer area to the gas meter area. Can I do this
myself? I have experience doing electric work - and copper and plastic
plumbing work. I have also installed propane appliance in my old home
and my camper.

Has anyone here installed their own gas dryer in a home with gas service
- but no service to the dryer?

Harry

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 18:55:22 -0500, Harry Everhart wrote:
I just moved from a town that had no city gas to a town that has city
natural gas. I have the service in my new home for a pool heater and hot
tub heater. I want to buy a gas dryer and install it myself.

Depends on where you live.

You'd best call the code division of your town hall and find out what permits
you need to pull. You ought to also find out if you're even permitted to do the
work.

Otherwise, if anything goes wrong you might find out that your insurance is
void and be facing criminal charges.

If you sell the house and the Nth owner from now has a gas problem, you might
find them coming after you if you didn't follow the law.

"Harry Everhart" wrote in message

The install seems pretty straight forward. Someone installed a conduit
that goes from the dryer area to the gas meter area. Can I do this
myself? I have experience doing electric work - and copper and plastic
plumbing work. I have also installed propane appliance in my old home
and my camper.



Installing a gas line usually means running black pipe. It is not
difficult, but if you don't know how to make a proper joint, it is not
something to play with. You have to know how to measure for pipe, allow for
fittings, buy pipe and have it cut and threaded, install a shut off valve
before the union to the appliance.

What is this conduit you speak of? Are you planning to run the pipe through
it? You will have to put up some pipe hangers also.


Has anyone here installed their own gas dryer in a home with gas service
- but no service to the dryer?

Yep, did a couple of them.

Probably can do it yourself. I assume by the conduit you mean a pipe
leading to the drier area with a valve on the end ready to go. Most likly
all you need to purchase is a flexible gas line from the hardware store and
connect it acording to the instructions. Use soapy water on the new
connections to check for leaks. Any doubt, the utility might come and check
for leaks for you (but probably won't connect it up) as a safety checkup.
You should smell a leak before it gets explosive if you pay attention. if
so, turn it off, ventalate the area and call a pro if you cannot stop it.

If you have an open pilot on the gas water heater and it is nearby, you
might want to temporarily shut it off to remove a possible ignition source
in the area in case you burp some gas from the line.




"Harry Everhart" wrote in message
...
I just moved from a town that had no city gas to a town that has city
natural gas. I have the service in my new home for a pool heater and hot
tub heater. I want to buy a gas dryer and install it myself.

The install seems pretty straight forward. Someone installed a conduit
that goes from the dryer area to the gas meter area. Can I do this
myself? I have experience doing electric work - and copper and plastic
plumbing work. I have also installed propane appliance in my old home
and my camper.

Has anyone here installed their own gas dryer in a home with gas service
- but no service to the dryer?

Harry

One 'good' thing about natural gas is the over- engineering of the pipes.
Natural gas usually is under about 1 PSI. So it's not like you're piping
high-pressure gas.

If you get the connections tight it will almost certainly not leak. Soapy
water, of course, is a good idea just in case.

Make sure you use pipe-dope specified for natural gas pipes.

Installing a gas line usually means running black pipe. It is not
difficult, but if you don't know how to make a proper joint, it is not
something to play with.

Well, the gas pressure is literally measured in INCHES of water. The water
pipes typically have the equivalent of 100 FEET of water pressure.

If you have properly threaded pipe and clean things before your put them
together and use fresh teflon filled pipe "dope" there just isn't a
snowball's chance in hell of a leak but just to be safe, you can brush on
some soap solution and look for bubbles after to turn the gas back on.


You have to know how to measure for pipe, allow for
fittings, buy pipe and have it cut and threaded, install a shut off valve
before the union to the appliance.

IF you have a relatively close by source of the pipe (so you can get the
longer pieces one or two at a time) your measuring skills don't have to be
all that good. The "pro" certainly doesn't cut all the pipe first and then
piece it together (or most of them don't): they cut and thread as the line
goes.

Just don't forget the pipe hangers.

Just about anywhere, the last couple feet or so is a UL approved piece of
flexible SS tubing. Even gas water heaters don't use unions anymore (in
most places. Maybe not in NYC!)

I own a high rise condo in Northern Virginia. It has a gas clothes dryer
and a gas stove. The original installation (1977) had unions but when the
stuff was replaced, the installer used flex. (I didn't do it myself: it
was deductible as the condo was a rental by then.)

The trouble with unions is that it takes a lot of skill to get things to
line up to the point where the union will close and, if you think about it,
you are "flexing" black iron pipe in the process of closing up the joint.




What is this conduit you speak of? Are you planning to run the pipe
through
it? You will have to put up some pipe hangers also.

Oh, you mention that!



Has anyone here installed their own gas dryer in a home with gas service
- but no service to the dryer?

Yep, did a couple of them.