Green Tractor Talk banner

Seeking Advise On Small Propane Leak . . .

8K views 69 replies 24 participants last post by  CJadamec  
I bought some of this at Lowe's for a Natural Gas heater at my shop in town. Had an argument for 10 min with the cashier because she wanted to see my Mechanical license. I don't have one but why would I need one if I was installing this myself on a property I own and ultimately getting an inspection to get the gas turned on. She called her manager over and I discussed it with him and he said I guess it's ok. Still to this day I have no idea what happened.

But like Ken said only two places to leak and really easy to handle and install.
I just used this stuff to plumb propane from the tank to the gas range and cloths dryer. I mail ordered it from Home Depot. No questions asked.

I never heard about anyone restricting it. How do they know you aren’t just making an extension for your Weber gas grill? [emoji3]

One thing that really helps is having a professional grade flare tool. They are quite different than the split-bar style you typically see sold at the hardware store.
 
Most csst manufacturers require you to be certified to use it. If you are not certified, the individual who sold it to you can be held liable if there was a “big boom”.
.
Most of the big booms around here are a result of natural gas leaks. There seems to rarely be an explosion from propane.

I attribute this to propane being heavier than air and natural gas being lighter than air.
 
High pressure in propane systems is only about 2 pounds. My system has buried copper from my 1000 gallon buried tank to an intermediate regulator on the rear of the house, then a single 3/4" CCST to a manifold with it's own regulator that feeds 4 appliances (water heater, dryer, stove/oven, and 1st floor furnace backup) all with 1/2" CSST. All professionally installed when I build my house in 2003. None of it is grounded either. I later added a tee to the "high" pressure side of the intermediate regulator and ran CSST to my Generac automatic 15kw genset.
Both LP and Natural Gas run at relatively low pressures inside your house (after the regulator). NG runs around 0.25 PSI and LP is around 0.40 PSI. The delivery pressure can be quite different. NG coming in from the street is around 2.0 PSI whereas LP coming out of the tank can vary wildly with the ambient temperature of the tank, ranging anywhere from single-digit PSI (cold) to a couple hundred pounds of pressure (hot).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marlin
That's a real problem sometimes for us in the gas industry, never met a plumber who didn't think he was also a gas man. Nothing worse IMO from work experience, and there are some who are qualified and even carry certifications. Then there are the rest, we've had to completely remove and start from scratch piping that someones "plumber" did, I guess some guys should just stick to toilet installs.
Makes you wonder about the guys they send out to do the installation when you buy a gas appliance from someplace like Lowe's or Home Depot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marlin and ctrider
New York is similar Jim, any copper has to be exposed, it cannot be buried in a wall or similar.
All this talk of black iron pipe leaking, FWIW, flare fittings will leak over time as well. We pressure (or give our best effort) to pressure test every system once every 5 years, and more times than not we will find a small leak. Quite often, a flare fitting.
That's interesting. We had some LP flare fittings that were well over 30 years old and no leaks. My brother used to work for the gas company and said the quality of the flare has a lot to do with it. Good flare tools can cost 8X the price of the el-cheapos. Good non-Chinesium fittings help too.

Mediocre Flare Tool
Image


Good Flare Tool
Image
 

Attachments

  • Like
Reactions: Tomfive and Marlin
Right, and I've seen some very old BIP hook ups that are still leak free, all my point was is don't think that any of it is worry free for a lifetime.
I agree. Given the repercussions of a leak it seems very prudent to check the system over once in a while. Even if nothing more than giving the pipe/tubing run the "sniff test". :)
 
We had a very old school tech (long since retired) who used to run a bic lighter down the piping. :hide:
What?!?! When my brother was still with the gas company I would always joke with him about using a lighter to find a leak never imagining that anyone would actually DO such a thing. :laugh: