Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/90145
SERVICE & SET-UP Water Heaters 102 BYGEORGE PORTER Gas is pretty simple. You are basically heat- ing a pot of water over a burner. You don't want it to get so hot that it can hurt somebody so it has a thermostat that cuts off the burner when it gets to the right temperature and turns it back on when it gets cooler. Gas can present two main problems in addition to the leaks etc. that all water heaters can have. Because gas uses an open flame burner just like a burner on a gas cook top; it needs to be adjusted correctly. We use two kinds of gas in this industry. One is LP and the other is nat- ural. They operate on different pressures and have different BTU ratings. Natural gas has the highest BTU rating and the lowest pressure. LP is exactly the opposite. Nearly all gas appli- ances can use either one but they have to be setup for the appropriate gas. All convertible appliances have a little bag that accompanies them when they are new and contains the ori- fices and any other necessary parts for conver- sion. This bag should stay attached to the appliance for its entire life. If the home is moved there may not be natural gas available wherever it goes and it will need to be changed over to LP, or the other way around. All the water heaters I know of are set from the factory for natural gas so if you have natural gas avail- able, then you need to do nothing. Working on gas is a tricky business. Many places allow you the installer to do whatever needs doing to make the appliance work. Convert, hook up, adjust and leak test. While the state may be ok with this I strongly suggest you ask your insurance company if you would be covered if you accidentally blew up a family. You may also consult your legal counsel about this possibility. I did this long ago and there was this sort of long pause and then they asked if I had taken certified training for gas in- stallation and had a license. I said no but I had NOVEMBER 2012 18 THE JOURNAL a truck driver show me how to do it and it was easy. They said no coverage, same goes for wiring up the home to the meter. I told them the county or state didn't care if I did this work and they said they did care and asked if I wanted to continue my coverage. So I went out of the gas hookup business. I called the gas company every time from then on. You will no doubt have the opportunity to get yourself in deep trouble if you deal with used homes and LP gas. Your customer will have a medium sized gas tank sitting alongside the home. And they will want, maybe even de- mand, that you disconnect it, throw it in the back of your truck, haul it to the new location and hook it up again. You are in charge of your own destiny so you can make your own choices here. I personally would not do this for all the reasons mentioned above. Things like a gas pipe could come lose during the move and I want no part of the liability involved here. Having said all this, you should be able to detect when something is wrong. You should never be able to smell gas. If you do, shut it off and call the gas company right away. The flames on the burners look different depending on which gas you use. LP burning properly will have little yellow tips on the flame cones. A totally yellow flame is in need of adjusting by the gas company. Natural gas should burn with a soft blue flame. The orifice for natural gas ismuch larger than LP and the pressure is much less. What do you think happens if you don't properly con- vert the appliance? LP is higher pressure and uses a much smaller orifice. So if it goes through the natural gas setup it looks a bit like a flame thrower when you light it. Don't mess around with this stuff if you don't know what you are doing and are not insured for it. The gas water heater has a burner at the bot- tom that may have a pilot light or it may have electronic ignition. Obviously the electronic ignition uses less gas because the pilot light is not on all the time. Both will probably have a thermocouple for safety. When the main burner comes on it can dispense a pretty good volume of gas and if it did not have a flame to ignite it, it would create a major fire hazard. As the unburned gas was flooding into the water heater compartment it would leak into the home and could find a spark or flame some- where. Acatastrophic explosion and fire would result. A thermocouple is a little tube that needs to be heated by a flame before it will allow the main burner to turn on. If the thermocou- ple doesn't get hot enough the burner will not come on. Most appliances in confined spaces, like an oven, use this system. After you have dealt with the flame aspect of the hot water heater you need to think about the exhaust. The simplest way for the burnt gas to escape the house is with a little chimney going through the roof. It must be secured to the water heater and leak proof at the roof con- nection. The act of moving the home can af- fect both of these connections. Check and reseal every time before energizing the heater and you should not have problems. TJ George Porter is a consultant to the manufactured housing industry. His Company is Manufactured Housing Resources, P.O. Box 9, Nassau, DE 19969, (302) 645 5552,Web: www.george-porter.com. Some of his services are both in person and On-line training for certification in many states plus expert witness and investigation for the industry