Flexible Gas Lines- Are You Serious?

Tips of Flexible Gas Line

  • For fitting it needs a special installation equipment
  • Flexible gas lines are safe
  • It can be installed faster compared to black iron
  • They are durable

New homes these days are installed with flexible stainless steel piping to transport natural gas. With this new system in place no one uses the heavy black iron pipe anymore.

Why Flexible Gas Lines?

Works well

When this material was first introduced a lot of people thought it was unsafe. You can rest assured no matter what anyone says about this pipes, they are safe and very effective. All houses that are being build today use this brass appliance connector tubing when gas is supplied to a cook-top, a clothes dryer, or a gas range. Thousands of houses have used these corrugated appliance connectors for years and it has never malfunction.

Fast to install

Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) has a lot of merits. Although the biggest one may be labor saving. Black iron pipes used to take a lot of time to thread and cut. The coming of corrugated stainless steel tubing has made work easier as they are installed like an electric wire. One just require to pull the material between 2 ends and cut the length using a simple tubing cutters. This means that the plumber won’t charge much when installing CSST compared to what they used to charge when installing traditional black iron pipe, which required to be measured accurately, cut and thread single pieces.

Fewer leak locations

When you are using corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST), you are reducing potential gas leaks. Installation of traditional black iron pipe had several 90 degree, coupling and tee fittings. These fittings were used every time one needed to join two pieces or change directions of a pipe. Each of these cast fittings were the main sources of gas leak.

What is even more, the thread joints on each sides of fittings are also potential leak points. Luckily, corrugated stainless steel tubing “snakes” around obstructions and bends as one solid piece of tubing. With this piping you only get a fitting at the end of the line. In case you have a gas leak, this fittings are always readily available for adjustment.

Not do-it-yourself friendly

Corrugated stainless steel tubing does not offer do-it-yourself proposition. Most of them need someone who is trained and well familiarized with them to install them.

Two installation choices

The CSST (corrugated stainless steel tubing) system can be installed using two ways: parallel or series installation. Series installation is almost the same as typical black iron piping, whereby a large main pipe supplies gas to small branch pipes, which feed each appliance. Mostly this is the easiest method to adapt for future use.

Manifold method

A parallel corrugated stainless steel tubing resembles an electric panel. All of the tubes which feed different appliances begin at a central distribution point. In case you need to add another pipe in future you require to have another gas port on a manifold inside the panel.

Maybe soft copper

If you do not get corrugated stainless steel tubing and you do not want black iron pipe, you should consider soft copper. It offers almost the same advantages as CSST or flexible gas lines. Soft copper was approved for interior gas piping in many towns and cities.

Flair fittings

Connections are usually made with ordinary flare fittings, which is tighten with common wrenches. the good thing about it is that you only equipment you require is flaring tool that is made to fit the size of pipe you are working with. In case you use copper pipe for gas lines remember to label them so that someone does not mistake them for water line.