Natural gas... I hate it.

[Grogan]

Troubleshooting gas garage heater last night, the pilot light was out. I couldn't get it started again. Download manuals, yep... doing things correctly. Screwed around with the pilot light valve/button in the unit, figured it was that mechanism.

Go to Barbecue some burgers tonight and... no gas. I barbecued weenies earlier in the week. That explains the wall heater not working. However, the generator in the garage does and it's fed by the same pipe, coming from a T joint on the wall (upstream from the BBQ and wall heater)

That means one thing, there's an obstruction in the T joint on the ceiling, (there wouldn't likely be in a straight pipe, not total anyway) where it goes to straight to the BBQ and to the wall heater at 90 degrees. It's a restricted one, that goes from 1 inch to half inch pipe. That's the only explanation. That means no BBQ for the holiday weekend (Thanksgiving here in Oct.), and my sister isn't going to be happy with a chilly garage at night (we smoke out there) lol

Of all the stupid fucking things and stupid times for them to happen.

[Michael_horatio]

Damn!! Too late to do anything now before next week I guess. Hope you're still gonna get a turkey..Happy thanksgiving...

[Zema Bus]

Bad timing, a plumber could probably sort it out quickly but they'd probably also charge more on a holiday weekend. I was planning to phase out natural gas everything here before I realized I'd have to move. It's a huge risk in earthquake country. Most of the newer houses I've looked at are all electric. Happy TG though, hope the turkey isn't cold

[Grogan]

A plumber wouldn't touch that... need gas fitting license. I could do it though, I just wouldn't. It would have to be taken apart in several places to get at that and I don't like to mess with gas piping.

Our stoves and ovens are electric, it's only gas furnace, water heater, dryer, generator, garage heater and barbecue. The only things not getting gas are the barbecue hookup and the wall heater.

We don't barbecue turkey (though that's awesome! I'd like to sometime), but we were going to have steak and stuff for the rest of the weekend.

[Dark Angel]

That's odd. There are filters in multiple places in a gas installation, it's very odd for there to be any issues aside from failing regulators or valves unless it's been cold enough to get condensate running through the lines. Even then it should purge out without too much trouble.

[Grogan]

I can envision screwing in the pipes too far, and having excess pipe dope restricting that T even more, or something. In other low places, there are traps but nothing where that line is fed from. Either way, we've got to get the gas guys here to fix that. I think Dad has some sort of contract.

[Grogan]

Nope, it wasn't an obstruction, it was an air lock that got in when they changed the gas meter a few weeks ago. The gas guys were here today and it just worked. I had the valves shut off to those appliances and never tried it again, if I would have, e.g. yesterday, we'd have been canceling the call

I actually wondered if it was something like that as gas is pretty low pressure. I had tried opening this valve, closing that one etc. but no dice. I concluded it was an obstruction, but the gas guy says "that never happens".

I definitely had no gas. I could tell from the ball valves, they had less resistance. Dad said it was because I didn't have the pilot light knob lined up properly, and my BBQ fitting was dirty because he saw the guy poke a screw driver to check it (of course, I have to be wrong somehow lol) but when I countered that explanation, it was the "air lock" then lol. I'm not sure if the gas guy knew for sure, because it was working when he tried it so he was probably just putting out possible explanations.

[Zema Bus]

Kind of like what one of my college professors said one time when he was talking about the phenomenon where you have a problem with your car so you finally take it to your mechanic but it works just fine for him. He called it "the influence of personality" lol!

[Grogan]

... but then it usually starts again after you leave