We got a gas dryer mistakenly thinking we had a gas line.. we think this is it.. is it???
Put a tray under it and open and shut it real fast. If water comes out, it's a water line. If you hear hissing and smell rotten eggs, it's a gas line. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Chances are you're not gonna blow yourself up with a fraction of a second's worth of gas leaking out, but for legal reasons this comment is a joke.)
Or, shut off the main first. And do a proper inspection.
Why risk it? Don't fuck with pipes if you dont know what you're doing?
Utilities and electric usually require electricians and plumbers. And even though it might be common sense to you, the idiot who burned the house down thought it was too. It's why there's code, it's idiotproof. Each code is written in blood.
Is it copper? Then it is water.
Is it cast iron? Then it is gas.
If it is plastic, what color is it? Blue, cold water. Red, hot water. Yellow, gas. Orange, not for you to play with. Clear, white, grey? Fuck that guy who did that.
Not cast iron, it's rolled steel but the trade name is black iron pipe. Cast iron is used only in drainage.
Wait, you are buying equipment before you even know if it's even able to work.
Then you post a photo of some faucet on the internet instead of asking your landlord or whoever put this thing on the wall.
And you are about to put that rusty piece of 100 year old with paint on it into operation? When was it last checked? Is it tight? Are the pipes all right? Where's the counter when it's gas/water/whatever? Who is the provider?
Wait, you are buying equipment before you even know if it's even able to work.
What part of "mistakenly" did you misunderstand?
i wouldntve posted if i knew literally anything. and i promise u internet strangers have more intelligent things to say than my landlord.
They didn't post hoping to get lambasted, they already admitted to the mistake. Take it easy.
Very common in the U.S. we have been marketed to for almost 100 years about gas appliances being better than electric. The common phrase "now you're cooking with gas!" Started as an ad on radio shows like Maxwell Coffee Hour, Jack Benny, Chase and Sanborn, Johnson Wax, and Bob Hope around 1940. Now it just means you're working hard/well, especially suddenly.
Now it just means you’re working hard/well, especially suddenly.
eh, the more we learn about gas appliances the more I think it's gonna mean 'you're fine risking your children's respiratory ability so you can have a fancy stove'.
I mean, how much benzene comes out of an electric stove? none.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-health-risks-of-gas-stoves-explained/
Agreed, and I wish I knew that when my kids were still little, but i section wasn’t available (in the US) then
Anyhow, huge difference here:
a dryer is directly connected to a vent to outside. It may not be the best for the environment but it doesn’t affect the air in your house
Does it have a pilot light? to me that's the biggie; is there a source of gas that's constantly on, being decomposed (via flame) leaving it's traces around?
Vents are great for lighter-than-air compounds; benzene unfortunately is heavier than air and will 'pool'.
No, modern dryers don’t have a pilot light. Most or all appliances no longer do, with the latest exception I’m aware of being fireplace inserts. I think it mostly depends on the age of your appliances
My house was all gas when I bought it, and at the time I considered that a feature. Even back then, the only appliances with a pilot were these 1970s tech through wall heaters in the family room addition. At the time, I considered that a feature because I could have heat even if the electric were off. However I live in an urban area with very reliable power: it rarely goes out and usually only for minutes or an hour. I have never needed that feature. However, even there, they vent outside. I don’t know if it’s considered a”sealed burner” but it’s closed up in a compartment where the only way out is the vent (except when I have to relight the pilot)
unless you have a gravity furnace, that assumption - you'd have heat after the juice stops - might kill you. Without the electric blowers to move the hot air around, a gas furnace is going to build up CO2 and other waste products and won't heat the house well because it can't move the hot air.
glad to see there's no pilots on modern units, electrical starters are much more sensible.
Nope. In this case it vents immediately outside. There are no moving parts. They don’t make them anymore
It heats up a radiator, so the room heats up by convection. There is a separate blower on the side to speed that up, but it’s not necessary to get the room hot
This is for a one room addition, so there’s no house circulation to worry about. It’s 20’x20’ so we can all sleep in there easily enough
They are so much better at drying than electric dryers. The gas heater dries out the air better so dries the clothes quicker. Electric just seems to make the clothes hot, but more humid. Depending on time of year and other factors they swing from a lot cheaper to operate, to eat more expensive. Not sure about the environmental impact of them though.
Oh I don't doubt it. Gas stoves are pretty common in the UK and much quicker at getting up to heat than most electric. However, the last 10 or so places I've lived around Eurooe haven't even had gas connections, so I'm not sure its that common over here.
If it's in your laundry area and you already know which ones are the water lines, there's a good chance it's the gas line. I'd try following it back to the source to see if it connects to the gas line, if you can.
Also, you should know that there's a difference between natural gas and liquefied propane or LP. They burn differently, and there will be major issues if you hook an appliance configured for LP up to natural gas and vice versa.
You'll know you have LP if you have a tank nearby, and if so you will probably need to modify the dryer for it. The installers should be able to do this for you for an extra fee. Natural gas is usually delivered by pipes in the ground, and most dryers are set up for that from the factory.
most dryers
All dryers.
For near enough to every single model not to matter the LP conversion kit is sold separately, also. For Whirlpool and their subsidiaries (Maytag) in particular, their LP kit lineup recently changed just to make matters more confusing, and probably not all retailers are up to date on which model requires which kit. So have fun with that.
TL;DR: Your life will be much easier if your house is served by natural gas rather than propane.
It's undocumented but if you run the gas line into the drier drum, every electric model will accept it.
I wasn't sure so I didn't want to make a definitive statement, so thanks for the confirmation.
Though I will say that I recently bought an LG gas dryer and converting it to propane just involved a new gas nozzle and turning a screw.
No prob. You were on the right track.
One of my duties in life is maintaining a major appliance e-commerce web site with ~14,500 SKU's. So I might know a thing... or two... about appliances.
As someone who's probably ordered the wrong part and then the right part from your site about a dozen times: Thank you for your service o7
The NIBCO(R) bronze ball valve provides ease of operation with quarter-turn (90 degrees) open to close. The two-piece valve is ideal for commercial and light industrial process applications that may include HVAC, hot and cold domestic water, low pressure steam, compressed air, LP gas and natural gas.
https://www.nibco.com/nibco-products/valves/ball-valves/t-580-a/
It almost certainly is a gas line.
Also, if your dryer were electric, the vast majority of full size residential dryers in the US are 240 volt machines and require a dedicated 240 volt, 30 amp NEMA 10-30 or 14-30 outlet on its own circuit, which has a socket face on it about the size of a baseball and is pretty tough to miss. If you don't have one of those in your laundry area, you ain't installing an electric dryer regardless.
Unless of course they join the rest of the (non American) world and get a heat pump dryer. They use 1/4 the amount of electricity in operate off of a standard 120 volt socket. I absolutely love mine, the only thing that takes longer is really thick towels and even then it's only like maybe an extra 15-20 minutes.
I went with the miele option but I believe that LG also has an all-in-one washer and heat pump dryer combo that is supposedly getting decent reviews
There are a few options for a heat pump dryer in the US, either as a dedicated dryer or as an all-in-one unit that does both the wash and dry in a single drum. Most of the dedicated dryers sold here are 240 volt units as I suspect the manufacturers are expecting you to use them as a direct replacement for a traditional resistive heater electric dryer. The combo machines tend to be 120 volt, though.
The ones I can think of off the top of my head are:
There are also compact variants at a "Euro" sized 24" Wide.
And of course the European brands pretty much exclusively make 24" compact heat pump dryers, most of which are also ventless: Bosch, Miele, Asko, etc. The Miele machines are 120 volts, the Bosch and Asko are 240.
They're fucking expensive. Like 50% more than buying a separate washer and dryer. Samsung and LG have NA models.
Miele is indeed quite expensive, between both my washer and my heat pump dryer I think I spent somewhere right around 3,100. But I talked to a lot of Appliance technicians some I know and some I just randomly called up and the general consensus I got was yes they are expensive but they are going to last they don't use cheap parts and even if it does break down 10 years from now it's guaranteed I can still get the parts I need if I don't want to replace it because they are still making parts for products they discontinued 10 years ago
Whereas personally I wouldn't trust a Samsung device to stay working anything past 3 years and once it does break down I know for a fact it's going to cost more to fix it than it would to replace it if I even can get the parts from them
I ended up buying one of their vacuum cleaners as well because they seem to be one of the few people still making good canister vacuums and while that was about 1,200 it's easily the best vacuum I've ever had. It's shockingly quiet and yet has stronger suction than any other vacuum I've ever owned. I'm pretty mean to it, I'm currently living in an RV so it gets quite dirty, I use it to clean out my car regularly, and I own a husky so it sees plenty of Pet fur and it has yet to give a shit a year and a half in still practically looks like it's new
I'm with you on Samsung, I wouldn't buy them. Just saying that they're about the only combo with heatpump units in NA that I've seen.
I just read a review on them and they sound horrible. Yeah, they cost 1.5x as much and they’re more expensive to operate than gas but at least they take twice as long. No joke: they had a table of how long various things took to dry and bedding was 4:30:00
That review was a load of shit then, I regularly wash my bedding for my California king size bed. And I have the compact units that blanket barely fucking fits in there. It's dry in a standard full 2 hour cycle.
Whether or not it's more expensive to operate depends entirely on what your gas versus what your electric costs are so I won't speak to that. I have solar so electricity is literally free for me and because it's a heat pump and uses only about 700 Watts when running you don't even need all that much solar power to make it free. But if you're somewhere where electricity is very expensive and gas is very cheap I have no doubt it works out that way.
But whether it's very thick beach towels from costco, Full California king size blankets, or even occasionally pillows because my dog has some pillows that get pretty nasty sometimes and I need to wash and dry them. I've never had it take more than maybe an extra 30 minutes over my old standard dryer at most
I have solar so electricity is literally free for me
Yeah, that’s my long term plan, assuming I continue to live in my current house. I live in a place where electric is expensive, and gas appliances are cheapest to buy, to install, and to operate. There’s not much individual incentive to switch.
My plan is like
—- I am here
Solar is 100% worth doing DIY, just don't do grid tie it's not worth it, just do self consumption. It'll be exponentially cheaper, you don't need anywhere near as much inspection and all the other bullshit that comes with grid tie the equipment will be much cheaper and you'll be able to get significantly more solar for significantly less
Unfortunately I live in an urban area with tiny lots, lots of neighbors, and militant home inspectors. DIY is not likelY feasible
Depends on your particular County rules so that's worth looking into but like I said if you do not get a grid tied system a lot of the rules that people worry about generally don't apply.
An off grid inverter is basically like a computer backup UPS but on steroids. It accepts the grid as an input that it can pass through when there's no solar or you don't want it using the batteries but it is not capable of putting energy back into the grid under any circumstances which means the regulations on it go way way way way down.
As soon as you try to grid tie there is a mountain of litigation both at the federal and county/state level, it generally has to be done by a professional and there's a million inspections along that path even with professionals. But with off grid inverters depending on your location there may be very little rules at all. In my area I don't even need to report it to the power company that I'm doing it
You could probably save money in the long run by purchasing a combo washer/dryer that dehumidifies the laundry and uses a heat pump. Watch for possible rebates starting next year.
I've yet to read a positive review of a combo washer/dryer, but I've admittedly only done a little bit of research. What model would you recommend?
Heat pump water tanks are amazing, especially in warm climates - its like air conditioning, but instead of moving heat from inside your house to outside, it puts that heat into your hot water tank.
I've never seen a heat pump dryer IRL. They must be new technology, and that makes me wonder if existing models are reliable?
If you're worried about the combination which to be fair honestly I also would be I can at the very least recommend the Miele heat pump dryer. At this point I've had mine for several years and also convinced three other people to get it and all of us love it. The only thing that takes a little bit longer is particularly thick towels and even then it's only maybe an extra 15 to 20 minutes.
When you first get it I promise you that you will think your laundry is not fully dry when it's done, but it is. Humans are actually really really bad at sensing moisture our brain estimates it based on temperature and a heat pump dryer uses dry air and condensation from the cold side to not need anywhere near as much heat which is how they are able to use 1/4 the amount of power of a standard electric.
This is way better for your clothes it's a lot gentler on them it'll help them last longer especially shirts with designs on them they won't become a cracked and damaged anywhere near as quickly. But it takes getting used to because it's not going to be anywhere near as hot as your brain is used to dry laundry being so it'll feel like it's slightly damp but if you simply take it out of the dryer and allow it to cool fully then it'll feel dry again because it's back to what you're used to for cooled down dry laundry.
A trick that my grandmother taught me because she would air dry laundry a lot and it has that same problem is to touch the laundry to your lips as your lips are significantly more sensitive than your hands and they will give you a better feeling for if it's actually wet or not
Lowering relative humidity by condensing water out on the cold side instead of strictly by increasing air temperature is a neat trick.
I can't speak to combo washer/dryers, but heat pump dryers have been around for several years. We got an LG one a few years ago because our old one vented into the garage and there was no practical way to extend the vent outside.
We're very happy with it. It does take slightly longer to dry clothes, and the capacity is slightly smaller than our old electric one, but they're also gentler on clothes. We haven't had a single issue with it yet over the years.
That's an interesting point I hadn't considered. If the heat pump dryer is condensing water vapor and draining it via plumbing, and collecting lint in a filter, then there is no need to run an exhaust line through the exterior wall.
Yep, that's exactly what it does, and it's great. Ours technically supports drain line, a removable water tank, and conventional venting, but the drain line is so convenient I'm going to use it going forward in my next place even if there is a vent. So much less hassle to set up and maintain without lint building up.
I considered getting a washer that dries but was NOT the heat pump type when I moved to Japan (where most people do not have dedicated clothes driers except in the more inclimate places). The reviews all turned me off. I've heard good things about heat pump driers in general, so I'll maybe consider things again when my current washer dies (hopefully no time soon).
I don't know what conditions they rate them at, but the 2 I have used (vacation rentals) took twice as long as the screen says.
Maybe they rate them with a single sports jersey in Montana, but on the Carolina coast you're looking at 3 hours for a load.
I haven’t bought one yet, but I’m planning to next year. There’s an LG and GE that have gotten decent reviews on Costco and occasionally go on sale there. Some models include a longer warranty. Samsung has one that pops open the door a bit when it’s finished to prevent front loading washer odor and to let out the last bit of humidity — but I’ve had bad experiences with Samsung in the past.
The advantage is you’re not pumping out as much heat in your home during the summer and the front loader uses less water. The disadvantage is it takes much longer to wash and dry the clothes (similar to how modern dishwashers taking longer to clean and dry).
Some of these still require a 240v drop and some run on a regular household outlet so you have to check the specs. They’ve evidently had them for a while in Europe.
I suggested it because if the gas line doesn’t work out for the OP, it might be another option.
Makes sense that it takes longer to do multiple loads of laundry with once device compared to having two devices running at the same time.
Ehhh that looks like a copper line coming down to the shut-off valve. I highly doubt it's gas. Just crack the valve open a little for a second or two and find out. I promise you won't blow up.
Edit: looked again and now I'm pretty sure it's black pipe with corrosion running down it (that I saw as copper at first glance). If it's black pipe then it's almost definitely a gas line.