No gas dryer if you have a Laundry Sink??? Code??

[passatdoc]

@hydralique: agree

I remember my parents' brand new 1958 house which had a gas cooktop and a built-in Dutch-door (two split half doors) gas oven with broiler. That was one of the last gas wall ovens in new construction that I ever saw. We moved in 1961 to a 1930s era house and my parents remodeled ASAP. The kitchen had had an old white gas range, so I know there were gas lines in the walls, but mom chose an electric coil cooktop and double built in electric ovens. Not sure if 240V was in the walls, so it may have involved some expensive rewiring. The laundry room shared a common wall with the kitchen and had gas lines since the dryer was gas. My folks left the 1930s laundry sink in place, it most likely served as a drain for the original owners' wringer washer.

There is a tract of homes in town built in the early-mid 1960s and they too have gas wall ovens. The options for replacement are limited and usually lack upscale features like convection, though some are self-clean. I don't think those kitchens had 240V because the cooktops are also gas. The only homes in that area I've visited had original kitchens, so I haven't seen any examples of extensive remodels in that tract. Again, electric appliances probably need a lot of rewiring.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Actually washer manuals carry a warning about this issue. They say that if the hot water has not been used for a couple of weeks that hot water should be drawn off from a source higher than the washer so that circuitry in the machine does not ignite the possibly present hydrogen. The gas dryer stuff is BS. The dilution of the gas with the high airflow would almost totally preclude an explosion near the burner if you had hydrogen at that low level and the electrical circuitry in any washer or dryer would be a far more likely source of ignition.

 

[arbilab]

Once again back to the core issue of hydrogen in stale hot water, it's not going to go from a sink at waist level to a burner or start switch at ankle level under ANY circumstances.

Of course, that absolute physical reality is not going to prevent some one-horse municipality (or the state of California) from passing a code against it. Last time I lived there they were talking about outlawing bakeries because they released carbon dioxide.

Gas would indisputably rise to the top of a heater tank where the water exits, causing the faucet to fart when turned on. In my whole life I have never seen that happen UNLESS the water supply was interrupted, allowing air into the system. It's not subtle when it happens, so no, it didn't happen and I overlooked it.

 

[hydralique]

Actually in California it's very difficult to use a conventional resistance electric water heater because they are very inefficient. There's no actual prohibition but the guys who do the state-mandated Title 24 Energy Analysis say the computer program is heavily weighted toward water heater efficiency and getting the final score to pass requires a lot of expensive work elsewhere in the house. This is a problem for people who live in remote areas without gas service as fire departments don't like to see propane tanks in fire zones, and most all remote areas here in SoCal are in fire zones. I suppose the new heat pump water heaters would be less of a problem.

The biggest issue I've ever had with a municipality and a water heater was years ago with a new house on Park Bridge Court in Dallas near Turtle Creek Blvd. and Cedar Springs Rd. The water heater was accessed through a combined master closet/dressing room and bathroom that was over 1000 sq. ft. in size and had doors to both a hallway and the master bedroom. The inspector declared it a part of the master bedroom and required an expensive direct vent heater for fear a malfunction would pump carbon monoxide into the bedroom. Quite unlikely, but at least we didn't need an ugly louvered door on the closet for combustion air.

 

[arbilab]

Oy! Tell me about inefficient resistance heat. I'm stuck in an apartment and that's all it has.

Y'know what? The waste heat from the refrigerator could supply more than half a modest residential hot water cost. But NOOOooo. We pay for that energy twice. Once to take it out of the fridge, again to take it out of the air in summer.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Well, if you put in a heat pump water heater you could solve that problem. On the other hand, the tap cold water is warmer in the summer so less energy is needed to heat it and because the tap cold is warmer you use less hot water for a shower so it is not a total lose/lose situation. If anyone were really worried about heating water, they could buy some 5 gallon covered buckets at HD or BLOWES, fill them and place them in the sun for solar water heating. Then all you would need is a small pitcher to pour the water over you to bathe. As for the efficiency of an electric water heater itself, it is very close to 100% because you lose no heat up the flue; energy that goes into the heating elements is converted to heat which goes into the water. It is more expensive energy for the task than gas. Have you put a good 2 inch thick insulation blanket around the tank to improve the insulation in the builder model tank you have? I could only find the 1 inch thick blanket in stores so I ordered one online for my heater. As I have stated, It operates from 4 to 8 PM. In the summer, the water I draw from the top of the tank is still at 140 in the afternoon just before it turns on again. The water in the bottom of the tank is cooler because of replacement cold water due to my morning shower.[this post was last edited: 8/7/2011-08:49]

 

[arbilab]

Not all that worried about the WH. Non heat/cool months the bill is only $50. But middle of winter can go above $300 running resistance central. For only 800 sq ft. Doublepane windows but I think they cheesed on the attic insulation.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I can understand the risk or hydrogen, but wouldn't the washer free this gas when it was used as well? 

 

The logic though understandable, is missing something.

 

 

[tolivac]

the little Mythbusters water heater film clip reminded what happened in one of our transmitters several years ago--In one of them water is circulated thru the anode section of the tube-the top water jacket.somehow the water outlet hose got clogged-I was at the site when the tube blew-was just like that water heater in the Mythbuster film clip.The transmitter was in standby status.Blowers and pumps on,and tube filaments on.the tube in question has a 12V 2100A filament-now we can imagine the heat this will put out if the water flow is blocked.I was working in another transmitter when the tube blew-a muffled BOOM heard thruout the building-then smashing and tinkling sounds.Went to the transmitter-all of the cabinet doors were blown open-these are norally LOCKED with special keylocks.and some of the doors were bent.there was a hole in the metal cabinet where the tube was-the platform ( quarter in thick copper plated steel)was bent in half!the lower RF driver cavity under the platform was destroyed.The stainless steel anode cover was blown thru the roof of the transmitter and destroyed equipment on the transmitter roof and an airconditioning vent-that was blown in half.The steel building roof was dented as well.The water jacket was found behind the transmitter.Now its a planter at another workers house.and all of the circuit breakers on the transmitter were tripped.Now there are pressure vents in the water jacket of these tubes-so if a cooling pipe is blocked and pressure tries to build up-the vent blows open.Better that than the tube blowing in half causing over $250,000 in damage to the transmitter-was off the air a couple of years for restoration.And glad no one was near it when the tube blew-they could have been killed.

 

[toggleswitch]

I my area any such nonsense would be geared towards not creating an illegal /additional residential apartment.

A 30a electrical line for a standard USA electric dryer (as opposed to a larger capacity circuit of 40a or 50a for a stove) and no gas means ==> NO STOVE/RANGE/COOKER.

FEH!!!!! Add an electric cooktop and a counter-type ("workbench" over seas) large plug-in "toaster-oven" LE VOILA, a ccoktop and an oven for an illegal tenant/ apartment.

In my area it's a kitchen only if it has a stove. (otheriwse it's a "laundry room") So use an electric stove and wheel it away when the inpsector comes around!
Washer goes in space for fridge and dryer goes where vent and power/fuel source is (space for stove).

Once a really ballsy plumber told a family they could not have gas heat in a house that used gas for the stove and dryer. The lazy bastard was not interested in running a larger gas line / pipe from meter to gas boiler. Couldn't he have said, this job is not for me, thank you? Family panicked. Their oil burner caught fire becase during its fall cleaning, the repaiman did not screw the fuel atomizing nozzle back on. It fell off during the first use of the season and the burner head was dumping oil into burner chamber at an alrarmigly fast rate! They did not want oil heat anymore!
[this post was last edited: 8/9/2011-08:27]

 

[tolivac]

I would have SHREDDED that plumbers license!!

 

[polkanut]

Sounds like that plumber was in the wrong profession.  That type of work is his bread & butter.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

That to me is the same paranoia about static electricity from the dry clothes in the dryer sparking a standing pilot light in a gas dryer...

-- Dave

 

[mattl]

Talked to my cousin today, he said the "salesman" told him that.  He's trying to get a hold of his builder and get a better idea of what is going on.  He said he was told that this was true in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, but odds are this came from the salesman too, not the builder.

 

On another appliance note I sent them some info on the new dishwasher cycle times from the other section.  He said they are getting GE appliances, not sure of the models yet.

 

[toggleswitch]

What part of a "salesman" is not understood?

They are involved with speaking total B/S ("blatant salesmanship"). Well, that is one form of the abbreviation for b/s.

What part of commission-hungry liars that will say anything to close a deal do people not get?

NEVER TRUST A SALESMAN.

 

[polkanut]

I always count my fingers after shaking a salesman's hand to make sure they are all still on my hand, and I didn't get ripped off. lol  Steve hit the nail on the head!!!