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pressure gauge reading for natural gas line

27K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  robismyname 
#1 ·
I hired a licensed (CFC) plumber to do a natural gas install to my kitchen cook top and tankless water heater. I am expecting the city inspector to arrive in a few days to inspect and endorse/approve the install so that i can get the gas service started. The gas compant wont start the gas service until the job passes inspection via the city inspector.

But there is a slight problem i believe. When the plumber left on Friday the pressure gauge on the pipe that will eventually connect to the gas meter was reading 15psi. On saturday I checked the gauge and it read 9psi. On Sunday it is reading 4.7 psi.

This doesnt seem right to me. Should I expect some sort of leak.

I called the plumber and he said that perhaps one of the valves werent closed all the way. He said he was coming in the morning to add some air? He didnt seem to be overly alarmed.

I watched him and his team the hold time do the job and i would be surprised that its a leak in pipe (black steele). I never caught a wiff of inexperience or incompetence.

Before I start to panic can anyone offer any reasonable explanation on why the pressure is falling like this?
 

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#6 ·
If he used air for his pressure test. Gauge readings can / will change with ambient conditions. I test mine with nitrogen
Thanks for all the input. I passed inspection yesterday and my gas is up and running.

The problem was that my plumber was using the wrong gauge to test with. According to city regulation a manometer needs to be used. According to the city inspector the manometer is extremely sensitive and if a leak was there it would detect it. So my plumber came back out and hooked up a manometer where the original gauge was located and both he and the city inspector measured the water level by running a few test. It passed! Im happy and i can take hot showers again!

I think Kenmac is correct about using air for the pressure test thus explaining why it showed a leak when the manometer showed that there was not a leak.
 
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