How A Natural Gas BBQ Should be Hooked Up
Warning the article how to hook-up a natural gas bbq in Edmonton is for reference only and any information used here is at the users own risk, the author and his company Kramer Plumbing and Radiant Heat accepts no responsibility on what you do, only a licensed gas fitter can do this job safely.
In most cases the natural gas line going out to your deck should be a half or three quarter inch black iron pipe that has been painted gray in color. There will be a quarter turn shutoff valve that either has a small pipe and a cap or a plug with a square head on it.
Your natural gas BBQ will come with a new quick connect fitting. This is the brass fitting that fits on the pipe as well as on the hose to the barbecue and can come apart to move the bbq if you need to.
90% of the time the pipe will be half inch, if your pipe is three quarter inch you will have to reduce further.
The natural gas quick connect will either be half inch or 3/8 of an inch inside diameter.
If yours is a half inch quick connect then you should be able to just thread that onto a 2 inch brass nipple and thread into the valve. Always use yellow Teflon tape or pipe dope.
Always use a back up wrench when threading or unthreading pipe on gas line. That way you cannot loosen off the pipe further down stream of the pipe.
If you have a 3/8 quick connect then you will need to reduce the half inch down to 3/8 to fit. You will need a 1/2 by 2 inch black nipple, a 3/8 inch by two inch black nipple and a 1/2 by 3/8 reducing coupler. You cannot use a bushing here. You can not use anything other than yellow Teflon tape or pipe dope to put these pieces together. The white Teflon is not real Teflon and can be eaten away by natural gas.
Total cost of material is about $10.
Hooking up Your Natural Gas Barbeque
Make sure the valve is in the shut off position.
Using two wrenches remove the 1/2 inch plug from the shutoff valve.
One pipe wrench is to loosen the plug by turning counter clockwise while the other wrench is to hold the pipe from turning anything else but the plug.
Hold the adjustable wrench with your right hand and either an adjustable wrench or pliers with your left hand. Then move your left hand towards your right hand without your right hand moving.
Once the plug or pipe and cap are loose simply remove, you may get a small amount of smell from the natural gas. Which is actually a product in the gas called mercaptan, which has an odour.
If anything else other than the plug moved you may have loosened the pipe below the shutoff valve. To make sure everything is ok you might want to call us to come and do a service call for you. 780-264-0878 to make sure you did not break something or create a leak.
Once the plug is removed you can start to assemble the pipe.
Using your gas Teflon tape you will want to wrap both the threads on each pipe. Simply wrap the thread three times in a clockwise fashion starting from the second thread on the pipe. Do this on the both threads of the half and the 3/8 inch nipples.
Now thread your 3/8 pipe into the female side of the quick connect, add the reducing coupler, then add the 1/2 nipple. Hand tighten the assembly then tighten with wrenches. Never place a wrench on the threads, only on the portion with the pipe.
Now tighten the assembly onto the valve using a back up wrench as we talked about earlier. Since you are now tightening and not loosening the fittings you need to move the wrench clockwise and hold the back up wrench tight for moving in either direction.
Soap testing the assembled pipe.
Once everything is tight turn on the gas. Soap test all the joints using a certified gas soap testing product. If any bubbles show up in 15 to 60 second then you need to tighten that part more. Soap test again if necessary.
After you are certain there is no leaks then wipe the soap off the pipe and fittings until dry and paint the black iron.
If you only needed to use the half inch brass nipple then there is no need to paint.
All black iron parts need to be painted to keep from rusting.
Now you can light your BBQ, follow the instructions on lighting that came with your unit.
You are now complete and ready to enjoy the use of your new BBQ!
If you are not installing a new gas line you will not need a permit for this.
Kramer Plumbing and Radiant Heat
Thanks,
Kelly