Originally posted by: AntisociaL
Just dont die while installing it, I was reading in the paper last month about some guy installing one and he was on a step ladder making the connections.
He fell off and got himself wedged between the tank and the wall in a postion that compressed his chest,died of suffocation.
Ironically, the probability of dying that way is probably only slightly less than the probability of blowing yourself up, as suggested by another poster. You'd have to be a freakin retard to blow yourself up. You could open up the gas line and light a match to it, and it will only burn out the end; it's not going to back up into the pipe. To have an explosion takes the right mix of oxygen and gas; and it's going to have to leak for quite a while before that happens (with a small leak.) Go on any DIY site for help on how to look for leaks. Some soapy water works great. But, lacking that, you can even check for leaks with a lighter.
That's right, a lighter.
Of course, if gas has been pouring out for 5 minutes because you didn't shut the gas line off, then, perhaps kabooom. But, if you turned off the gas while installing it, turn on the gas and use a lighter to look for leaks (not the best way - because it's easier to miss very small leaks than the soap method.) But, it's NOT going to cause an explosion. Christ, turn on your stove for a few seconds and notice how much gas comes out. Are you going to blow up your kitchen? Wait a second... why doesn't the flame travel from the burner back through the pipes? Even if there's some sort of regulator on it, it would still travel back to where the regulator or knob is, right? Hmmmm, I guess it doesn't.
But, go on believing that if you do a simple job in your house that you're likely to blow your house up, or burn your house down, or electrocute yourself. You're the plumber's and electrician's best friend (no offense to them, and I hope they don't lose business, I have several friends who do that for a living). Well, maybe the plumber's and electrician's second best friend... their best friends are the politicians who are swayed to change local code so that you're not allowed to make those repairs yourself. Where is it? California? where you can't even change an outlet in your house without an electrician? Are the people in Cali that fvcking stupid that they're electrocuting themselves left and right attempting to do what my son has been doing since he was 12?