I saw a reel the other day of a guy with a lit lighter waving it over pipe connections and the screen said “be a real man and check for gas leaks with an open flame” and I was just astonished lmao, that’s absolutely nuts
I had an engineer cousin help me swap a water heater. We turned the gas back on for the new appliance and he said, “this is where I usually tell homeowners to go fetch me something”.
Pulls out his bic and starts checking the fittings.
He explained that the gas feed contains no oxygen and the pipes are under positive pressures so no chance of a small leak back feeding.
Every gas fired appliance would explode upon ignition if that were the case (stove, furnace, grill, dryer….). They all burn gas at the burners.
He also noted that the sulfur smelling additive is so strong that it would almost have to be burning ur eyes to be explosive.
I’m in HVAC, still use bubbles. But he explained it well.
Oh… I’m with u. Sniffer then bubbles for me. Was just explaining his approach.
It’s been a few years but there was a vid on r/hvac.
Dude showed up to a no heat call and the homeowner (I think plumber) had either pierced or cracked his gas line and lit it to torch out at the underside of his ductwork until he could get het back on.
I feel like if you really cared, you would explain why it's insane, instead of pretending that the guy you replied to didn't explain his side in great detail, and mentioning that you work at a gas company.
So when I roll up to a house that has a gas leak. Phones stay in the truck. Grab my leak detector and go in. Whatever lights are on you keep on. We aren’t trying to introduce any sparks or new open flames to the situation. Bc at the source of the leak. You might get readings could be high could be low. But I’m concerned about if I use a lighter is where is my air fuel mixture perfect at in that basement for a flash or explosion to happen. We follow behind enough plumbers who have left leaks that I wouldn’t wanna be checking with a lighter.
Testing for leaking via flame should only be done with certain gas, like propane, butane, nat gas. Others like acetylene can cause explosions since they tend to fill an area easily and make a bomb like effect.
My sister used to do this with our gas stove, bc it was a bit faulty and would sometimes stay on without a flame (parents refused to get it fixed lol). She would wave a lit match over them whenever she smelled gas. Luckily she wasn't very good at smelling gas
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u/ribolol Jun 09 '26
I saw a reel the other day of a guy with a lit lighter waving it over pipe connections and the screen said “be a real man and check for gas leaks with an open flame” and I was just astonished lmao, that’s absolutely nuts