Gas Stove and Gas Dryer Hookups in Spartanburg, SC

An electric range or dryer runs on a 240-volt circuit and nothing else. Swapping it for gas means bringing a gas line to the spot where there has never been one. In a crawlspace house that usually means a branch under the floor and up behind the appliance; on a slab, the route is often through the attic and down an interior wall.

Before we route anything, we add up what the house already burns. A range typically draws far less than a furnace or water heater, but a branch off an undersized line can still rob the appliances already on it. If the existing pipe cannot carry the extra load, we tell you before you buy, and the line work is quoted on its own.

Do not forget the old circuit. A gas stove or gas dryer only needs an ordinary 120-volt outlet, so the 240-volt receptacle is left in place for a future electric appliance, or an electrician converts it.

Every new range or dryer location gets its own manual shutoff valve, in the same room and no more than 6 feet from the appliance. On a new run we place it low on the wall or in the neighboring base cabinet, where a quarter turn shuts the stove off without pulling it out. A stiff or weeping old valve gets replaced.

The flexible connector between the valve and the appliance has firm limits. For a range or a domestic dryer it may be no longer than 6 feet. It may not pass through a wall, floor, cabinet side or the appliance housing, which rules out the common shortcut of feeding a connector through a hole in the laundry room wall. When the valve is in the next room, the rigid pipe has to come through the wall and end at a valve on the appliance side.

Old uncoated brass connectors come out every time we see one. The soldered joints at each end are where they fail. A new stainless or coated connector, sized to the appliance and with enough slack to slide the range out for cleaning, is a small part on a big job.

The fuel gas code lists ranges and clothes dryers among the appliances that are exempt from the sediment trap requirement.

That exemption has one limit: if the installation instructions for your specific range or dryer call for a drip leg, the instructions win. We read the manual before we tighten the last fitting, and if a trap is called for, it goes in.

A gas dryer burns gas to make heat, and the combustion products leave through the same duct as the lint. That makes the exhaust run a safety item, not just an efficiency one. A crushed duct or a lint-packed hood leaves combustion gases with nowhere to go.

• A 4-inch smooth metal exhaust duct, never vinyl or foil
• A run of no more than 35 feet, shortened for every elbow, unless the dryer maker allows longer
• A listed transition duct of 8 feet or less between the dryer and the wall, left out in the open
• A vent hood outside with a backdraft damper and no screen to catch lint
• A standard 120-volt grounded outlet for the drum motor, controls and igniter

Every freestanding and slide-in range sold in the United States since the early 1990s has come with an anti-tip bracket. Weight on an open oven door, such as a child standing on it, can pull a range forward, and the bracket behind a rear leg stops that.

Delivery crews often leave the bracket in the box, and many older installs never had one. On every gas stove installation we fasten the bracket and slide the range back until the rear leg engages it. A range that tips also yanks on its gas connector.

A range or dryer leaves the factory set for one fuel, and the label on the back or inside the door says which. The small brass orifices at each burner are drilled for that fuel. Propane orifices are much smaller, because propane carries more heat per cubic foot and arrives at a higher pressure.

Most gas ranges ship with propane orifices in the box, and many dryers take a model-specific kit from the maker. We confirm what your house burns before delivery day, swap the orifices, reset the regulator and the oven and simmer settings, and put the conversion label on the appliance so the next technician knows what was done.

If there is no meter on the house, the first call is to the gas utility, not to us. In most of Spartanburg County that is Piedmont Natural Gas. They decide whether a main runs close enough to serve you, install the service line from the street, and set the meter. That schedule belongs to the utility.

Everything after the meter is house piping, and that part is ours: the line from the meter to the kitchen and laundry, the valves, the pressure test and the permit. The utility generally will not set and turn on a new meter until that house piping has passed inspection.

Because we are a Piedmont Natural Gas Advantage Partner, we can help you request that new Piedmont service and time the house piping to it. If your stove and dryer run on propane today and a main has reached your street, we help with the switch to natural gas as well, and financing through Piedmont is available for qualifying gas work.