Gas Stoves for Kitchen Dummies

What "black tube," Laura?

A friend recently had a major kitchen remodel performed on his house. The contractor who did the work flat-out refused to do the dryer and stove hookups because both were gas appliances. While that meant that our friend was faced with hiring a plumber to do the hookups or do it himself, he appreciated the honesty. He ended up doing it himself. After all, he's pretty handy, and he's done it before. That makes him a lot different from eHowian Laura Hageman, who pretended she was similarly handy when she wrote "How to Hook Up a Gas Stove"¹ at HomeSteady.com.

Hageman opened with the time-honored eHow 75-word introduction to her topic:

"A gas stove uses natural gas in order to cook. This type of stove will have four areas on top that once they are turned on they will have a small ring of flames which are called pilot flames. Using a gas stove can be potentially dangerous. If you turn the top burner on and the flames do not light up then gas will leak into the air. Hooking up a gas stove demands your attention as well. The connecting itself is not very hard but you must always make sure there is no leakage of gas."

Laura more or less got the big picture right, although she clearly had no idea that there are lots of gas stoves with more than four burners (not to mention an oven) and we have no idea where she got the notion that the flame at a burner is called a "pilot flame." Things only got worse from there, however... Here's some of Hageman's dumbassery:

• "Turn off the gas with the shut off valve near the gas line in the wall" – Trust us: it's not merely "near the gas line," it's on the gas line!
• "...disconnect the tube in the back of the stove. It will be attached to a fitting that comes out from the back of the gas stove." – She calls the gas supply line "the tube"? that's a pretty good sign Hageman has no idea what she's talking about!
• "Connect the accordian [sic] type tube onto the pipe on the back of the stove and tighten" – Here's Hageman's greatest failing: You must always use a new supply line and fittings when connecting a new appliance!
• "Check the tube for any cracks or leaks after connecting." – No, Laura, you check the joints for leaks!

"The tube will be black and flexible. This tube will also have a loose ring around it. This tube is connected to the gas line. Pull the stove out enough to stretch the tube to test for any leaks." – Wait, what? "black and flexible"? No, it's either yellow or silver, and you never stretch it to test it! As for the "loose ring," who knows what she's talking about? "Warning: With a gas stove you must be extra careful when connecting the tube to the stove." – Tube, tube, tube, tube... Oh, yeah, and you need to be extra careful when connecting the supply line to the gas line, too... Idiot. This may well be one of the most dangerously stupid posts in the entire pantheon of dumbass eHow.com posts. Letting a freelance romance writer pretend she knows how to hook up a gas stove is just plain stupid, especially when she already know that Hageman is a serial Dumbass of the Day!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   http://ehow.com/how_4689977_hook-up-gas-stove.html

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