Converting Natural Gas to LP for Dummies

Natural gas and LP orifices

When it comes to performing DIY repairs on household appliances, some tasks are more likely to lead to disaster than others. We're not talking about a washing machine hose coming loose and flooding the basement here. No, we're talking about DIY work that ends up burning down the house. Any time you mess with electricity or combustible fuels like natural gas, you need to be working from well-written instructions composed by a professional or at least an experienced DIYer. In other words, you do NOT want to follow the useless instructions Allanah Dykes pumped out in the Hunker.com post, "How to Convert a Kenmore Gas Stove to LP."

Dykes is a member of the Leaf Group "cleanup team," seasoned journalists called upon to rewrite older eHow.com content. Given her alleged expertise is fashion and cooking and her BA in communications, DIY work on gas appliances is a natural fit (not). Whatever the case, Allanah took over for John Rose, who wrote the original post. It's too bad that the original post wasn't written by someone who knew what he was talking about, because Dykes did little more than rearrange the words...

Here's an example of some of her output, with our staff's comments:

• "For new models, all you have to do is flip over the cap that is installed at the top of the tower of the regulator. " – That might be more helpful if Dykes had explained what a "regulator" is, what the "tower" is, and how to get to this "cap"... but she didn't
• "Before you start this project, it's important to turn off the gas to the Kenmore Gas Stove. If there's a connection, first you're going to disconnect the gas pipe. You can use an adjustable wrench to disconnect the pipe from the stove. " – What do you mean, "If there's a connection"? How do you think the gas gets to the stove, Allanah?
• "...prop open the top of the stove and remove each burner assembly orifice. " – Uhhh, Allanah, what is this "orifice" thingy? What does it look like?
• "A nut driver looks like a screwdriver, but this type of tool is used to tighten or loosen nuts and bolts, whereas a screwdriver screws them on." – What an idjit.
• "Before you proceed, pull the plastic from the gas regulator and flip it over." – The plastic what???

• "Using your adjustable wrench, you're going to install the hex nut on the regulator and tighten it. To allow your oven to burn LP gas, you have to tighten the orifice on the stove. " – Does this moron really think that tightening the hex nut is how you "tighten the orifice"? No, people, that's why you replace each orifice!
• "Make sure to make note that you converted the oven..." – ... she never mentioned converting the oven!

No, these are not usable instructions. They're utter bullshit, and dangerous bullshit at that. We hope that no one burns down the house trying to follow the asinine instructions our Dumbass of the Day published, but if anyone does, sue!

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