Ranges and dryers. The two gas appliances customers use every day, and two every technician needs to know cold. Episode twenty, the season two finale of the Gas Service Animated series.

Start above the range. The code requires a minimum vertical clearance of thirty inches between the cooking top and unprotected combustible material or metal cabinets, like the underside of a wood cabinet. With the specified protection, insulating millboard covered with sheet metal, or a metal ventilating hood at least a quarter inch below the combustible surface, as wide as the appliance and centered over it, that clearance is permitted to drop to twenty-four inches. Cabinets scorch slowly and ignite suddenly, so measure the space. Never assume the builder got it right.

The range itself installs by the book, meaning the manufacturer's installation instructions. It sits level, and where the instructions provide an anti tip device, that bracket gets installed and engaged. The flexible connector rules from earlier this season apply in full. The connector must be listed, it must never pass through a wall, floor, or ceiling, and a shutoff valve must sit in the same room, within six feet of the appliance and readily accessible.

Household dryers are Type one appliances, listed for home use. They keep at least six inches of clearance from combustible material unless listed for less, and a dryer going into a closet must be specifically listed for closet installation. The big rule is the exhaust. A moisture exhaust duct must carry that damp air all the way outdoors. Never into a crawl space, never into an attic, and never into a chimney or gas vent.

Now the duct itself. The gas code calls for rigid metallic exhaust duct; the smooth-interior finish — from the dryer's listing and the residential code — matters because every ridge and edge is a place for lint to land. Fasteners must not stick into the airstream. A screw tip inside the duct becomes a lint collector, and the blockage grows from there. The listed flexible transition duct belongs only at the exposed final connection to the machine. It is never run concealed inside walls or floors. And keep the run short, within the length limits of the manufacturer's instructions and your code.

A running dryer pushes a large volume of house air outside, and that air has to come from somewhere. Makeup air must be provided for a Type one dryer, following the manufacturer's installation instructions, and closet doors typically need louvers or openings to feed it. Commercial Type two dryers put a number on the idea, at least one square inch of free opening for every one thousand Btu per hour of input. Starve a dryer of air and it can pull hard enough to backdraft a naturally vented neighbor, like a water heater.

Here is why the duct rules read like fire code, because they are fire prevention. Lint is a fine, dry fuel. The dryer supplies heat, and a restricted duct traps that heat right where the fuel collects. That is the whole fire chain in one appliance. So the maintenance story is bigger than the lint screen. The full duct run, from the machine to the outdoor termination, needs to be cleaned and kept clear. That is not housekeeping. That is fire prevention.

Both appliances get the same gas side respect as any other. A shutoff valve serves each appliance, and a sediment trap, the tee fitting with a capped nipple at least three inches long, protects the gas valve where one is required. And here is the fine print. The code itself exempts ranges and clothes dryers from the sediment trap requirement, so a trap shows up on these appliances when the manufacturer or your utility requires one. Every joint you make gets leak checked with a soap solution or an electronic detector, never a flame. And when a burner looks wrong, clock the meter against the nameplate. A typical range is rated around sixty five thousand Btu per hour, a typical dryer around thirty five thousand.

So on the kitchen and laundry call, the checklist is short and sharp. Clearance above the cooking top verified, thirty inches, or twenty four with the specified protection. Range level with the anti tip device engaged. Dryer duct metal, clear, and terminating outdoors. Makeup air present so the dryer can breathe. Connectors listed with the shutoff accessible, and every disturbed joint leak checked before you leave.

And that closes season two. You have placed appliances in the right locations, mastered the big four, furnaces, water heaters, ranges, and dryers, sized and inspected the venting that serves them, and learned the piping and materials that feed it all. Season three is coming. Until then, work safe and follow your procedures.