Unsafe gas line to water heater ?

I had to remove some of the gas line to the water heater in order to replace a heater element. There was a warning posted on the inside of the vented metal door -- that said something about the danger of a fire hazard --IF a little piece (that serves as a gas flow restrictor) was removed.
I was most careful in taking it apart and there is NO LITTLE RESTRICTOR in the gas piece that I removed.

It seems to me (and I've been wrong more often than not lately) that that the piece has its own (built-in) flow restriction -- created by the built-in, small, pin-hole opening for the gas. You can see it in one of the photos.

Since I am the 1st owner of this '07 TM & since the unit has never been serviced -- I thought that it had probably been re-designed by Suburban to reduce the risk of loss of the part & thereby reduce the risk of fire.

So, I put it back together just as I had taken it apart (without installing the piece mentioned in the warning) --
trusting my "dangerous" reasoning -- and stood beside the unit with a fire extinguisher and fired it up.

It worked just fine. Bit I'm still nervous and can't help but wonder if EVERY unit "must" still have this flow restrictor -- even if it was not included with my heater & even if "appears" to be unnecessary.

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge ?

Eric

[ShrimpBurrito]

I don't know either way, and perhaps someone here might know, but 2 resources you might check for a definite answer -- 1) the installation manual for the water heater, which should be in your blue book from the TM factory; and 2) if no answer there, contact Suburban directly for guidance.

Dave

As follow-up:

I finally found my installation & operation manual for our SW6DEM water heater.

The expanded view and parts list does NOT show a separate component, gas flow restrictor. Part #30 is called the "Burner Assembly with Orifice".

So, the orifice (the pin hole opening in the photo) is, itself, the flow restrictor and it's an integral part of the burner assembly. As I read it --- there is no tiny, internal, flow restrictor that can be lost.

The warning label on the inside of the water heater's door(IMHO) seems to be misleading in its reference to this component.

As I said before, a separate flow restrictor was not there when I disassembled the burner assembly & the unit worked fine when I put it back together.

So, I feel I've done my due diligence on this matter. I have the expanded parts view from the manual to reassure me.

But I recommend leaving propane issues to qualified service tech's.

Eric

[girlbugspoppa]

I recently discovered the same thing; I knew that when I removed the gas line there was not a separate orifice inside, but the warning left me a little worried. Checked the flame after putting everything back together and it didn't seem any different than before. The restrictor does appear to be built into the burner assembly. I guess that is just a generic warning that they have posted, kinda scary though, isn't it? Even though I knew nothing had fallen out when removing the line I still did some looking to make certain that nothing had gotten by me!

I very much appreciate your input. It's good to know that someone else came to the same conclusion. There's no room for error when you're dealing with gas.