The wall behind my range and refrigerator has a stubout. How can I tell if it is water or gas? I want to replace my electric range with gas can't afford to have a gas line installed all the way from my gas meter on the other side of the house.

When we rough-in new houses, we usually rough in kitchen for both electric and gas . If electricity is given preference over gas, gas pipe is plugged and left unused. Gas pipe should be black or yellow. Water pipe should be copper, plastic, PEX or galvanized. If you cannot distinguish it by looking at it - you can take a wrench and slowly start unscrewing the cap. You will see either water drip or escaping gas.

Do you have elec. Range oven / cook top now ?

Being behind stove, chances are it is gas.

Thanks so much for your (speedy) response. I'm too chicken to unscrew the cap without knowing if it's gas or water. :o The house is 30 years old and in a development where all the original houses were installed with electric ranges, so as far as I know, there's never been a gas range in this house. All I can see of the stubout is about a 1" square (not six-sided) cap sticking out of a round disk about 4-5" in diameter. These have 30 years of paint on them, so I'd have to remove or deeply score the paint to unscrew the cap, so before doing all that, I'm hoping to figure it out. What do you think?

That sounds like a sewage line clean out plug.

He he Figures!

That sounds like a sewage line clean out plug.

I agree. Sounds like sewer clean out

Chuck

I'm sure you're right. I looked outside behind my bathroom where the plumber worked last time I had the drain snaked, and the cap there is exactly the same! Glad I asked here instead of paying a plumber to look at it - and I'm not even blonde!

So much for my gas-range dreams of perfectly sauteed cuisine!

I am little late with my response: but yes, previous posts cleared this issue for you by identifying it as Clean Out.

Anyways: do you have ANY gas appliance in your house ? Clothes dryer ? Central Heater ? BBQ ? If you do, then there is a chance you have gas line in your kitchen wall.

Thank you so much. The only gas appliance in the house is the furnace which, like the gas meter, is on the far side of the house. The house is small, but it would still be way too expensive to run a gas line that far. Some neighbors told me it cost them $5,000 to run a gas line to their kitchen about the same distance!

Wehav2: If you have gas furnace in your house, you may have gas outlet for the stove already in. Have somebody to look at that. If you have crawl space it is very easy to find out.

Moreover, if you don't - it is NOT $5K to run 3/4" dedicated gas line for your cook top. I would say it would be more like $1K tops - and maybe lot less...

Glad to be able to help you... Good Luck... Milo