Flexible gas connector tubing is found passing through a cabinet wall. Why is this reported?

A flexible gas connector is listed for one job: the final, visible, accessible connection between rigid gas piping and a movable appliance. Passing it through a cabinet wall violates two conditions of that listing at once. It puts thin corrugated tubing in contact with a cut edge that abrades it each time the appliance is moved or vibrates, and it conceals part of the connector so a developing leak escapes into a closed cavity where it accumulates unseen and unsmelled. Rigid pipe is what penetrates building elements; where an appliance sits behind a partition, the rigid supply is extended to a shutoff on the appliance side and the connector makes the final visible link from there.

Connectors are not listed to pass through walls, partitions or cabinet panels. Doing so exposes the tubing to abrasion at the penetration and conceals part of it, so a leak can develop and accumulate out of sight.

Flexible gas appliance connectors are listed for a single appliance connection in an accessible, unconcealed location. They may not pass through walls, floors, ceilings or partitions, may not be joined together, and are single-use.

Visible, Accessible, One Appliance. Break any of the three and it is a finding. Walls are for rigid pipe.

Look for the shutoff valve too. It must be in the same room and accessible, and a valve hidden behind an appliance is a related and commonly tested defect.

• •Believing a periodic replacement interval applies
• •Treating orientation rather than concealment as the issue
• •Overlooking an inaccessible appliance shutoff valve