Anyone have a gas burning fireplace?

[LiQiCE]

I just turned on the gas burning fireplace in my house and I've always had the problem that when it was on, you could smell the natural gas (well not the natural gas, but the mercaptan(??) that they add in). If I turn it off and just leave the pilot light running it doesn't smell. I lowered the gas flow on the fireplace so its only getting the minimum amount of gas it needs to burn ... but I still smell the chemical that they add in. I always get a headache if I leave it on for too long too ... but I brought my carbon monoxide detector down to the basement where the fireplace is ... and it doesn't register anything. (Still within the safe range). I had the fireplace running for a few hours when I tried the carbon monoxide detector, so I don't think that there's any serious danger...

Just wondering if anyone else has a natural gas fireplace and if they smell the gas/mercaptan? I'm thinking I need to get the fireplace checked incase the air isn't ventilating properly.

 

[SilentRavens]

I have a couple propane fireplaces, and I don't smell anything when they are running, even after several hours.

 

[Spencer278]

Sounds like you have a gas leak your house is going to blow up in 20 seconds.

 

[MustISO]

Ours has a slight smell, you wouldn't notice if once it's running for a while but if you leave the room and come back you can smell the burning gas. It's more the byproduct of the burning that I smell, I guess. Even if you *think* something may be wrong, you should have it checked out. Gas is nothing to play around with.

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: Spencer278
Sounds like you have a gas leak your house is going to blow up in 20 seconds.

I would think that the lack of Carbon monoxide in the air would say that my house isn't going to blow up.

Originally posted by: MustISO
Ours has a slight smell, you wouldn't notice if once it's running for a while but if you leave the room and come back you can smell the burning gas. It's more the byproduct of the burning that I smell, I guess. Even if you *think* something may be wrong, you should have it checked out. Gas is nothing to play around with.

Yeah, mine is the same way ... If I stay in the room I don't smell it anymore, but if I'm in and out of the room then I can smell it. Its not like overwhelming ... its just that I notice it and I'm curious if its normal or not.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have a gas fireplace but I don't smell gas when it is on...even after hours of burning a fire.

I'd get it checked out.

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: LiQiCE

Originally posted by: Spencer278
Sounds like you have a gas leak your house is going to blow up in 20 seconds.

I would think that the lack of Carbon monoxide in the air would say that my house isn't going to blow up.

Originally posted by: MustISO
Ours has a slight smell, you wouldn't notice if once it's running for a while but if you leave the room and come back you can smell the burning gas. It's more the byproduct of the burning that I smell, I guess. Even if you *think* something may be wrong, you should have it checked out. Gas is nothing to play around with.

Yeah, mine is the same way ... If I stay in the room I don't smell it anymore, but if I'm in and out of the room then I can smell it. Its not like overwhelming ... its just that I notice it and I'm curious if its normal or not.

I work for a natural gas company so listen up. CO (carbon monoxide) is the product of incomplete combustion. CO does not burn. What is does is inhibit the blood's abilitiy to carry oxygen. Just because you don't have CO doesn't mean your house is not going to blow up.

What you might have is that your house is located near where your supplier actually ordorizes the gas. Over odorization can make the smell more prevelent even when it's burning.

When your burning your logs and you smell mercapton, I would call your gas co. and have them check it out with a CGI (combustible gas indicator) just to be sure you don't have a leak, especially if you have other gas burning appliances and don't smell it when they are burning. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: LiQiCE

Just wondering if anyone else has a natural gas fireplace and if they smell the gas/mercaptan? I'm thinking I need to get the fireplace checked incase the air isn't ventilating properly.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: Dead3ye
I work for a natural gas company so listen up. CO (carbon monoxide) is the product of incomplete combustion. CO does not burn. What is does is inhibit the blood's abilitiy to carry oxygen. Just because you don't have CO doesn't mean your house is not going to blow up.

What you might have is that your house is located near where your supplier actually ordorizes the gas. Over odorization can make the smell more prevelent even when it's burning.

When your burning your logs and you smell mercapton, I would call your gas co. and have them check it out with a CGI (combustible gas indicator) just to be sure you don't have a leak, especially if you have other gas burning appliances and don't smell it when they are burning. Better to be safe than sorry.

I hear ya on the better safe than sorry thing ... Just curious though, if there was CO in the air from incomplete combustion then wouldn't the Carbon Monoxide detector I have pick it up? Its registering a high of 17 PPM of CO, which according to the detector is within the normal range.

My gas burning fireplace doesn't use logs btw, it has some sort of fake log inside it and the gas is the only thing burning. Don't think that makes any difference what-so-ever.

I think I'll turn the fireplace off until the gas company can come out to check it out though. When its off and I cut the gas to the fireplace, I don't smell anything at all.

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: LiQiCE

Originally posted by: Dead3ye
I work for a natural gas company so listen up. CO (carbon monoxide) is the product of incomplete combustion. CO does not burn. What is does is inhibit the blood's abilitiy to carry oxygen. Just because you don't have CO doesn't mean your house is not going to blow up.

What you might have is that your house is located near where your supplier actually ordorizes the gas. Over odorization can make the smell more prevelent even when it's burning.

When your burning your logs and you smell mercapton, I would call your gas co. and have them check it out with a CGI (combustible gas indicator) just to be sure you don't have a leak, especially if you have other gas burning appliances and don't smell it when they are burning. Better to be safe than sorry.

I hear ya on the better safe than sorry thing ... Just curious though, if there was CO in the air from incomplete combustion then wouldn't the Carbon Monoxide detector I have pick it up? Its registering a high of 17 PPM of CO, which according to the detector is within the normal range.

My gas burning fireplace doesn't use logs btw, it has some sort of fake log inside it and the gas is the only thing burning. Don't think that makes any difference what-so-ever.

I think I'll turn the fireplace off until the gas company can come out to check it out though. When its off and I cut the gas to the fireplace, I don't smell anything at all.

Yeah, when I said logs, I knew they were fake.

The CO detector "should" pick it up. I don't really mess with the commercially bought CO detectors and that is not really part of my job. I do know that our safety department has reccommendations on which ones to buy and which ones are garbarge.

Do you have other gas burning appliance and do they smell when they are burning? (wall units, range, hot water heater, furnace, etc)

Here's an example orf what would cause incomplete combstion: Someone has a HW heater and built a small room around it. When the door is close to the room, it's sealed pretty good. The HW heater would be starving for oxygen to burn, therefore you have incomplete combustion. Thats why you shouldn't (and most building and gas codes don't allow) putting unvented wall heaters in bedrooms and small rooms that can be closed off with a door. Once the oxygen in the room is used up, you start getting CO.

I would call the gas co and have someone come out. They have somebody on call, and chances are you'll be doing that person a favor. He'll prolly only work for and hour but get paid for four if they have a good union.

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: Dead3ye

Yeah, when I said logs, I knew they were fake.

The CO detector "should" pick it up. I don't really mess with the commercially bought CO detectors and that is not really part of my job. I do know that our safety department has reccommendations on which ones to buy and which ones are garbarge.

Do you have other gas burning appliance and do they smell when they are burning? (wall units, range, hot water heater, furnace, etc)

Here's an example orf what would cause incomplete combstion: Someone has a HW heater and built a small room around it. When the door is close to the room, it's sealed pretty good. The HW heater would be starving for oxygen to burn, therefore you have incomplete combustion. Thats why you shouldn't (and most building and gas codes don't allow) putting unvented wall heaters in bedrooms and small rooms that can be closed off with a door. Once the oxygen in the room is used up, you start getting CO.

I would call the gas co and have someone come out. They have somebody on call, and chances are you'll be doing that person a favor. He'll prolly only work for and hour but get paid for four if they have a good union.

The other gas burning appliances I have don't smell .. at least the ones I normally would smell like the stove. Although if I turn the stove on and don't light it so the gas just leaks out, the smell is different than when the fireplace is on. I'm not sure what to make of that.