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[email protected] delphiprog@gmail.com is offline
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Default Is it normal to smell natural gas near water heater?


wrote:
m Ransley wrote:
Your fire dept and gas company will check it out free, it could be Co
from a poor draft, blocked flue, There are Co-Ng detectors for about 40$
at HD, get it checked out by a pro you obviously dont have your
equipment serviced or cleaned regularly and you should.



No, it;s not normal to smell any gas near a water heater. It needs to
be checked out. You can start checking yourself by applying some soapy
water with a brush to the pipe joints. If there is a leak, you will
see bubbles. It's most likely the problem is before the combustion
occurs, not the exhaust, because the combustion products are odorless.


I have a followup question to this answer - unrelated to water heaters,
but sort of on topic - is there a "safe" amount of natural gas to
smell? Reason: I can smell natural gas near my meter, but only when I
put my nose right near the pipes. Anywhere else along the ground
around the meter I can't smell it - and I can't smell it on any of the
pipes in my house that I could reach (my neighbors probably think I've
lost my mind). I've had the gas company out several times, each time
they told me they could smell it too (with their nose up next to the
pipe), but said that they couldn't find a leak. I watched the last guy
who came out and he soaped up the entire pipe & meter and found
nothing. None of them has given me a good reason why this is
occurring.

Thanks
Doug