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Edwin Pawlowski Edwin Pawlowski is offline
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Default Is it normal to smell natural gas near water heater?


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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 -


Any time the gas does not explode could be considered safe in a loose sense
of the term.

The odorant that is put into gas can leave a residue over time. I've
sniffed pipes and fittings removed from gas service and months later and
could detect an odor. If their equipment does not detect any gas, it is
probably safe and the leak may be gone, but the residue remains. So, you
are not smelling gas necessarily, but the odorant. Natural gas has no odor.

You did the right thing having it checked.