DIYbanter - View Single Post - Is it normal to smell natural gas near water heater?

dpb

On 11/11/2014 8:24 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 01:44:02 +0000, Daniel
wrote:

replying to delphiprog, Daniel wrote:
delphiprog wrote:

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

I have exactly the same issue before or after replacing my water heater. I
always smell a waft of gas at a certain height near the pilot fire
chamber. All tests prove negative, but the smell still haunts or hovers
around that spot from time to time, giving me an eerie sense that gas is
oozing out from some tiny leaks.
OK - what you are smelling is the odorant Ethyl Mercaptan which is
added to natural gas to make it detectable. Somehow the mercaptan is
being released into the air - with or without the gas. My suspicion is
some has "settled out" of the gas at the pilot. Only a fraction of a
small drop will be detectable by a sensitive schnozz.

I've had gas co out numerous times as the mercaptan smell is noticeable.
To date they've never been able to set off their high-priced,
presumable sensitive(???) detectors at any location.

I've become convinced by characteristics it's a remnant of the odorant
having been left after repair/replacement when piping has been open.
It's noticeably stronger in the well house if get a little water on the
floor near where the heater sits which I replaced the old "wild" pilot
valve on a couple of years ago with one of them newfangled, gee-whiz
thermocouple-countrolled doo-jobbie ones a couple of years ago.

I've not gotten one of the n-gas wall monitors thinking the likelihood
of them being sensitive enough to help if the gas company can't find it
with a portable going around all the piping and end devices was likely
near zero.

It is disconcerting on occasion, however, 'cuz one wonders for absolute
certain whether it's just getting missed or what...

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