On Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at 10:11:50 AM UTC-4, Bob F wrote:
On 10/24/2017 5:14 AM, Dlyons09 wrote:
The gas company came out and checked for a gas leak because me and my
husband
smelled gas. They said there was no gas leak and its normal to smell gas
when
the water heater kicks on. I'm still paranoid about it because I looked
it up
and every post I've seen said you should never smell gas coming from your
water heater.

When a burner turns on, I'd expect a tiny bit of gas would escape
unburned from the burner holes before all of them get ignited by the
wave of flame starting at the pilot light. They can't ignite before the
gas comes out obviously.

Yes, but you'd think that would then get burned up or go up the vent
once it fires. I've had many water heaters over decades and never had
one where you could smell gas when it fired. It's possible I guess.
But I'd look at how the WH is vented, make sure it's not blocked, etc.
If it's a conventional one that has an air gap at the top, if you light
a match near it, smoke should get pulled in, not blown out. It can
sometimes get blown back if it's in a cold basement and hot outside
or certain wind conditions maybe. But generally, most of the time,
the smoke from a match should get sucked into the vent. And if that;s
happening, not sure I see how unburned gas gets out into the room.