Gas heater stinks

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
watch_art

watch_art

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Messages
1,819
Location
hot springs, ar
So here's a question about my shop.

I've got a blue flame gas wall heater - the type usually stuck in cheap rent houses (around here) and it keeps my little shop quite comfortable, even when it's 30 out.

Except that lately it's started to STINK.
It's clean (just cleaned it) - the flame is nice and pretty blue - but it STINKS. Even with just the electrical heater going - one of those Stanley floor models from Lowe's - the smell is disgusting. Like burning dirt/dust.

So - could it just be that? All the tiny bits of dust and plastic particles in the air getting burnt up causing the stink? Or is my old carbon monoxide detector (several years old) right saying 235ppm?? Shouldn't I be dead? I don't get headaches, nausea, dizziness, or any of the other symptoms I've read about online, so that makes me think it's trash in the air. Plus the detector was cheap. Less than $20 at walmart.

Hoping it's just pen junk in the air - hoping for others' experiences to compare against.
Thanks.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Brand new 30,000BTU unit hanging on the wall, it has less then 16hrs run time on it...yup, got the 'smell'. I think it has more to do with the additive used in the natural gas industry.

No detector thing....so I just know it has a 'smell'. Sorry, couldn't help more.





Scott (nice weather, isn't it) B
 
Are you getting sleet now? It only lasted about 10 minutes here. Hopefully you won't be hit too hard. I hate this crap.

Hey - I just finished making a piston filler with the 7 Seas from your site. :) Pics in a bit.
 
Is the heater propane or natural gas? I'm using the Mr. Heater Big Buddy heaters right now and since I switched to 20# tanks I lost the smell. The 100# tanks I hooked up I got no smells. I bought the 30,000btu propane/natural gas (using propane this winter) wall heater for the shop and was wondering how it smelled.

Just wondering if one fuel smells worse than the other?
 
Natural gas. There's always been a stink with these things in every place I've lived, but not like THIS. It's nasty. But I think that it's the trash in the air. I ran the electric heater by itself most of the afternoon after airing the shop out and the smell didn't go away. It came and went as I turned, so I'm leaning towards that being the culprit. But man it STINKS. Hoping it's not a CO problem.
 
watch_art said:
Hoping it's just pen junk in the air -
Thanks.
Click to expand...

And in your lungs! Get a dust collector before it kills you!

CO does not have a smell so that is not it. A shop with poor/no dust collection will have "the smell" due to the particulate burning when in contact with the flame/elements.
 
Last edited:
Get an old box fan and put a furnace filter on it and just run it all the time. The movement of the air should pull any dust/dirt into the filter and help in getting it out of the air. And you can put the fan either high (on a shelf top) or low(on the floor). Air movement is what you are looking for.
That should be a help if it is just dust and dirt.
 
Last edited:
I wear a mask for sure. I learned that lesson early. My 4th pen put me on my back for about a week with one of the worst upper resp infections I had ever had. Dust collection is definitely on the to do list.
 
Natural gas has an additive (mercaptan containing chemistry similar to that of skunk spray) since methane is naturally an odorless gas. Propane does have an odor detectable by the human nose, so it is not treated to add an odor. Having said that, the sulfur (mercaptan) does give a slightly unpleasant odor when burned. It shouldn't be bad enough to drive you out of the shop. Make sure it's getting enough fresh air for as complete combustion as possible. You don't want partially combusted or non-combusted gases accumulating in your shop (carbon monoxide or explosion hazard). Good luck with it, and DO NOT doubt your inexpensive CO meter. Double check and be safe.
 
watch_art said:
So - could it just be that? All the tiny bits of dust and plastic particles in the air getting burnt up causing the stink? Or is my old carbon monoxide detector (several years old) right saying 235ppm?? Shouldn't I be dead? I don't get headaches, nausea, dizziness, or any of the other symptoms I've read about online, so that makes me think it's trash in the air. Plus the detector was cheap. Less than $20 at walmart.
Click to expand...

Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless. It can make you very sick and it can kill you. Believe that and please take action to protect yourself, including purchasing another "good" carbon monoxide detector and if it reads anything above a very low baseline, take action to stop it. Here's a link to a material safety datasheet for CO from one of the major industrial gas suppliers. http://www.airgas.com/documents/pdf/001014.pdf. If you browse through it, you'll see some tables with LC50 concentrations listed. That's the concentration of CO in the air that killed 50% of the test subjects (rats) that were exposed to it. 1807 ppm for 4 hours = 50% dead. Don't consider your 235 ppm ok or just write it off because you don't believe the meter. That reading is significant - above the industry exposure limits. And, if you have a generator that can make 235 ppm, it can make 10x that easily and you won't be conscious to realize it. Take care of yourself! Sorry for the rant, but this is deadly stuff. And, while I'm at it, the dust and the stinky combustion products will kill you too, it'll just take longer for the cancer than it would for the CO.
 
The problem is, a dust mask is only good if you wear it the entire time you are in the shop rather than just while you are turning. The very small stuff that hurts you floats around in the air for a long time!

watch_art said:
I wear a mask for sure. I learned that lesson early. My 4th pen put me on my back for about a week with one of the worst upper resp infections I had ever had. Dust collection is definitely on the to do list.
Click to expand...
 
If you have a vent-less heater ( mine was propane) on occasion I would get a terrible smell in my home. The problem is it uses the air inside the home for combustion that said if you paint, get new carpet or furniture the heater will burn the chemicals that off gas from the above mentioned. If have done any of this in the area of the heater I would bet thats your problem. Hope this helps.
 
watch_art said:
So - could it just be that? All the tiny bits of dust and plastic particles in the air getting burnt up causing the stink? Or is my old carbon monoxide detector (several years old) right saying 235ppm??
Click to expand...


35 parts per million is the maximum concentration allowed by federal law for continued exposure over an 8 hour period.

Please get that checked.
 
Are you using any stains, paints or finishes? The gas flame can react with the solvents in finishes to give off odors. Before we got married my wife actually had to move out of her appartment because the paint had solvents which were reacting with the gas flames in her hot water heater.
 
I don't work with anything like that. I did put in a box fan with a filter on it and OH MY GOD what a difference it makes! With the gas heater, the box fan stuck on the wall blowing sideways, and a ceiling fan blowing up, the room is SO MUCH WARMER and no more smell. I have the box fan close to the lathe so any dust coming up from it will get sucked in pretty quick. And the heater is down on a lower temp too! Air movement. Gotta love it.
 
cal91666 said:
watch_art said:
So - could it just be that? All the tiny bits of dust and plastic particles in the air getting burnt up causing the stink? Or is my old carbon monoxide detector (several years old) right saying 235ppm??
Click to expand...


35 parts per million is the maximum concentration allowed by federal law for continued exposure over an 8 hour period.

Please get that checked.
Click to expand...

Not that it matters as his reading was a good bit higher, but OSHA says 50ppm.

The OSHA PEL is 50 parts per million (ppm).
OSHA standards prohibit worker exposure to
more than 50 parts of the gas per million parts
of air averaged during an 8-hour time period
Click to expand...
https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/carbonmonoxide-factsheet.pdf
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom