Ventless Gas Heater - Smell

   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #1  

Dougd

Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Messages
26
Location
Southern Indiana
Tractor
2004 4310
Just installed a propane 30K BTU ventless gas heater on my enclosed-but-far-from-airtight porch; produces great heat but there's a smell that my family finds quite obnoxious. The flame pattern is by-the-book blue, the paint/oiled surfaces that were going to burn have been burnt , the smell is apparently some by-product of combustion, but what? I'm of the opinion it's the combustion of the mercaptan that's added to LP to make it smell, but have found no references to that possibility in hours of internet searching.
No CO2 or CO problems.
Happens as soon as we fire the thing up, it's not an oxygen-shortage issue.
Have not had the LP pressure tested at the heater, but it's the same line that feeds my furnace and cook-top and both are operating fine. Heater is dual-fuel, curently running on LP.
The cook-top is a 4-burner unvented unit and we don't notice the same smell when cooking even with 3 burners going at the same time.
Any ideas?
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #2  
I think you are going to have some smell with the ventless LP heaters. We have a ventless fireplace and it produces a smell as well. Usually when I enter someone's house I can tell if they are using LP gas for heat. I don't think it is anything to worry about, but sometimes the smell can be a nuisance. Currently, we only use our fireplace as supplemental heat due to the smell. Even the pilot light produces a little smell. When I walk into the house after work, I can immediately tell if the fireplace has been on that day by the smell.
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #3  
Well while we are on the vent less heaters I got a question.
I with a friend to his cabin last weekend he has one for heat.
The neighbor turned it on before we got there so the place was warmed up for us.
All the surfaces had condensation on them the temp was in the low 20's so the place was really cold.
It did dry off through the night but it seemed unusual to me.

The reason I ask is I bought one to put in my cabin so I don't have to get up in the night if the wood stove go's out.
I just haven't got around to hooking it up yet and if it puts that much moisture in the air I might have one for sale!

I didn't notice any odd smells though.

tom
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #5  
We have been using a ventless space heater for several years in the back of the house where heat from the wood stove has a hard time getting into. NO odor, CO or fumes of any kind. The only problem has been that I finally had to get some bottled air in a small can and blow out the pilot tube.
Could not be happier with a supplimental heat sourse. Sure beats running the heat pumps..........Dennis
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #6  
I've also been looking into them, and did read there may be condensation. As far as the smell I haven't read anything on that but I quess it could be possible?
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #7  
If it's a "blue flame" heater they give off a good bit of smell. So much that I gave the one that I had bought to an aunt and replaced it with a 3 brick radiant heater.

The gas logs that we put in our house also give off a good bit of smell. They are "vent free". We only use them during a power outage though.

Chris
 
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #8  
   / Ventless Gas Heater - Smell #9  
I'VE READ ONLINE ABOUT THE SMELL BUT DONT KNOW IF IT HAPPENS WITH NATURAL GAS. I WAS PLANNING ON BUYING ONE BUT STILL RESEARCHING. I HAVE A WARM MORNING GAS HEATER (BY LOCKE STOVE CO. ITS NO LONGER IN BUSINESS) WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF SOMEONE OUT THERE HAS INFO ABOUT IT. IT WORKS FINE BUT PILOT SOMETIMES GOES OUT, I DONT KNOW WHY.
 
 
Top