gas fireplace smells like mercapten when it is burning (water heater, pool)

[Austin97]

for some reason our fireplace smells like mercapten when we turn it on. It doesnt seem like it would be a leak because there is fire right there and any gas in a leak would be burned up.

Also our pool heater which is brand new also puts out a strong gas smell that we can smell from across the yard when it is burning but not when it is off.

Any thoughts on this?

Our gas stove, heaters and water heaters dont produce the smell.

[Komeht]

sounds awful. . .what the hell is mercapten

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Komeht

sounds awful. . .what the hell is mercapten

its what they add to the gas so you can smell it if it leaks. It is supposed to be burned off. smells like sulfur

[kiacook]

My gas fireplace smelled like gas when it was on when I first bought my house. I had a plumber come out and take a look - turns out there was a leak in the on/off valve. He fixed it and no more gas smell. You probably do have a leak. Call a plumber.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by kiacook

My gas fireplace smelled like gas when it was on when I first bought my house. I had a plumber come out and take a look - turns out there was a leak in the on/off valve. He fixed it and no more gas smell. You probably do have a leak. Call a plumber.

Yep, it's the smell of unburned gas. That's why they add mercaptan to the gas, so we can sense gas leaks by smell.

Could be a leaky valve, could be a badly adjusted burner. Time for a professional service call.

[Eastcoasting]

Ha!

Some how my coffee deprived brain read mercaptan as a Meerkat-pen. Which I assume would smell pretty bad.