Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Addressing Gas Smells and Ensuring Gas Safety in Your Home

7 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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1:27

In this video Derek Cole explains that any gas odor detected either outside or inside a home is a serious safety issue. He clarifies that the responsibility for gas leaks outside the property lies with the gas supplier (LP or natural gas company), while homeowners are responsible for anything within their premises. For an outdoor gas smell, he advises immediately turning off the external gas shut‑off and avoiding any open flame or cigarette. Inside the house, a gas smell could stem from pressure or valve problems, so professional maintenance is required to ensure safe operation of gas appliances. He also stresses that every home with gas appliances—furnace, water heater, dryer, stove—must have a carbon monoxide detector, as CO is an invisible, odorless by‑product of combustion and poses a lethal risk.

Chapters

You should not be having a gas smell in your house or outside of your house. What happens in our business from the regulator to the house is usually our responsibility. Anything the other direction is the gas company. It's the LP company or natural gas, and that's their deal. They don't want us touching anything beyond that, and that's fine. So if you go outside and have that smell, You should turn the gas off. You have a gas shut-off, right? A gas shut-off, you should turn it off. Obviously don't light cigarettes or don't use a lighter to see what's going on. That's not a good idea with a gas smell. That's going to cause a problem. Now inside the house, again, you could be— it could be a gas pressure problem, could be a gas valve problem. You need to have— it goes back to what I just said— you need to have a maintenance done to make sure you're being operated properly because gas obviously is nothing to play with. And if you have any gas appliance in your house, whether it be a furnace or a water heater or a dryer or a stove, you should always have a carbon monoxide detector because that you cannot smell, that you cannot smell, you cannot see. Uh, but it is a byproduct of gas, so if you have gas in the house, that needs to be installed as well.