Propane stove burner flame turned orange today - why?

Larry Weingarten

Welcome @DebiLynne, and thankyou! You make a really interesting point about not just cause and effect, but also about unintended consequences. Nice sleuthing of your orange flame problem! What's in my water if the flame burns purple?!

Yours, Larry

Patchogue Phil_2

> @DebiLynne said:
> we must have a lot of minerals in our well water that changes the color of your flame as they burn off. Switched to distilled water and everything is fine!😊


I do not have well water. And I have whole house water filter with charcoal in filter.

EdTheHeaterMan

Knock Knock,
Who's there?
Orange
Orange Who?
Orange you glad you figured that out? I hope the propane company did not charge you too much!

Jamie Hall

Patchogue Phil_2 said:

> @DebiLynne said:

> we must have a lot of minerals in our well water that changes the color of your flame as they burn off. Switched to distilled water and everything is fine!😊





I do no have well water. And I have whole house water filter with charcoal in filter.

Ah... @Patchogue Phil_2 , I hope you are changing out that charcoal at least monthly, if not more often... charcoal filters are ideal breeding grounds for all kinds of nasty things.

Patchogue Phil_2

> @Jamie Hall said:
> (Quote)
> Ah... @Patchogue Phil_2 , I hope you are changing out that charcoal at least monthly, if not more often... charcoal filters are ideal breeding grounds for all kinds of nasty things.

Yep I change the filter but not monthly. There is added chlorine (chlorimine?) to our municipal water system. 30+ yrs doing this and I'm not dead nor sick.

Tim McElwain

Growing up in South Western PA we had a lot of methane in the ground. So much that some places actually had the name "burning springs".

My grandmother had well water and she still had the old hand pump in the kitchen to get water for use in the house. I can remember her lighting the gas cooking top burner to heat some water for a cup of tea. She would light the burner then pump the water - the flame would flashover and the water she was pumping would actually light due to the high level of methane in the water. I also in my days living there had seen old stone quarrys that had filled with water light up when you struck a match and threw it on the water.

Jamie Hall

Patchogue Phil_2 said:

> @Jamie Hall said:

> (Quote)

> Ah... @Patchogue Phil_2 , I hope you are changing out that charcoal at least monthly, if not more often... charcoal filters are ideal breeding grounds for all kinds of nasty things.



Yep I change the filter but not monthly. There is added chlorine (chlorimine?) to our municipal water system. 30+ yrs doing this and I'm not dead nor sick.

Problem with the charcoal is partly that it does a splendid job of removing the chloramines -- which are there to protect your health by killing the nasties. Once that is out -- in the inlet stages of the filter -- there is nothing to prevent them from growing in the rest of the filter, which is an ideal substrate for them.

Your comment on 30+ years reminds of a charming old farmer I met years ago who was trying to set up a summer camp -- for which reason I had to inspect his water supply. Which was a spring in the upper pasture and which, naturally, was not, shall we say, in the best of shape from the bacterial standpoint. I told him I couldn't approve the water supply for a summer camp, and why, and his comment was "Young man, I've been drinking that water since I was born 80 years ago, and I ain't dead yet". Of course, he was immune to everything that was in there...

Fred

I had the same thing happen on my range last year. We have a gas main out at the street that floods when we have heavy rains. It has taken the gas out for our street a few times over the past three years and the utility company has flagged and painted the route of the line about six times now to replace or line the gas main (but that's another story) Anyway, last year the Utility Company knocked on my door and asked me if my gas was off. They asked me to check the kitchen range and see if the burners lite. When I did, all six burners were orange, no blue whatsoever. They said they had some homes on our street with no gas and they needed to pump the gas line out again. In a few hours, the flame was blue again. Just this past week they have flagged and painted the route once again!

Jamie Hall

Once you have seen the sort of yellow orange flame from sodium, it's unmistakable (think sodium vapour street lights, if you haven't!). And... it only take a little bit. Since sodium is a pretty common element in dust and suchlike, there your are.

On the other hand, if the flame is more like a candleflame yellow, that's poor combustion -- but it's a very different colour, really, once you see it (what you are seeing is incandescent carbon particles -- soot -- heated by the flame).

mattmia2

A carbon filter won't remove sodium ions or really any other salt. Filtering the water with a carbon filter will do nothing for a humidifier putting sodium salts in the air.

Jamie Hall

In fact, the only thing a carbon filter will do -- until its capacity is used up -- is remove dissolved organic compounds. These do include a variety of rather nasty substances found in some contaminated ground water (properly maintained they're very good at that) and they also remove many of the compounds causing off tastes and off odours in the water. They also remove the chloramines which are there to kill any bacteria or virus in the water and are otherwise harmless in the quantities used.

They absolutely must be maintained on a very regular basis, depending on how much they are being asked to remove. The activated carbon must be replaced; it can be regenerated, but not with any equipment likely to found in a home.

DennisBarrow

We have a new stove, (new house we built also), and the flames turn orange several times a week.
Seeing a lot of posts here about humidity. Our home was really low humidity wise and still happened. Wife got a humidifier and does not happen any more often than before, but still a few times a week.
I know when orange flames it does not heat as well as it should.

Sodium? We have a water softener, as our well water is so hard that you would get bruises from it in the shower if not careful. lol

Could there be sodium in the air from showers and washing that would turn the flames orange?

Jamie Hall

If the flames are truly orange -- not yellow -- that's sodium from somewhere, and it could be from agressively softened water, which is very high sodium. On the other hand, if they are more yellow -- more like a candle -- and the stove doesn't heat as well as it should, that's much more likely to be a problem with gas pressure to the stove -- for which there are many causes.

Solid_Fuel_Man

Was the stove ever converted to burn propane? Every household range I've ever felt with comes from the factory to burn natural gas. 

Bronxtech

My friends wall hung propane unit had the orange going on , local propane co. Said wear eye protection and clean it all up. Blew it out, bunch of dust came out. Back to nice blue flames.