Weird exhaust smell Nat. Gas GV3 not making C.O.

inspkerr

It’s heating fine , wife said she heard a bang a couple nights ago . I’ve looked it over and everything appears normal, I pulled the vent off bottom and cleaned both directions with a shop vac. Got a little water and scale , blew out the condensate line . Any ideas ?

Intplm.

Where did the bang noise come from? Are you sure it was from the heating system? If it's heating fine then there should be no issue. How often have you had the system serviced? Do you have it serviced annually? If not, maybe its time to have it serviced.

inspkerr

it’s a sealed combustion chamber , with a blower , takes some doing to get in it , it’s probably over due , I will start there , it just weird smell of combustion product , no soot , I should probably do a combustion analysis, but I don’t have that tester . Thanks for your thoughts

captainco

How do you know its not making CO?

Jamie Hall

With most gas fired boilers, you will get a smell in the exhaust, of various nitrogen oxides. Quite distinctive, once one learns what it is. That said, you should NOT be smelling it anywhere except rather near, and downwind of, the exhaust port on the building. Anywhere else and you have an exhaust leak.

Problem. Nitrogen oxides aren't good for you. Nor, for that matter, is low level CO which, unless you have a low level detector (down to a few ppm — most commercial ones are limited to 100 or so, which is get out of Dodge level) you won't detect. That's not good for you either.

Something is amiss in the exhaust train, and it would be well to find it.

Long Beach Ed

If you're smelling exhaust from any vented gas appliance, you'd be reckless not to get someone in there to check the CO levels with the proper instrument.

inspkerr

thanks all , trying to limp along out of the heating season , have newer equipment sitting in garage, yes I need proper combustion analysis, I do have a low level c.o. Detector and it read 70 ppm inside and 61 out Side clear away from any combustion , thanks again for your insight

Long Beach Ed

If you are reading 70 ppm inside, you're not safe. Just do some good research, and do understand the dangers to anyone in that place. I would not be comfortable with a level that high indoors.

Something's wrong here. It's dangerous at 70 ppm and with those numbers you have no room for error using cheap instruments that are imprecise and a malfunctioning heating plant that may continue to degrade.

Jamie Hall

or to put it another way — either shut it down or bail out.

inspkerr

yup , it’s shut down now , thanks for your input

mattmia2

70 ppm is a lot for undiluted combustion products