Expert: James Ball - 2/18/2009

Question
Recently there has been a horrible smell coming from the gas boiler in our basement.  I do not think it is CO2 as our detector has not gone off yet and is located near the unit itself.  It has a similar odor to the smell I get when I have to bleed one of the lines.  What could this be?  It only smells when it kicks on and runs not when idle.

Answer
Hello Katie, has the chimney been checked and cleaned? is it in good working order? Is this a new gas unit? there might be some dead animal in it? I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have they should be able to help. You might want to open a window in the boiler room to see if that helps
James