The independent heating and cooling company across the Willamette Valley and northwest Oregon
Smelling Gas at Home
You walked past the furnace and caught that rotten egg smell. Maybe it's faint, maybe it's strong, and you're standing there wondering if you're overreacting. You're not. Here's what to do first, in order, and what to leave alone until someone with gauges and a combustion analyzer is standing in front of the unit.
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By our service team · vetted by the techs who do this daily
If You Smell Gas, Get Everyone Out First
Leave the building before you do anything else. Take everyone with you, including pets, and walk out the door you normally use. Once you are outside and well away from the house, call 911 or your gas utility's emergency line. They come out for this and they do not charge you for the trip. Do not go back in to look for the source, shut off a valve, or grab anything. Natural gas has that sulfur smell added on purpose so you notice it early, and the correct response to noticing it is distance. Stay outside until the utility or the fire department tells you the house is clear. If anyone feels dizzy, nauseous, or has a headache, tell the dispatcher.
What Not To Do On Your Way Out
Do not flip any light switch, on or off. Do not unplug anything, do not use the garage door opener, and do not start a car in an attached garage. A small spark in a room with gas in it is the whole problem we are trying to avoid. Leave your phone alone until you are outside and away from the structure, then make the call. Do not light a match or a lighter to check anything. Do not open the furnace cabinet. Do not touch the gas shutoff at the meter or at the appliance connection unless the utility on the phone specifically walks you through it. And do not try to air the place out by running fans. Just go.
Carbon Monoxide Is A Different Smell Problem: There Isn't One
Carbon monoxide has no odor at all, so a gas smell and a CO problem are two separate things that sometimes show up together. If your CO alarm sounds, treat it the same way: everyone out of the building, then call 911 from outside. Do not assume it is a dead battery chirp. A real alarm has a distinct repeating pattern and it will keep going. Symptoms to take seriously are headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, and unusual sleepiness, especially if more than one person in the house has them at the same time. Get outside and get fresh air. Cracked heat exchangers, blocked flues, and bird nests in a vent are all things we find, and all of them need eyes on the equipment before the system runs again.
When The Utility Clears The House, Call Us
The gas utility's job is to make the house safe. They will find the leak, shut off gas to the furnace or to the whole home, and often red tag the equipment. What they usually do not do is repair the furnace or the connections and put the system back in service. That part is ours. We handle heating repair across Oregon and Washington, including gas valve and control issues, flue and venting problems, cracked heat exchangers, and the corroded connections that show up on older units in a wet climate. Call us with whatever the utility wrote on the tag, and tell us if gas is off to the whole house so we know what we are walking into. We will not relight anything until the leak side is sorted.
Smells That Are Not A Gas Leak
Some furnace smells are normal and some are a different kind of problem. A dusty, hot smell in the first hour of the season is dust burning off the heat exchanger and it fades. A musty smell often traces back to the filter or damp ductwork. Burning plastic or a hot electrical smell is worth shutting the system off at the thermostat and calling for heating repair, because that is usually a motor, a capacitor, or wiring. The sulfur or rotten egg smell is the one that means leave. If you are unsure which you are smelling, treat it as gas. Go outside and call the utility. Guessing wrong in that direction costs you an hour. Guessing wrong the other way costs more than that.
Safe Checks You Can Do Once The House Is Clear
After the utility says the house is safe and gas is restored, there are a few things worth a look before we arrive. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the setpoint is above room temperature, and swap the batteries if it has them. Look at the breaker panel for a tripped breaker on the furnace or air handler circuit. Change the filter if it is grey and packed. Walk the house and confirm supply and return vents are open and not blocked by furniture or rugs. That is the whole list. Anything involving the gas train, the burners, refrigerant, or high voltage inside the cabinet is ours to open. Leave the panels on and we will take it from there.
When it is time to book
Smelling Gas at Home — fast answers
Is a faint gas smell near the furnace an emergency?
Treat it as one. A faint smell can mean a small leak or a large one you are only catching part of. Leave the building, call 911 or your gas utility from outside, and let them measure it. Then call us.
Can I just shut the gas off myself and stay in the house?
No. Reaching the shutoff means going toward the gas and possibly creating a spark. Get out and let the utility do it. They have detection equipment and they respond to these calls every day at no charge.
Who pays the utility for coming out to check a gas smell?
Gas utilities in Oregon and Washington respond to suspected leak calls at no cost to you. They locate the leak and make the house safe. Repairing the furnace and returning it to service is separate work, and that is where we come in.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptom
Call or fill in the quote form. Describe the noise, the smell, the temperature, and when it started. That detail helps us bring the right parts and gives you an honest idea of the visit ahead.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
A technician checks the thermostat, airflow, electrical connections, refrigerant behaviour and the outdoor unit. We tell you what failed and why, in plain language, before anyone reaches for a part or a price.
- Step 3
You choose the repair
We lay out the fix, any parts on order, and what happens if you wait. Once you agree, we do the work and confirm the system holds temperature before we pack up and leave.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quote before work starts
Why homeowners call us
- Heat pumps are our normalIn this region heat pumps outnumber furnaces, so defrost boards, reversing valves and short cycling in wet weather are everyday work for us. We know how these systems behave in a cold December rain, not just on a test bench.
- Wet winter defrost problemsIce on the outdoor coil, a unit that runs and runs without warming the house, puddles that refreeze under the pad. We trace whether it is a sensor, a stuck valve, drainage, or airflow, then fix the actual cause.
- Filtration after smoke seasonWildfire smoke turned indoor air quality into a real conversation here. We look at filter fit, return sizing and IAQ options that your blower can actually push air through, rather than choking the system with the wrong media.
- We explain before we chargeYou get the diagnosis, the options and the trade-offs before work starts. If a repair is not worth it on an old system, we say so. No pressure, no jargon dumped on you at the door.
- All major brands, gas & electricOne independent crew for Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem and more.
- Straight answersNot worth fixing? We say that out loud, and often it saves you the visit fee.
About this guide
Past the safe checks, it's a job for tools and a meter
Tell us what you tried and what it did. The booking itself takes a minute.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
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