Not quite sure what the issue is today with the Gas supply, and I can assure you there is no problem with the oven (It was perfectly fine yesterday and has been for months), but today, there seems to be a lot more yellow/orange flame than blue, and a strange almost Petrol-like smell to the Gas. (See attached image - I couldn’t upload the small video I took)
Oven has cooked food perfectly still, but the smell of the gas has made me feel a little dizzy.
I seem to recall this happening a couple of times last year also.
Could an OVO Tech have a look at this, and maybe explain if there is a problem with the gas supply in the HP19 (Aylesbury) area?
Many Thanks.
Best answer by BeePee
A yellow flame could be caused by the the appliance burning too rich. If this is the case it may be producing poisonous Carbon Monoxide. Do you have a CO monitor, or can you borrow one from a neighbour?
If it is burning rich then I would stop using the appliance and get it checked immediately.
From the NHS website:
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that can make you seriously ill if you breathe it in. Carbon monoxide can be made by fires and appliances that burn gas, wood, oil or coal.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide gas is colourless and does not smell, so you cannot tell if it is around you.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
a headache
dizziness
feeling sick or being sick
feeling weak
tiredness and confusion
chest and muscle pain
shortness of breath
your face turning hot and red (flushing) – but redness may be harder to see on brown and black skin
As it’s a housing association property, they have combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors fitted as standard, and do check them regularly - they have to by law.
Everything seems fine now though. The oven was declared unsafe, the gas supply to it has been capped and there’s no more petrol smell. I made sure to open the doors and windows for a while to dissipate anything that might have been lurking.
The emergency gas safety guy was very thorough, and checked everything for leaks, including the combi boiler upstairs.
Think I’ll be looking for an electric oven this time.
A yellow flame could be caused by the the appliance burning too rich. If this is the case it may be producing poisonous Carbon Monoxide. Do you have a CO monitor, or can you borrow one from a neighbour?
If it is burning rich then I would stop using the appliance and get it checked immediately.
From the NHS website:
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that can make you seriously ill if you breathe it in. Carbon monoxide can be made by fires and appliances that burn gas, wood, oil or coal.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide gas is colourless and does not smell, so you cannot tell if it is around you.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
a headache
dizziness
feeling sick or being sick
feeling weak
tiredness and confusion
chest and muscle pain
shortness of breath
your face turning hot and red (flushing) – but redness may be harder to see on brown and black skin
As it’s a housing association property, they have combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors fitted as standard, and do check them regularly - they have to by law.
Everything seems fine now though. The oven was declared unsafe, the gas supply to it has been capped and there’s no more petrol smell. I made sure to open the doors and windows for a while to dissipate anything that might have been lurking.
The emergency gas safety guy was very thorough, and checked everything for leaks, including the combi boiler upstairs.
Think I’ll be looking for an electric oven this time.
Ovo advised me to call the National Gas Emergency line, so they’re sending out an engineer to check it.
I don’t believe it is a leak, as the smell would be permanent, and would have set off the carbon monoxide detectors installed within the kitchen smoke detectors. The gas meter is not going around either.
The same thing happened a couple of times last year but went back to normal within a day or two. This makes me wonder if there is actually a problem or issue with the gas supply in my area - if they’ve changed anything to do with the supply.
I have to admit that I literally suspected something was seriously wrong 30 seconds after you posted this thread - but I got tied up with other critical matters which dragged me away from the Forum just long enough for the others to jump faster. I apologise for not responding sooner.
But yeah, we do have ways of asking OVO to give thoughts on threads if we need to, usually ether via the Forum Moderators or our engineer friend. I want to make it up to you for not being more pro-active so I have a question that may help figure out something useful.
And that question is this: do you have any other gas appliances other than the (now dead) oven? If you do, then I strongly recommend getting a CO Alarm fitted as well as smoke/heat alarms. If you think yours are over 10 years old and/or aren’t working properly, your local fire service may be able to give you some more for free - just ask their Prevention Department. The reason I say this is that I’m ex Fire Service myself (former community volunteer) and I suspect you may have had possible CO Poisoning that your existing units might not have picked up properly. If you still feel unwell in the next 12 hours or so, please give 111 a call or head to your GP in the morning.
It’s actually better to have heat alarms in the kitchen rather than smoke alarms to reduce false alarms - and definitely worth putting a CO Alarm near any gas appliances, assuming you still have any once the oven is replaced. Ideally you want them in the same room as the appliance, the closer, the better as otherwise it may be too late by the time the alarm goes off.
If you’re getting rid of the gas oven and you have nothing else, I’d like to give you something else that you may want to take a look at.
I’m sorry I let you down earlier by not being available, but I hope you’re OK with this advice to at least give you something useful. I promise I’m usually a LOT faster than this with safety critical stuff (blame those pesky WordPress updates for doing three releases in 30 hours!).
As it’s a housing association property, they have combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors fitted as standard, and do check them regularly - they have to by law.
Everything seems fine now though. The Oven was declared unsafe, the gas supply to it has been capped and there’s no more petrol smell. I made sure to open the doors and windows for a while to dissipate anything that might have been lurking.
The emergency gas safety guy was very thorough, and checked everything for leaks, including the combi boiler upstairs.
Think I’ll be looking for an electric oven this time.
@DaveThorn76 I’m glad to hear it’s all being sorted- phew.
@BeePee thanks so much for your swift help with this - great work. To recognise your great contributions I’ve added the ‘Helpful Hero’ badge to your forum profile 👏.
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