Gas fireplace issues....need info!

[barkley1]

Ok, so our house has two sets of gas logs. In the basement we turned them on last winter and they had a major propane (like gas grill going) smell. So, we called someone to look at them and for $75 he looked up the flue and told us it was too small to vent properly and we needed ventless instead of vented logs.

This winter we got 'new' ones (from the inlaws house bc they never use them) that are ventless, and there is STILL a very strong propane smell in the house, even the next floor up! It's not the rotten eggs smell, but propane. We don't have a tank, it's run from a line into the house.

any ideas what's going on? I hate to pay another $75 charge for someone to come out if it's normal or an easy fix, but I am concerned about our wellbeing, especially our 3 month old...

Eta...the ones on the main level have the same smell to them, just not as strong.

[Kymberley]

I have no idea, but we have natural gas logs in our basement, and sometimes I smell it. I'm usually the only one that smells it. We have a CO2 monitor nearby to be safe, but it bugs me. I'm waiting for responses with you!

[BillK]

I insure a large business that sells and installs gas log fireplaces along with high end porch furnishings and super expensive grills.

The company I have them insured with flat out told me that if they started doing ventless installs they'd non-renew their insurance. Apparently there's a good chance of a poor install and carbon monoxide poisoning with ventless. Perhaps the company is being overly conservative but I dunno - still makes me wonder about ventless.

I'd have a professional shop come look at it.

[KpbS]

We never could get ours to "burn" w/o that horrible smell in our old house. It was terrible. We just ended up not using them :(

[Twoboos]

No help but if you smell anything that smells like gas, definitely CALL someone. That $75 is worth the peace of mind IMO.

We had a gas leak on the 2nd floor furnace AND at our gas main. Both are fixed now and I feel so much better about it.

About the gas logs, we have a gas fireplace and when we use it for a while we get kind of a burning smell. Definitely not gas, but maybe it's just the smell of the fire? We can't figure it out but I don't like it.