Top-rated independent heating and cooling across southern Nevada and the desert Southwest
Smelling Gas at Home
If you smell gas near your furnace, get everyone out of the house first, then call 911 or your gas utility from outside. Do not stop to hunt for the leak. Once the utility has shut off the gas and cleared the house, we handle the heating repair side across Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah. Here is the order to do things in.
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Step one: leave the building, then call for help
Walk out. Take everyone with you, including pets, and leave the door open behind you if that is easy to do on the way past. Once you are outside and away from the house, call 911 or your gas utility's emergency line. They will send someone to check the meter and the line and shut the gas off at the source. Stay outside until they tell you the house is clear, even if the smell seems to fade. Gas can pool in low spots and closed rooms where you will not notice it from the hallway. After they have finished, call us for the furnace repair itself.
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 is all it takes. Leave your phone alone until you are outside and away from the building. Do not light a match to test anything, and do not try to relight a pilot or open up the furnace cabinet to look for the source. Do not close the gas valve yourself unless the utility or fire crew tells you to and shows you where. That job belongs to them, not to you.
What that smell usually turns out to be
Natural gas is odourless, so utilities add a sulphur smell that most people describe as rotten eggs. Near a furnace, the common causes are a loose or corroded union at the gas valve, a cracked or failed valve, a pilot that has gone out on an older unit, or a flex connector that got knocked during other work in the closet or on the roof. A faint whiff for a few seconds when a burner lights can be normal on some older equipment. A smell that lingers, or one you notice with the system idle, is not. Treat every one of them as the real thing.
Carbon monoxide is a separate problem
Carbon monoxide has no smell at all, so you cannot use your nose for it. If your CO alarm sounds, get out of the house and call 911 from outside, same as with a gas smell. Headaches, nausea, dizziness or sleepiness that improve when you step outside are worth taking seriously. CO comes from combustion that is not venting properly, so a cracked heat exchanger, a blocked flue or a bird's nest in a rooftop vent are all on the list. Put a working CO alarm on every floor and near sleeping areas. Test them when you change your filter.
When to call us and what happens next
Call us once the gas utility has been out and the house is safe to enter. If they red-tagged the furnace or shut off the gas, tell us that on the phone, because it changes what we bring. We work on furnaces, rooftop package units and heat pumps for homeowners across Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah. On site we check the gas valve and connections, look at the burners and heat exchanger, and confirm the flue is drawing the way it should. If the unit is unsafe to run, we will tell you plainly and give you the repair options before anything gets fired back up.
Safe checks you can do yourself
With no gas smell and no CO alarm, there are a few things worth looking at before you call. Check the thermostat is set to heat and the batteries are good. Look at the breaker panel for a tripped breaker to the furnace or air handler. Change the filter if it is grey and packed. Walk the house and make sure supply and return vents are open and not blocked by furniture. Clear leaves, dust and blown trash away from the outdoor unit or the rooftop cabinet where you can reach it safely. Anything past that involves gas, refrigerant or high voltage, and that is where we come in.
Smelling Gas at Home — what people ask
Can I just turn off the furnace and wait until morning?
No. If you smell gas, leave and call 911 or the gas utility right away. Gas keeps flowing from a leak whether the furnace is running or not, and it builds up fastest in a closed house overnight.
Why do I smell gas only when the heat first kicks on?
A brief smell at ignition can happen on older units as the burners light. If it lasts more than a few seconds, happens every cycle, or you smell it with the system off, get out and call the utility.
Will the gas company fix my furnace?
Usually not. They locate the leak, shut off the gas and make the house safe, then leave a tag. Repairing the valve, connector or heat exchanger is our work. Call us once the house is cleared.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptom
Call or fill out the quote form. We ask what changed, when it started, and whether the outdoor unit is running. That tells us which parts and gauges to load on the truck before we leave.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
We check the thermostat, the electrical side, airflow, refrigerant pressures, and the condenser coil. Desert dust plugs coils and dying capacitors are common. You get the finding in plain words before we touch a part.
- Step 3
Repair and verify
We make the repair, then run the system and measure supply air temperature and amp draw so we know it is actually cooling or heating. We tell you what we saw and what to watch for next season.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quote before work starts
Why homeowners call us
- We know rooftop unitsHalf the valley has a package unit on the roof, baking all summer. We are up there regularly, so we know how those cabinets fail, where the drain pans rust, and how heat and sun break down wiring and blower assemblies.
- Dust is the local enemyFine desert dust mats onto condenser coils and chokes airflow, and the system runs hot until something gives up. We check the coil on every call and tell you honestly whether cleaning will fix your cooling problem.
- July gets treated like JulyA dead condenser when it is 112 outside is not a routine call. We prioritise homes with no cooling, and we say clearly when we can be there instead of leaving you guessing all afternoon.
- Heating tooDesert nights get cold and furnaces sit unused for months. We do heater repair and furnace repair, including no-ignition problems, bad igniters, and blowers that hum without moving air. Same straight explanation, no upsell speech.
- All major brands, gas & electricIndependent service on Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, York and the rest.
- Straight answersIf a system is not worth repairing, we say so, often right on the phone.
About this guide
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- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
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