A gas smell and carbon monoxide are two separate warnings
Owners asking about stove carbon monoxide often have a gas smell in mind, and the difference changes what you do. The smell of rotten eggs near a gas stove is the odorant a utility adds so a leak can be noticed; that is unburned gas, and the answer is to leave and call the gas utility from outside. Carbon monoxide is what a flame produces when it does not get enough air to burn completely, and it gives your nose nothing at all.
A coil, glass or induction stove burns no fuel and makes no carbon monoxide of its own. A carbon monoxide alarm can still go off in a kitchen with an electric stove, because CDC's list of sources includes furnaces, water heaters, fireplaces, cars and portable generators, and any of them can share air with the kitchen.
Source: CDC — About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning — Sources include furnaces, water heaters, stoves, fireplaces, cars and portable generators; common symptoms and who is most at risk; sleeping people can be harmed before symptoms; get to fresh air and call for help; never heat a house with a gas oven; battery-operated detectors near sleeping areas, batteries checked with the clock change, replaced per the maker; yearly service of gas, oil and coal burning appliances
The situations that turn a gas stove into a source
A few everyday uses change the picture on a gas stove, and GE's owner's manual for its gas models names most of them. The first is heating. On a cold night or during a winter outage it is tempting to turn the oven on with the door open or leave every burner running, and Ready.gov is blunt: do not use a gas stove or oven to heat your home, because it raises the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. GE adds that it overheats the oven as well.
The rest are about starving the flame of air:
- Foil laid over the oven floor, its slots or a whole rack, which GE says blocks the air the oven needs and may cause carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Foil wrapped around the stovetop grates or lining the area under them.
- A grill plate bought separately and set over a gas burner, which GE says causes incomplete combustion.
- A wok support ring placed over a burner instead of a flat-bottomed wok standing on the grate.
- A burner that has burned with yellow, floppy flames for weeks and blackens the bottoms of pans.
Long bakes and holiday cooking
A gas oven running for several hours for a roast or a day of baking, in a closed-up winter kitchen with many people in it, is a different load from a twenty-minute dinner. Running the exhaust fan, cracking a window and keeping the oven floor clear of foil all help. It is also the day a working alarm earns its place.
Source: Ready.gov — Power Outages — Do not use a gas stove or oven to heat your home; install working carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home; GE Appliances — Owner's Manual, Single Oven Gas Ranges (49-2000316) — Never use the appliance as a space heater: carbon monoxide poisoning and oven overheating; no foil on grates or oven bottom; after-market stovetop grills cause incomplete combustion; no wok support ring; GE Appliances — Installation Instructions, Gas Range (31-2001181) — Yellow burner flames call for service; soft blue flames are normal on natural gas
What poisoning feels like, and who feels it first
CDC lists headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion as the most common symptoms, and notes that they are easily taken for the flu. A pattern worth noticing is the one that follows the house: several people, or a person and a pet, feeling unwell at home and better after an hour outside.
Infants, older adults and people with heart disease, anemia or breathing problems get sick from carbon monoxide sooner, according to CDC. People who are asleep may be harmed before they notice anything, which is why the alarm, not how anyone feels, is the warning to rely on at night.
- Several people, or a person and a pet, unwell at home at the same time.
- Symptoms that ease after time outdoors and return back inside.
- Headaches that start during long cooking sessions with the windows shut.
- Someone unusually drowsy or muddled after the oven has been on for hours.
Source: CDC — About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning — Sources include furnaces, water heaters, stoves, fireplaces, cars and portable generators; common symptoms and who is most at risk; sleeping people can be harmed before symptoms; get to fresh air and call for help; never heat a house with a gas oven; battery-operated detectors near sleeping areas, batteries checked with the clock change, replaced per the maker; yearly service of gas, oil and coal burning appliances
When the carbon monoxide alarm goes off
Treat a full alarm as real. Get everyone, pets too, outside into fresh air right away and call 911 or the fire department from there; CDC's advice is fresh air first and emergency help second. Turning the stove off on the way out is fine if the knob is under your hand, but nobody should stay inside to find the cause.
Stay out until the responders say the air inside is clear. If they point to the stove, leave it off until a technician has seen it, and tell us what was running when the alarm went off: the oven, how many burners, for how long and with what on them.
A chirp is not the same signal
Most alarms have a separate short chirp for a low battery or for the end of their working life, and it sounds quite unlike the full alarm. The pattern for each is printed on the alarm or in its leaflet; read it before you need it, and never pull the battery to silence a sound you are not sure of.
Source: CDC — About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning — Sources include furnaces, water heaters, stoves, fireplaces, cars and portable generators; common symptoms and who is most at risk; sleeping people can be harmed before symptoms; get to fresh air and call for help; never heat a house with a gas oven; battery-operated detectors near sleeping areas, batteries checked with the clock change, replaced per the maker; yearly service of gas, oil and coal burning appliances
Alarms near the bedrooms and a yearly look at gas appliances
CDC asks for a battery-operated carbon monoxide detector, or one with a battery backup, near the sleeping areas, with the batteries checked when the clocks change in spring and fall and the detector replaced on the schedule its maker gives. Ready.gov asks for a working detector on every level of the home. A kitchen with a gas stove benefits from one on the same floor, placed where its instructions allow.
CDC also recommends having gas, oil and coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year. For a stove, that visit is about the flame: whether each burner and the oven burner light promptly and burn blue, whether the air openings are clear, and whether the oven vent is free.
Older stoves with a standing pilot
Some older gas stoves and a few heritage models keep a small pilot flame burning all the time instead of lighting with a spark. A pilot that burns yellow, flickers or keeps going out deserves the same attention as a yellow burner flame, and working out why it will not stay lit is a job for a technician.
Source: CDC — About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning — Sources include furnaces, water heaters, stoves, fireplaces, cars and portable generators; common symptoms and who is most at risk; sleeping people can be harmed before symptoms; get to fresh air and call for help; never heat a house with a gas oven; battery-operated detectors near sleeping areas, batteries checked with the clock change, replaced per the maker; yearly service of gas, oil and coal burning appliances; Ready.gov — Power Outages — Do not use a gas stove or oven to heat your home; install working carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home
