Stove
Smells Like Gas
You walk into the kitchen and catch the rotten-egg smell of gas around the stove, at the knobs, low by the oven drawer or from the gap behind it, whether you are cooking or not.
Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm
- Gas, fire, sparks or a burner stuck on
- 5 questions that narrow it
- 5 causes, cheapest first
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If there is gas in the air, walk out first. Without gas, shut the stove's breaker off
A gas smell that does not clear is an emergency. Get out of the house without touching anything that could spark, and call the gas utility or 911 once you are outside. The stove is repaired only after the utility has checked the home and said it is safe; never search for the leak or relight a burner yourself.
What it
usually means.
The gas your stove burns has no smell of its own; suppliers add a sulfur odorant so that a leak can be noticed by anyone in the house. On a freestanding or slide-in gas stove the supply comes out of the wall or floor behind it, through a shutoff valve and a flexible connector, into a regulator and a pipe that feeds one valve per knob and the oven burner below. Every one of those joints can loosen, and a stove that was pulled out for cleaning, moved into a new home or swapped by a landlord is the one most likely to seep. A brief whiff at the moment a burner catches is part of lighting. A smell that stays, grows, or is there when every knob is off is a leak until the gas utility has checked the house, and nobody should look for it themselves.
The 5 causes, cheapest first
Answer these first
Is the smell gone within a second or two of the burner lighting, or still there a minute later?
Is it strongest at the front by the knobs, down by the oven, or at the back where the stove meets the wall?
Could a child, a pet or someone brushing past have nudged a knob just off its off position?
Was the stove recently moved, replaced, cleaned behind, or installed in a new home or rental?
Does the smell come only while the oven is warming up, rather than while the burners are on?
Check these
before you book.
Stove smells like gas: 5 checks, and none of them costs anything.
If the smell lingers or keeps coming back, get everyone, pets included, out of the house right away; do not stop to open windows or hunt for the source.
Leave light switches, the stove knobs, the doorbell and your phone alone until you are outside, because each of them can make a small spark.
From outdoors and well away from the house, call your gas utility's emergency line or 911, and stay out until they tell you it is safe to go back in.
Also worth checking
- Do not pull the stove out, close the valve behind it or tighten anything yourself; finding and stopping a leak is the utility's work.
- When you book the repair, tell us what the utility found and whether they put a red tag on the stove.
The causes,
cheapest first.
5 things stove smells like gas turns out to be, from a knob sitting a notch past off to connector strained when the stove was pulled out.
The cost guide-
01 no repair
A knob sitting a notch past off
Gas stove knobs are easy to bump. A knob that looks off but rests just past the stop lets unlit gas drift out of a burner. Even when this is the likely reason, leave first; the knob can be checked once the utility says the house is safe.
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02 low to moderate
Oven burner slow to light
Many gas stoves light the oven with a glowing igniter that opens the gas valve only when it is hot enough. A tired igniter lets gas flow for several seconds before it catches, and the smell comes out through the oven vent at the back of the stovetop.
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03 moderate
Burner valve that no longer shuts tight
The valve behind each knob wears with years of turning. When it stops sealing, a trickle of gas reaches the burner even with the knob fully off, and the smell is strongest up at the stovetop.
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04 moderate
Fitting left loose after a propane change
Switching a stove between natural gas and propane means changing the burner orifices and setting the regulator. A fitting that was not fully tightened during that work, or a step that was skipped, can leak at a burner or behind the stove.
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05 varies
Connector strained when the stove was pulled out
Sliding a stove forward to clean behind it, or wheeling in a new one, bends the flexible connector and loads the fittings at each end. A kinked connector or a fitting that has shifted can leak slowly for days before anyone notices.
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What it costs
Every repair on the site's cost scale, side by side
Open the cost guide
What else
it could be.
Most often confused with gas stove won't light, then stove clicking.
All problems
The makes
it happens on.
32 makes on this site; stove smells like gas can show up on any of them. Each mark opens that make's own page.
All 32 brandsStove Smells Like Gas,
where we come out.
9 metros, each with its own page.
All service areasTampa BayFL · 31 areas
Miami / South FloridaFL · 47 areas
New York MetroNY · 75 areas
HoustonTX · 36 areas
ChicagoIL · 50 areas
Los AngelesCA · 95 areas
San DiegoCA · 31 areas
Questions about
stove smells like gas.
Should I be worried about a tiny gas smell each time a burner lights?
Is it safe to turn off the gas valve behind my stove?
My rental stove smells like gas. Who do I call first?
Can a stove smell like gas after the power goes out?
Back to your everyday
Still seeing stove smells like gas?
Book with what you checked above — 5 answers save the technician the first part of the visit.