Unpleasant Smell When Running Hot Water Heat

[jeff_2012]

I have a new (<1 yr old) Crown Bimini gas boiler. I have hot water heat (some stand-up radiators, some baseboard). The boiler is also our hot water heater. This boiler was installed right before I moved into this house. As soon as we started using the heat last fall, we got a bad smell in various areas of the house. Now that the weather is warming up and we've turned off the heat, the smell is gone. Here are some of the facts:

1. The boiler is in the basement
2. The boiler is vented out the side of the basement wall, to an alley between my house and my neighbor's house (about 15' wide). The intake and exhaust are approximately 12" apart on the wall.
3. The odor does not smell like natural gas - it's almost like a sewage smell. I had the local gas company come over to test for gas leaks when the heat was running, and everything checked out ok.
4. The smell is most concentrated in the third floor (top floor - there is a small crawl space attic as well). However, the smell is present in almost all the other areas of the house. The bathrooms never smelled (maybe it's the tile floors).
5. Sometimes the smell was very bad, other times it was almost not noticeable. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the changes, but I didn't plot it against the temperature or wind or anything like that. It did seem to get worse on the third floor at night, after the programmable thermostat kicked down to a lower temp, but that could have been my imagination.
6. There was never a strong smell around the boiler or around the exhaust outside, but it was sometimes noticeable in the basement a few feet away from the boiler (close to where a rubber hose running from the boiler emptied into the washer drain on the sewer line).
7. The installation was done by a local company that does lots of residential and commercial work, although it took them a couple weeks to finish the installation. They've been back several times to look at other issues with the boiler, and at least one other HVAC company has taken a look and no one has noticed any problems.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks!
Jeff

[wahoo]

Just a guess, but I'd suspect something getting back into the home from the 15' wide alley where flue terminates. Make sure you have a working CO detector in your home, but it'll probably not register.:.02:

[second opinion]

I have a new (<1 yr old) Crown Bimini gas boiler. I have hot water heat (some stand-up radiators, some baseboard). The boiler is also our hot water heater. This boiler was installed right before I moved into this house. As soon as we started using the heat last fall, we got a bad smell in various areas of the house. Now that the weather is warming up and we've turned off the heat, the smell is gone. Here are some of the facts:

1. The boiler is in the basement
2. The boiler is vented out the side of the basement wall, to an alley between my house and my neighbor's house (about 15' wide). The intake and exhaust are approximately 12" apart on the wall.
3. The odor does not smell like natural gas - it's almost like a sewage smell. I had the local gas company come over to test for gas leaks when the heat was running, and everything checked out ok.
4. The smell is most concentrated in the third floor (top floor - there is a small crawl space attic as well). However, the smell is present in almost all the other areas of the house. The bathrooms never smelled (maybe it's the tile floors).
5. Sometimes the smell was very bad, other times it was almost not noticeable. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the changes, but I didn't plot it against the temperature or wind or anything like that. It did seem to get worse on the third floor at night, after the programmable thermostat kicked down to a lower temp, but that could have been my imagination.
6. There was never a strong smell around the boiler or around the exhaust outside, but it was sometimes noticeable in the basement a few feet away from the boiler (close to where a rubber hose running from the boiler emptied into the washer drain on the sewer line).
7. The installation was done by a local company that does lots of residential and commercial work, although it took them a couple weeks to finish the installation. They've been back several times to look at other issues with the boiler, and at least one other HVAC company has taken a look and no one has noticed any problems.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks!
Jeff

Can you post pictures of the rubber hose from the boiler to the drain?

[jeff_2012]

Here are pictures of the tubing where it runs out of the back of the boiler and where it it goes into the drain.

[skippedover]

Is this a new house? Old house? Was it ever an abandoned or re-possessed house? And what's that PVC pipe into which the drains are connected? Is it a trapped pipe? What about the plumbing drains? Have you had a professional plumber inspect the house? I ask because I've found numerous homes with "you can do it, we can help" bathrooms installed with no vents! That's why most states require plumber to serve a long apprenticeship and then be thoroughly tested before becoming a licensed plumber.

[skibme]

I'm guessing no trap and or vent on pcc drain pipe.

[second opinion]

Is this a new house? Old house? Was it ever an abandoned or re-possessed house? And what's that PVC pipe into which the drains are connected? Is it a trapped pipe? What about the plumbing drains? Have you had a professional plumber inspect the house? I ask because I've found numerous homes with "you can do it, we can help" bathrooms installed with no vents! That's why most states require plumber to serve a long apprenticeship and then be thoroughly tested before becoming a licensed plumber.

That is where I was going, questioning the rubber hose to boiler thinking hot water from Prv discharging to the drain

[jeff_2012]

The house was built in 1900, but obviously the drain pipe pictured is newer (probably within the last 20 years). As far as I know the house has been occupied since it was built and never re-possessed. I am pretty sure the drain pipe is trapped & vented but I will check again and post a picture. I've had several professional plumbers check out this problem, and no one has an answer. I've gotten some vague answers indicating that it might be gas from the sewer line but no one can point to a specific problem or propose a solution.

One thing I pointed out to all of the plumbers (but which no one seemed to care about) is that the toilets in the house all put out a bubble when you flush them. After that, the water drains fine. No slow drainage in the house anywhere. Just throwing that out there because at first I thought the bubbles might be evidence of a blocked vent but the plumbers that came all said I'd have slow drainage if that was the case. One company wanted to charge me $$$$ to look into the vent pipe on the roof but I couldn't swing that and he said it probably wouldn't show anything. Anyway, the smell is pretty much gone unless the boiler is running, no matter how much water we use, so I figured the blocked vent wasn't the cause of the smell.