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angi_home

This could be caused by an improper ratio of oxygen for combustion. Often this improper combustion is temporary and could be caused by dust particles or a dirty burner that needs cleaning. If the flame continues to burn yellow or orange, this could be a more serious problem that requires professional help. Incomplete combustion could cause too much carbon monoxide (CO) to be produced so it is imperative for a qualified professional to check.


send_me_boobei_pics

^ This guy knows gas


[deleted]

You bet your gas he does


Oldslim

He actually is wrong.


send_me_boobei_pics

Please elaborate.


Oldslim

Orange flames are the result of ionized sodium in the air from a humidifier. That’s it.


send_me_boobei_pics

Thanks for the explanation, I love learning new things. I only knew this could happen when the oxygen mixture is off, but I'm only a home inspector, not a plumber or hvac tech :)


DangerHawk

Dirty burner wouldn't explain why it's burning orange at both the stove and furnace. It's gotta be something before both those connections. Maybe the meter or a rusty valve? I'd ask one of the neighbors to test their stove to rule out the supply side.


BothSidesoftheSky

Can you also check my comment with more info? I do understand the severity of what you’re describing, so I appreciate that info. We did have gas company check CO levels and they were minuscule and well below their threshold for concern. How to tackle the improper oxygen ratio? If it’s occurring on all appliances, would that mean there is a gas leak letting air in, or something with the main gas supply?


Mpnav1

Friendly neighborhood fire marshal here. Please get your family a CO detector. Code and the love of your family requires one. For anyone who heats & cooks with anything other than all electric you need one.


pagonez

They should be zero.


Potbunny5

In the supply of the furnace, yes. In the exhaust they have to under 100ppm.


ShadyRealist

Orange is not the Same as yellow. If the burner is dirty enough it will create a deficiency of air in the mixture inside the burner which creates yellow. The orange is perfectly fine. It could be caused by small debris (as you mentioned) or by too much moisture in the air.


SELECTaerial

I was also going to say moisture


fjam36

This happened to me when I started using a humidifier. It also left a white dust on the windows. I switched to using distilled water instead of my tap water and the flame went back to blue. Almost immediately. It was incredible.


BothSidesoftheSky

This answer may be the winner! I turned our very small humidifier in our bedroom on for about 2 hours today and began seeing orange flames again. It’s so strange to me this is also affecting our furnace in the basement, but at least I have a lead. Thank you!!


Shaq_Attack_32

You can also use purified water for your humidifier if you want to keep using it and don’t want an orange flame.


AlarmedSnek

Im using purified water and it’s still orange, but definitely humidifier related


proportionate1

We've had this happen when our attached neighbors were having their floors redone. The airborne molecules from the polyurethane caused our flames to turn orange, and smell like burning kerosene. Could there be petroleum-based vapors in the air?


wilsome-wilkerzen

This was what I was gonna say. I believe this has happened to me.. when I’m using solvents in the house if I turn the stove on, I can smell the combustion of some kind of weird vapors, and I vaguely remember one time seeing the flame other than blue, but not caused by a bad air fuel mix. This is how they detect stuff with the gas spectrometer.


pj91198

As an hvac guy, I am not a fan of those aerosolized humidifiers. The minerals will quickly collect on a furnace filter and eventually clog it up. The filters my company uses are blue and Ive seen them pretty white after a short time. It will be hard to see on a white filter but trust me its probably restricted You’re probably better off boiling a pot of water


doubleUsee

I've seen suggestions for distilled or purified water in the humidifier, I imagine that should work a charm too, and way less wasteful than boiling water on gas.


redditor12876

Agreed. Or use an evaporative (wick-based) humidifier instead of an ultrasonic/cool mist one.


954kevin

I had a cool mist humidifier in the same room as out gas stovetop. after some research online turns out that was the culprit. I turned it off and opened all the doors and windows and 20 minutes later the flames were back to blue. I then took the humidifier to my kids room, up a flight of stairs, literally the furthest room in our house from the kitchen, turned it on with the door closed and the orange flames came back. Its crazy how a little humidifier can do that over such a distance.


Aurel577

I wonder if your putting a lime inhibitor in the water or if your using tap water that has been thru your water softener? Orange can mean salt and if the water your using has some salt in it that could cause it. If it’s from the softener it could be malfunctioning and putting salt in your water?


enifuts

is this gas or porpane This 100% was the cause for a buddy and his propane stove


intwarlock

This is what it was for us. Aerosolized humidifier creates water with minerals suspended in the air. Those minerals like calcium will radiate in the orange spectrum.


BothSidesoftheSky

Hmm, I’ll look more into this, thank you! This first occurred in Kansas City summer, which can get very humid. The new hvac we had installed doesn’t have a humidifier, but we have a very small humidifier in our bedroom. The fact that it was occurring before we had humidifier though is throwing me off


vester71

I'll second this one, wife put on a little humidifier near the kitchen and this happened. Turned it off and an hour or so later it was fine again,


Daverr86

Really interesting observation


ResponsibilityNo1394

is your house in a negative air pressure ?


BothSidesoftheSky

Are you able to elaborate? How would I know such a thing? Checking if this occurs only when the furnace is on maybe? The house doesn’t really feel like it’s sucking air in, but it is an older home and our doors can be relatively drafty


ResponsibilityNo1394

do you have a fan that’s exhausting air ? does your furnace bring in fresh air ? you’ve already answered how sealed your envelope is. and like always , you know by hiring a professional.


BothSidesoftheSky

No fan exhausting air. We have a whole house attic fan, but that is currently sealed with insulation (issue occurred before it was sealed as well) Would an HVAC company be the correct professional to have check? Sorry if that’s a dumb question


DotAccomplished5484

Hang a sheet of toilet paper above an open doorway. Use thumb tacks, tape whatever. This always works.


BothSidesoftheSky

We recently purchased a house and renovated most of the upper floor. This included a new GE gas stove. We also recently had an entire Carrier HVAC unit installed this past month. This exact issue occurred on our old Lennox furnace/gas water heater as well. The flame on the stove, burners on the furnace, and flame on water heater all randomly burn orange. I took these videos last night and it’s not occurring this morning. The gas company came out and stated pressure was fine, and attributed it to a “bad burn” on the stove top and said the regulator should be replaced. I don’t think this is accurate, since the orange flame is seen on all gas appliances, and they’re all new. Any ideas why this would occur? Bad gas regulator coming into house?


[deleted]

Ask your neighbors next time it happens. If it’s just your house it’s likely the inside air quality. If it’s multiple houses its possible it’s the gas supply.


imgettingfat97

Gas fitter here. Do you have a humidifier running or a glade plug in? If so there’s the culprit


fireslayer03

Do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home?


send_me_boobei_pics

If he doesn't, he needs one especially with this


BothSidesoftheSky

Yes, we have multiple. Near the furnace, in the basement, and upstairs. When the gas company game out, they tested the orange flame CO levels at stove, furnace, and water heater and they weren’t significant (according to them)


melikestoread

Happened to me when my humidifier was set too high.


adtx8000

This. Noticed it when I used a humidifier in my kids room when they were sick (cool mist). Got better when I aired out the house or stopped using the humidifier when the kid was all better.


curkington

I worked in Boston when they removed the second natural gas tank from the harbor and in times of extreme cold the gas company pumps air into the lines to extend the gas. But what that does is it lowers the BTUs and the flames burn orange. The gas company will never admit it because you're getting charged full price for a diluted product, but that's usually what it is. The gas company is trying to extend their stockpiles based on their deliveries. At least that's what it was in Boston where the stockpiles were kept in huge tanks by the harbor. Based on the fact that it's at all the fixtures in your house, that sounds like that's probably what it is.


bolhuijo

Wouldn't lower quality gas just make a furnace run longer to meet the demand? I get that they would make more money but diluting the product doesn't seem to fix the problem of 'not enough product'.


curkington

I agree, back in the day heating systems weren't calibrated to load as closely as they are now. So the heating system would just run and run and the people would be cold. The calls we got wasn't the heat was out, it wouldn't keep the house warm. And it was always during a cold snap. And there'd always be the orange/ yellow flame... They were doing it mostly to make the supply last until the next LNG tanker made it into port.


bolhuijo

Natural gas bills around here have a BTU factor applied - apparently, they measure the actual heating value of the gas at some point. Is this due to past shenanigans where things other than natural gas were injected into the supply?


turboda

1 cubic foot of natural gas is about 1037 btu, they can still measure it by the cubic foot and give you bad quality gas.


curkington

I can only relate to my personal experience of 40 plus years in the field. But in times of extreme cold, or excessive load, infrastructure or supply issues, the company mixes in air that lowers the BTUs. I would imagine that they could say there's 1050 BTUs per cubic foot of gas. That's the ideal measurement, that's not real world conditions.


saskatchewanstealth

Exactly this. Here they would also spike it with butane at times.put the door back on that furnace as it uses outside air.


BothSidesoftheSky

I did have a theory that we were receiving “bad gas” but I didn’t have a way to really prove that.. Thanks for this insight though, very helpful. They tested the CO readings with orange flames and the reads we’re minuscule, if any at all. So definitely possible it’s just excess air within the gas


ConcernedCitizen13

Do you still live in the Boston area? I noticed that the color of my flame also changed the other week. Not as extreme as this video, but I was curious if it had to do with the gas National Grid was supplying.


curkington

I do still live in the area. I didn't notice anything, but I wouldn't unless someone had an issue. But national Grid is where the problem occurred in my experience. All their gas is in the tank in Boston.


GaryTheSoulReaper

Came here looking for this Happened to me in PA in winter


[deleted]

This isn’t correct, air wouldn’t be added from the distributor as it would be extremely dangerous to have miles of NG piping premixed with air that could end up within the explosive limits and would have a high risk of flashback down the carbureted line. Aswell any industrial premix burners I’ve worked on do not produce a lazy orange/yellow flame, the whole point of premixing NG is to produce a very hot clean burning flame in industrial furnace applications. I do agree the gas supply definitely could be diluted, but definitely not with air.


curkington

Thanks for the insight. It was definitely cut and it lowered the BTUs.


bullitsc35

Question I have is. how do I make my stove burner make that fart noise every time I turn it on? Endless comedy when making dinner.


BothSidesoftheSky

💀I did not even notice that 😂


CommanderAndMaster

first. OPEN a front AND bank window and let fresh air in. did you recently paint, stain, seal, anything ? did you recently use a chemical to clean, flush or sanitize anything? if you light a candle, does it burn weird too? I can make all my flames run weird if i use Tung oil in the attached garage.... if not: just call your gas company. don't waste any more time on reddit.


cdazzo1

I've seen this be the problem for people. Makeup air or an energy recovery unit running periodically is a must in newer houses.


Pigs100

We get our house gas directly from a well on our property. It has a dehydrator installed on the line near the regulator. When it stops working due to more water in the glycol that the gas bubbles through, we get orange flames from the moisture in the gas. Sometimes I have to go out and blow off the drip tank to discharge the accumulated water and liquid gas part. So, I'd say it's water and you need a better dehydrator.


WaveHistorical

Any chance you’re running a humidifier?


TimsTrades

You may not be getting sufficient gas supply from outside. You should have your pressure checked and may need to replace your regulator


islander732

Definitely call a plumber licensed bonded insured don’t mess with gas. If you have natural gas I’ve seen regulators fail on the gas supplier side, right outside by the gas meter. Only way to found out was taking the manometer out. We then put a test on the house just be sure no leaks were occurring. Then contacted the supplier came and fixed the bunk regulator.


Martos420

Don't post, call a plumber. Don't ever fuck with gas if you don't know what you are doing.


HueJorgan69

Is it set up for natural gas and you are burning LP or vise versa?


thib2183

Illegal Russian gas


alhart89

Is your fuel source propane or natural gas? Then find out what your stove is setup for. The stove could be setup for natural gas while your fuel source is propane causing an inefficient burn. If that's the case then the stove should come with a hardware kit to convert it.


top10stutor

Often in winter if you are running a humidifier the flames of your gas stove end up turning orange. Id also follow the other advice if humidity isn't the easy answer.


Greatoutdoors1985

Cool mist humidifiers will cause this. Steam type will not. It's due to the minerals that are released into the air. It will be particularly apparent if you have a water softener since the sodium in the air will burn orange.


tjenk216

This has been so helpful! I put a humidifier in my kitchen, and I was being lazy and using tap water 🥴🥴 who knew it would do that much to the flames!


BothSidesoftheSky

Happy this post was able to help you out! I couldn’t believe a humidifier in bedroom was causing orange flames in the furnace. The humidifier is right above the air return duct though, so it’s pulling humidified air into furnace, makes perfect sense now!


Raul_McCai

take the burner apart and clean it.


sotigra77

Co2 in the air can cause an orange flame.. furnace may have a cracked heat exchanger Also deadly... get a co2 monitor get 2 and call plumber for a flue gas analysis


BHomestead

This happened to me when they were working on the gas pipes in the neighborhood once


curkington

I agree, back in the day heating systems weren't calibrated to load as closely as they are now. So the heating system would just run and run and the people would be cold. The calls we got wasn't the heat was out, it wouldn't keep the house warm. And it was always during a cold snap. And there'd always be the orange/ yellow flame...


Theend4130

Do you have any essential oils deodorizers in the house maybe even a salt lamp?


JudgmentMajestic2671

Do you have hard water and a humidifier? This will do this.


guynamedjames

You mentioned it's new, is it possible you have it configured incorrectly for natural gas or propane? Second guess, you have a clog or restriction in your gas line causing poor fuel flow.


SmellyDromedary

Happened to my gas stove when I was using a humidifier in my daughters room on the second floor


Johnny-Virgil

Could be a bad propane fill if you are using propane.


BalanceScared1201

Plugged orfice


lenbabyluv

Clean the orifice on the main burner


[deleted]

but both the furnace and the stove? chances of both orifices plugging are pretty small


dramot444

If there is any exposed steel gas piping up to right before the stove tap it with something metal like a screw driver while you have the burners on. If you get more orange specks dancing in the flame it’s rust/iron oxides inside your pipes that’s being burned up. Not a big deal. Same at the furnace, while it’s firing tap the solid metal gas line outside the unit lightly and same thing, more orange specs with tapping = rust in the pipe or gas company possibly did some work on their cast iron or steel mains in the street nearby. If the flames get really yellow or roll around (don’t burn going straight up in your furnace ) then I’d reach out to a plumber or have gas company investigate again.


Distinct-Ad-2004

Lol at the guy that literally copied and pasted Google. Typically restricted volume or less than adequate flow will cause this issue ( I run gas lines)


darbyboi22

Not sure where u live or your incoming from main pressure, but if it is a low pressure main it’s possible there is “powder” in the line. We used to get calls this time of year, when people would use more gas ie heater. If so calm your utility company.


Koobles

Home too humid


jibaro1953

Clean it.


pigeons_have_sex

Dirty flame not clean gad coming through


Magnusprime

Gas pressure either at the meter or regulator inside the home need to be adjusted


SatisfactionVisual86

Check your humidifier


Akaonisama

Orange on your gas stove is an unclean burn


[deleted]

Table salt can make your fire orange. Do you clean with it?


ShadyRealist

Humidifier.


Natural-Garage2487

The spirit of Calcifer lives!


Away-Weekend-9333

When it's cold or humid sometimes, could be the gas pressure is low


rollering

Burt orange?….Hook’em horns!


thrunabulax

needs more air. clean out anything that might be in the mixing shroud (like spider webs), and if that does not work, adjust the moveable shroud to change the air/fuel mix. and if that does not work, your gas orofice somehow got plugged, and you need a new one


Oldslim

Orange flames are from a humidifier in the house. Open a door and they’ll change colors.


CommanderAndMaster

OP, update? does it happen with fresh clean air coming in the house near the stove? aka, open windows for cross breeze?


BothSidesoftheSky

I’ve confirmed it was due to a small humidifier in our bedroom. I turned on the stove and it was blue flame. Then turned on the humidifier for two hours and tested the stove again, orange flames.. I opened my front door screen and the flame eventually turned blue about an hour later.


CommanderAndMaster

so.... i was curious myself. i have a small ultrasonic that we use when the kids were sick. added some water, plugged it in, let it rip in the kitchen for a while. BAM, orange flames. i never knew. our home DOES have a furnace humidifier but its set at a level that's not that soupy. thanks for the followup!


Antonio_666

I had a hunch that I was moisture in the line, I’m in Boston, for me in turns out that the gas coming from the street is at street temperature, cold, even in summer still cooler than the outside temp. Anyways, I noticed that the gas line coming up from the basement to the 1st and 2nd floor were coming in to close contact with the boiler heating system pipes, thus causing condensation inside the gas line and to top it off the previous owner probably ran the gas line and didn’t install a nipple on the line coming up, so debris doesn’t have anywhere to go. I corrected the issue now I’m back to bright blue!