Moisture from Gas Heaters

[stumbling dubbo]

We recently bought a gas heater and are experiencing heaps of condensation throughout the house.Have spoken to the gas company and they said that gas provides a moist heat and this is normal. We said we were leaving the bathroom door open as it has venting but they said this was unneccessary.
I'm worried about the ongoing effects of water on the timber window sills does anyone have a solution?

[DJ’s Timber]

You could try using Dampsorb which sucks moisture out of the air
It is available from most supermarkets and hardwares
Friend of mine uses it and it stop the condensations on her windows
From memory one lot last between 4 to 8 weeks than you change the mix for a fresh batch

Cheers DJ

[Bin J]

I'm guessing your gas heater is not flued?

When we first bought our house it had an un-flued gas heater and the consendsation was shocking :eek: . I used to put an old rolled up towell on the sills (not exactly a good look).

Our new flued heater does not produce any condensation at all but, especially on freezing cold days, you can see the 'steam' coming out the back of the flue through the window.

If you heater IS flued, I would suggest that there might be something wrong with it?

[MurrayD99]

Lots of portable gas heaters over here and the condensation they produce is a known issue. They are cheap (to buy, not necessarily to run) and an alternative to electricity.... but it is not good! I don't know about damaging the house - I suppose it could be a long term consequence.

[GraemeCook]

If your gas heater is flued, then significant condensation means that there is something seriously wrong with its installation. The flue is to take the water and carbon dioxide out of the house.

If the heater is not flued then production of water is simply part of the chemistry of burning gas. From memory, one moecule of gas burnt produces three molecules of water.

If you use the heater a lot then this will be a problem and the moisture may lead to a lot of mould.

I am in Hobeart and here gas heaters, except for very small bottled gas ones, must be flued.

Cheers

Graeme

[Buzza]

I'm not a gas fitter, but I am a gas cutomer who had "flue" problems. Our gas fire was in situ for many years, and then due to subsidence, we removed the brick chimney. The company sent a contractor to make an outside flue in our timber framed home. After some months it had showed tiny brown specks, which I was horrified to see, knowing they were "cancer spots" in the very thin material. I contacted the Consumer Affairs and talked to the people there. They advised me to write a letter to the gas company. I did this, and got a similar sort of answer to yours, a sort of "Oh that's the way it is".

I then wrote a letter to the manager, and as advised, waited for a full month and then some. No reply came.

I rang Consumer Affairs again, and the girl said they would try to help but it may be out of warranty. I felt rather down when she said that, and suggested to her, that I would have to buy another type of fire or a different flue, and to finance it, I would sell the piece of rubbish erected on my wall as a hopeless rusted out bit of crud sold to me by (name omitted) on EBAY WORLDWIDE. The lass I was talking to said that was new angle she'd never heard of before. Within an hour my phone rang, and the manager of of the Gas company told me he'd never received my letter until now, and came out the next morning to condemn the work, and have it done correctly. This time it was excellent pipe made in the USA especially for the job. I must warn you, that if it is not done correctly, fire and suffocation can occur, and this manager agreed that mine could have started a fire in the roof cavity.

[stumbling dubbo]

Thanks everyone,
Looks like a flued one in the first place would have been a good idea

[Ianab]

Running a portable dehumidifier will help as well.
As the guys have said an un-flued gas heater releases a lot of water and co2 into the room, you also have to have some sort of ventilation (crack a window) to let fresh air in.
With the D/H unit and a couple of draughty doors I still get condensation on the windows, but it's seldom heavy enough to run down onto the sills. I do have to replace a couple of sills that have started to rot out tho, I guess previous owner didn't have a D/H. :(

Ian