Kitchen Gas Appliances - gas stove now smells funny, why?

Hello!

This is my first post here and it happens to be about my propane cooking stove.
The stove is 4 yrs old and is the continuous pilot light kind. Today we began to move into our new house and so we moved the stove first. We only had to move the stove about 100 yards to get from the old house to the new so we used a handtruck. The stove was not bumped in any way. When we lit the pilot lights there was a light smell in the air that smelled somewhat like something hot. NOT propane smelling. After a few hours the house really smelled bad, like butane or kerosene and the stove had never made that smell before. We adjusted the pilot lights but that did not help. By the way, the smell happens when the stove is off. It was making us all feel sick.
I found this site by google.com and I read a post (it was an old one) that sounded very similar to my problem. The answer frankly confused me. It said that if you had recently used an oil-based product in your home, which we have, that that would cause the smell. The confusing part of this is how can the stove (which has never made this smell before) all of a sudden make it if there has been oil-based products used? Are the pilot lights actually burning the fumes out of the air and creating the smell? Will it eventually go away? Is it really as simple as airing out the house more?
Could someone explain this better?
Thank you,
Annie

Hello Annie and Welcome to the Do It Yourself Web Site and to the Gas Appliances topic.

Very likely the smell is caused by recently used oil-based products in the home. Paints, stains, etc. Once those dry and there are no particles of the products in the air, the smell will be gone. Ventilate the house to help dry it out.

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Also if you have a dryer it will pick up the smells. Dryers pull in a lot of air and will pick up anything in the air.

Hi,
thanks for the replies.
Sharp - that was one of the links I went to when I was originally visiting the site but did not find the explaination I was looking for. I was hoping for an explaination on why it does this, if possible. Any other links would be appreciated as well.
Is it dangerous to cook (bake) with this smell? Will it permeate the food?
As an update, the stove no longer stinks up the whole house but is still emitting the same smell only lighter and mainly remaining in the oven.

pugsl - thankfully the dryer has not been installed yet! I don't think I could stand the smell.

Also, does this mean that if I do any more varnishing it will happen every time?

Thanks again,
Annie

Anytime there are smells in the air they will be picked up by the appliance. I have even seen where the next door neighbors were painting and smell came in next door.

Hello: Annie

Why there is an odor after using a petrol based product? Briefly explained. There are invisible particles of the product in the air. We can smell them when first entering the area but not long after wards. Because we get use to the smell.

When those invisible particulates we smell get burned, they change (convert) into other new chemicals. Mostly diesel and kerosene odors. It's a process of chemical vapors and there reactions to heat.

Once those petrol chemicals dry and the particles they produce ventilate, the odor(s) are gone...:thumbup:

Hope that explains it all......:)

Oh thank you so much!
So the fact that I can still smell it inside the oven is because there is still those particles in the air. Well, we still have more polying to do so I guess we will just have to put up with it until then. I'm just glad I don't have to buy a new stove!!!

You have been a great help, thanks again!
Annie

Have you checked to make sure the top pilots are not impinging on the stove top? That will produce an odor. Actually it is called aldehydes and when that odor is present so is carbon monoxide.