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Repair guide · Oregon City

Carbon Monoxide and Gas Appliances: An Oregon City Guide

Updated 10/29/2026

Every appliance that burns gas makes some carbon monoxide; a healthy one sends it outside or burns so cleanly that the amount stays tiny. Trouble comes from a burner that burns badly, a vent that is blocked, or an appliance used for something it was not made for, above all heating a home.

A carbon monoxide alarm near the sleeping areas is the protection that works while you sleep. Oregon law requires them in homes with a gas appliance when the home is sold or newly rented.

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  • If you smell gas, do not light anything and do not touch a switch. Leave the home and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.
  • If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, or anyone has a headache, dizziness or nausea that eases outdoors, get everyone outside to fresh air and call 911.
  • Never use a gas range, oven or dryer to heat the home.
  • Do not run a generator, a grill or a camp stove indoors or in a garage, even with the door open.
  • Unplug or switch off a gas appliance at its breaker and close its gas valve before anyone looks at it, and do not adjust gas valves or burners beyond what the manual allows.

Oregon City is the seat of Clackamas County, which took the worst of the February 2021 ice storm. As homes went days without power, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office reported that at least four people died of carbon monoxide poisoning after using charcoal or propane heaters indoors to keep warm, and more were treated and survived.

Oregon requires working carbon monoxide alarms covering the sleeping areas when a home with a carbon monoxide source, such as a gas appliance or a fireplace, is sold (ORS 105.838) and before a new tenancy begins in such a rental (ORS 90.316). The State Fire Marshal’s guidance says to replace an alarm at its replacement date, when it fails a test, or when it gives its end-of-life signal.

Alarms where you sleep

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advises carbon monoxide alarms with battery backup on every level of the home and outside each sleeping area. Test them monthly.

The flame

A healthy range burner flame is blue and steady. A lazy yellow or orange flame, soot on pans or on the cooktop, or a flame that lifts off the burner means it is not burning cleanly and needs a check.

The oven is for cooking

The CPSC warns against using a gas range or oven to heat a home: run that way it can overheat or make excess carbon monoxide. Foil on the bottom of a gas oven also interferes with its burner.

The dryer vent

A gas dryer sends its exhaust outside. Check that the outdoor flap opens while it runs and that the duct is not crushed or packed with lint.

The range hood

Run the hood while you cook on gas, and clean its grease filters so it moves air.

Generators

The CPSC says to run a portable generator outside only, at least 20 feet from the home, with its exhaust pointed away. Opening doors and windows does not make a generator safe indoors.

Get everyone outside, then call 911 from fresh air. Do not go back in until the fire service says it is safe. Afterwards, have every gas appliance checked before it is used again.

The deaths in 2021 came from heaters burning charcoal and propane indoors. Keep warm with layers, a room you can close off, and a warming shelter if the cold lasts; keep fuel-burning heat sources outside.

A landlord must have working alarms in place before a new tenancy and give testing instructions; a seller must have them installed before the sale closes. The State Fire Marshal’s sheet lists the details.

  • Range burners: clogged ports or a cap out of place make a yellow, sooty flame.
  • Oven burner: a poor flame, often after a spill or foil on the oven floor.
  • Gas dryer: a blocked vent, or a burner that needs adjusting.
  • Range hood: a fan that no longer moves air, or filters packed with grease.
  • Alarms: past their replacement date, or batteries that died.
  • A carbon monoxide alarm sounds: get out and call 911 first.
  • A yellow or sooty flame on a range or oven burner.
  • A gas dryer that runs hot or dries slowly with a clean vent.
  • Any smell of gas: leave, and call from outside first.
  • Soot marks around an appliance or its vent.

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  • Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
  • We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
  • We come to your home, test the gas appliance and find the cause.
  • You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.

The diagnostic visit costs $89. If you go ahead with the repair, the $89 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $89 covers the diagnosis.

Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.

What appliance repair costs

We repair gas appliances at home in Oregon City and across the Portland metro area. Enter your ZIP code when you book and the form checks it right away.

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The facts on this page come from these sources, checked when the page was written.

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