Portable gas heaters are warm, comforting and cheap to run — and because they burn gas inside the same room you're sitting in, they need to be looked after. Every winter, Australian households are hospitalised (and sometimes killed) by carbon monoxide (CO), an invisible gas produced when a portable gas heater burns incompletely or is used in a poorly ventilated room.
What carbon monoxide does to your body
CO binds to your red blood cells 200 times more tightly than oxygen. Your organs slowly suffocate. Symptoms feel like the flu: headache, dizziness, nausea, fatigue. People often sleep through it. By the time you realise something is wrong, you may not have the strength to open a window.
Real Australian cases
- Vanessa Robinson's sons (Mooroopna, VIC, 2010) — Two young brothers died in their sleep from CO poisoning caused by a faulty open-flued gas heater. The coroner's inquest led to sweeping changes to Australian gas safety standards.
- Sonia Sofianopoulos (Melbourne, 2017) — Died in her home from CO poisoning linked to an unserviced wall heater.
- The Kurzeme family (NSW, 2017) — A faulty gas heater poisoned the entire household and was widely reported in the media.
Energy Safe Victoria, NSW Fair Trading, the ABC and 7News have all warned Australians to service their gas heaters regularly. Many of the portable gas heaters in Sydney homes have never been serviced. They look fine. They light up. They warm the room. They are also slowly producing CO.
Warning signs of a dangerous portable gas heater
- The flame is yellow or orange instead of blue
- You smell gas when the heater is on or off
- Black soot or staining on or around the heater
- Headaches, nausea or drowsiness when the heater is on
- Excess condensation on windows when running the heater
- The portable heater hasn't been serviced in 1–2+ years
- You use it in a closed room with no ventilation
What we do on a service
We strip your portable gas heater down, clean the burner and pilot, inspect the radiants and seals, test the LPG bottle / hose / regulator with a manometer, and run a combustion analyser to measure carbon monoxide output. You receive a written safety certificate.