Gas Heaters and Asbestos

As many homeowners are aware by now, homes built before 2000 may contain asbestos. It’s prevalent in building materials like roofing and siding, and even in some forms of insulation and lagging. But what about gas heaters and asbestos? Is asbestos in gas heaters, and should you be worried?

Believe it or not, several forms of heating used to, and still do, contain asbestos – including gas heaters. Flues, metal flue joints, wood burner seals, and nightstore heaters were all produced with materials containing asbestos. What’s more, gas heaters also used to have a lining board behind them with asbestos as well.

Identifying a Gas Heater in Your Home

The most common forms of heating in our homes today are wood burners, multi-fuel burners, and heat pumps. Central heating and underfloor heating are also becoming more popular. Gas fires, while less popular, can be an aesthetically pleasing addition, while not always used as a primary source of heating. 

A gas heater is also a space heater that heats your home or outdoor space with propane, butane, liquefied petroleum gas, or natural gas. They can be flued, non-flued, vented, and unvented. Even though gas heaters used to contain asbestos, it doesn’t mean yours does. Any gas heaters produced post-2000 will not have this harmful mineral.

In 1881, British engineer Sigismund Leoni patented a design that allowed the gas heater’s flame to heat a structure made from asbestos. So, a significant number of gas heaters were made with this very design and materials. However, fire clay replaced asbestos because it was easier to mould.

What Parts of Gas Heaters Contain Asbestos?

Looking at a gas heater in your home installed before 2000, it’s hard to know whether or not it has asbestos. After all, it wasn’t labelled, and building materials don’t come with “ingredients” lists like our everyday packaged foods do. 

However, gaskets, insulation, rope, sealing washers, tape, mastic containing fibres and insulation in electric cables could all feature asbestos. In many gas heaters, asbestos also featured in the artificial embers and ashes.

Thousands of gas heater models around the world were produced with such building materials, and you may never know with certainty until you enlist the help of an asbestos removal expert.

Which Gas Heater Models Contain Asbestos?

It’s challenging to find an exhaustive list of asbestos-containing gas heaters. Models and brands can vary from one country to the next, and some models featured it under one manufacturer while others didn’t.

Both the United States and the UK have lists of models and brands, but New Zealand does not. As a result, one of the best ways of knowing if your gas heater contains asbestos is by getting in touch with asbestos testing service providers in New Zealand. They can undertake sampling that can either confirm or disprove its presence.

My Gas Heater Contains Asbestos, What Do I Do?

It can be quite a terrifying time to realise that something you may use a lot or that just exists in your home contains asbestos. However, it’s important to note that it’s not a problem you have to handle on your own. 

In fact, it’s better that you don’t. If you have confirmed the presence of asbestos in your gas heater, then it’s time to bring in the experts. Licenced and trained professionals in asbestos removal can take all necessary steps to remove the heater safely.

There are strict protocols in place to follow, and you can then start planning what you will use to heat your home in its absence.

Alternative Heating Options

Do you feel that wave of relief rushing over you? Knowing that you’ve removed a possible hazard in your home can definitely put a smile on your dial. Whether you’re in the process of renovating your home, or you simply wanted to remove your asbestos-containing gas heater, it’s worth looking at alternative heating options.

Wood burners, wood pellet burners, heat pumps, electric heaters, and flued gas heaters can all be valid installations in your home. 

Heat pumps are affordable to run, can heat one room or many, and provide near-instant heat. They also have thermostats and timers, which means you can turn them on before you get home so that it’s toasty upon your arrival.

Wood burners are preferred by many as they can heat large spaces in cold climates, and you can use them for cooking and water heating. They also run on renewable wood energy and can heat multiple rooms with the addition of a heat transfer kit.

Many people are even steering towards wood pellet burners, which use waste wood and burn cleanly. They do need a little bit of electricity, but you can heat multiple rooms with a heat transfer kit, and you don’t need to chop or store firewood.

Is it Time to Remove Your Gas Heater?

If your asbestos-containing gas heater has been playing on your mind, then now might be a time to look at removing it. Get in touch with licenced asbestos removalists and get the process underway.