Oh, oh what's that smell?

When I came down after taking my shower, there was this funny hot metal smell that I attributed to the new electric heater we bought in Loveland, CO when our other one died. However, I thought it was strange because we have used it for over a week and would have thought any new smell should have been burnt off by now. When I opened up the cabinet under the kitchen sink area and thought I smelled burnt hot metal I nearly freaked. As John doesn't have the best sniffer, we asked Rick to come over to take a whiff. Rick said he thought it smelled like a burnt ballast but all of our lights were working fine. The guys checked the wiring from the outlet, all was good. Then we pulled out everything from the cabinets to see if something had spilled and there was some chemical reaction. Not that either. Soon we were focused on the hot water heater and thought maybe something was going out on it. We switched to propane and shut off the electrical breaker to the hot water heater and decided we would call the factory in the morning for some troubleshooting ideas.

After going through all the stuff we pulled out from out of the cabinets, I made the decision to get rid of some items at the thrift store here in Moab - one good thing to come from all of this. We left the cabinet doors open and went into town to pick up a plastic bin (reorganizing the cabinets once again), fuel up, and stop at the grocery store. We both nearly freaked when John's phone rang. Was it Rick and Y telling us our rig was on fire? Nope, it was John's sister, Bonnie, calling to chat. What a relief!!!!! After a bite to eat, we headed home. John and I both were feeling the stress of the concern as to what was going on. Once home, we got everything put away and the smell had dissipated quite a bit which made us feel better. We hoped we had the problem somewhat isolated.

We went over to Rick and Y to play cards. They gave us one of their smoke detectors to put in the cabinet (closer to the source than the one on our wall) which helped in easing our concerns. When we got back home, we turned on the electric heater and once again, there was that odor. John surmised that the heater blew the warm air to the back of the rig where it settled under the cabinets due to ventilation holes we have in the back to allow the heat from the hot water heater to dissipate. Once we set the heater on the ionization mode, the odor decreased a lot. The hot water heater will stay on propane until in the morning when we will use the furnace to heat the rig, turn the breaker back on for the water heater, and turn switch the power back to electric and see what happens.

Today was suppose to be a chill day where we could get the laundry done and just enjoy the day. I got the laundry done but didn't particularly find the day relaxing but rather stressful. I need another day off to get things done that I wanted to get done today and to relax.