Please allow me to throw one other bone in the soup-pot:
Conventional natural gas and propane storage water heaters have standing pilots, meaning a 24x7 flame. Prior to 2005 (?) storage water heaters did not have flame guards, which are standard in all new ones. There were occasionally very nasty fires when naive or drunk folks used volatile flammable fluids in the same space (basement or garage) as the water heater installation. Just enough that the lawyers scored a few, and the whole industry re-enigineered the product to include a flame arrestor (if flammable vapor hits the flame after passing through the flame arrestor with the combustion air, it is designed to prevent the flame from popping back out and engulfing the room in fire). Gasoline is much more volatile than kerosene, and really has no place being used indoors.
FWIW, when I do use a small amount of kerosene, I use it in a room (former garage) that is separated from the water heater room by a gasketed steel door.
But, in my other life, I'm working on some advanced water heater specifications for greater efficiency.
harvey sachs mcLean va
Joe B-Z said: Ok, I have to chime in.
Like many of the characters on this board I spent a certain portion of my youth cleaning bike parts in various industrial solvents. One by one we would hear that the solvent de jour was implicated in causing cancer and then we would switch to another. Benzine (not gasoline in the US), xylene etc. Why we never settled on heavy rubber gloves and good ventilation. I don't know.
Skip ahead to the early 1990's when I was manager of process engineering in an aerospace plant. We did a lot of cleaning of metal parts, especially prior to adhesive bonding. At that point I used to able to clean my bike parts in what is called a chemical vapor degreaser. This machine heats the solvent, vaporizes it and then uses a cold layer on top to trap the vapor. Parts cleaned this way are absolutely stripped of grease and dirt. However, these devices became regarded as environmentally unsafe and we had to find new alternatives.
After a great deal of study, what was installed- giant industrial dishwashers using detergent. Like Dale suggested. This proved to provide better results in every respect compared to solvents.
Please be careful about using flammable cancer causing solvents. If gasoline didn't power cars, it would be tightly regulated.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ (Where they wisely rquire that a professional pump your gas)