I just moved into a house I'm renting and the sight glass on the gas water heater is missing. Aluminum foil and Nashua 324 tape are covering it as of yesterday and since then I have smelled a burning plastic smell. Is this safe? The Nashua tape was put on by a man from the gas company. Should I call them back? If not them, who should I call?

Thank you.

Im going to have to say not on this one. I would suggest calling in a plumber and have them order a complete burner access door with sight glass. This is really the only correct way to correct the issue.

I agree with mygirlsdad,, but if you expect the landlord to foot the bill,I would talk it over with him beforehand

The sight glass is for visual inspection only. To see if the pilot is lit. Its not a heat shield. You should not have any high temps in that area at all, if you do the lack of air flow will suffocate the pilot and shut the main valve off. If you have a lot of heat rolling out the bottom of the heater you have problems.

I agree T-Top. However, if for any reason there happened to be a problem that caused a fire (not likely at all, I know) and they decided it was due to someone breaking out the sight glass and it wasn't properly replaced to manufactures specs, somebody would have lawyers crawling all over them. Its all about the sealed combustion act. Heck, you can't even open that door up without replacing the seal by law anymore. In my opinion, its all a joke, but a joke we as professionals have to take very seriously to avoid litigation.