Carbon Monoxide Detector

[bigstick509]

After reading a recent post concerning smoke detectors, I was wondering how many of us use carbon monoxide detectors. Unfortunately I have hard wired smoke detectors without carbon monoxide sensor,so I have a plug in units by the bedrooms and one in the shop.

[jhart]

Have had 1 in the house for 3 years on our main floor and added a 2nd one to the second floor bedroom areas 2 years ago. Just installed 5 units in one of my tri plexes 2 weeks ago and have 4 more units to put in another tri plex before Aug. 1st, when they have to be done by law in apartments.

[dbhost]

My house is all electric (OUCH!) so Carbon Monoxide detectors are sort of a moot point. However I do have one in the living room not too far from the fireplace for obvious reasons...

[SARGE..g-47]

House and shop.. my shop is under the house in the form of a two car garage and 1/2 basement so.. any carbon monoxide down there can rise to up there just because it can.

[Kristofor]

The hard-wired detectors are just smoke detectors, but I also have 2 stand alone CO and explosive gas detectors.

The latter is important (at least in my mind) because my HF quality nose cannot smell natural gas (nor natural skunk)... I arrived home once where one of the dogs had jumpped to get something off the counter and had turned on the stove (leaving it clicking in the ignite position). With the nobs removed for the kid that wouldn't be a problem now, but at the time it scared me. If they had simply bumped the knobs to on without lighting the burner I would never have known the room was filled with gas when I walked in until after I had flipped on some lights and maybe the radio/tv and possibly blowing up in the process...

[Tom Slick]

I just replaced my battery powered smoke detector with a dual unit. I also have a stand alone in the bedroom.

[pierhogunn]

I've heard that as a rule of thumb, by the time you smell the CO, it's got you

out hardwired Smoke Detectors are also CO detectors

[Tom Slick]

CO is actually odorless and colorless but will give you headaches as a symptom of poisoning.

The smart way to avoid a common source is to have your gas furnace inspected regularly. Just a small crank in the heat exchanger allows CO to be pumped into all the rooms in your house.

[Alex Franke]

We have one on the same floor as the bedrooms.

[Shep]

We've got one above the door to our basment. It has been worth the $25 to have the peace of mind.

[Ed62]

We use 2 smoke detectors, and 1 CO detector near our bedroom.

Ed

[GoFish104]

I guess this is an appropriate post in this thread. This past weekend my cuz & her family where camping. Two people slept in a tent while the rest where in a popup camper. Anyway, they used a propane heater in the tent. Sunday AM the 2 in the tent did not wake up. A young man w/ a 28 yo wife & a baby on the way & a 10 yo girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Your home is not the only place to be aware of the danger. Please be careful out there folks. And a prayer for all those effected by this tragic accident would be greatly appriciated. Jack

[Mr__Bill]

There is the issue of where to place the CO detector. CO is heaver than air and will settle, thus the detector should be near the floor. However it will get mixed in with an air handling system and thus the detector should be near the ceiling where warm air will carry it.

It seems that the makers of combination units claim that on the ceiling works just fine but the makers of stand alone units advise near the floor. The last one I bought plugged in to an outlet with a battery backup. I have seen ones that have a sampling tube that goes into the plenum of your air handling unit.

Most of the expensive units have a replaceable sensor and advise replacing it at set intervals.

It tragic, what happened to the young couple in the tent, and saying people should know better does nothing for them. Even if you do know better it's a good idea to use a portable smoke/CO detector when camping. I know of people who carry one in their luggage and set it out in the hotel room at night.

You have to remember with smoke detectors and CO detectors that while peace of mind is nice, to have protection is what you want. I have seen too many detectors stuck in corners or other dead spots simply because the home owner did not want that unsightly thing being seen. I feel that with the CO detector placing them both high and low is best, just as with smoke detectors using both photo-electric and ionization to cover more possibilities.

Today you can get battery powered smoke detectors that when one sounds they all sound the alarm and if you use the photo-electric near the kitchen you will get fewer dinner is ready alarms. Remember too to vacuum them out often. Small spiders like to set up house in there and will cause false alarms too.

OK, I'll get off of my soapbox now.

Bill