CO detector alarm

[bluedog225]

This is a little disturbing. At 2:50 am and an alarm is going off. I get up and figure out it’s the Kiddie CO detector in the kitchen. It reads 256 parts per. That’s not good. I turn on the outdoor vented fan over the stove and figure out which windows to open that have screens on. Took a second. Get it sorted pretty quick.

In doing do, I pick up the detector and take it with me. By the time I’m back in the bedroom, 5-6 seconds, the reading is dropping fast to zero.

The only natural gas appliances in the living area of the house if the stove. All burners off. No smell of gas.

The furnace is in the attic space. And the heater is turned off.

The water heater is in an outside closet with a vented door to the outside. Not joined to the living are except through the attic.

The fireplace gas has been terminated in the attic.

I check the “Peak” CO reading on the monitor and it reads 999. Also not good.

The monitor is back at its original location and reads zero. It flashes green regularly indicating normal operation. No end of life alarm. No low battery alarm.

I reset, test, then replace he batteries. All functions normally.

It’s easy to hope for a faulty unit. Seems unwise. I’ll buy a couple more at home despot today.

Any ideas. Not the weather to have the windows open.

edit to add: Furnace has electric ignition. Stove has electric ignition. Water heater has traditional pilot. I checked the water heater closet. All normal. Vent pipe in place. I’ve lived here four 35 years.

And the detector is pre-covid. Old. Due for replacement even though no end of life alert.

One more edit. I went ahead and opened it up again and found the date of manufacturer. It’s 04. Time she flies. I’m guessing end of life. Going back to bed.

 

[PCustoms]

Always worth calling the FD for a double check with their meter

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yeah, end of life...replace it no questions asked.

 

[kbuhagiar]

Same thing happened to me around 15 years ago in our previous home. Same circumstances, same results. I was on edge for a few days after that, anticipating a repeat event.

Never happened. I replaced the CO detector anyway, out of an abundance of caution.

The cynic/old man yelling at clouds in me wants to think it is all part of a corporate scheme to sell more CO detectors.

 

[JohnX14]

I'd have called FD, as PC said. Unless you slept with the windows wide open.

I recently saw a photo of a 95% clogged water heater vent that had a dead squirrel in it. It would periodically set off the CO detector, eventually they found the cause. I think they may have seen the PVC vent turning color from the heat build up.

 

[dcg9381]

One more edit. I went ahead and opened it up again and found the date of manufacturer. It’s 04. Time she flies. I’m guessing end of life. Going back to bed.

All good to be cautious, but I've spent a lots of money chasing "propane leaks" in RVs and C02 alarms.. I have YET to come up with a case where there was an actual problem, EOL is 10 years (maybe sooner). Better to have one than not!

 

[bluedog225]

I'd have called FD, as PC said. Unless you slept with the windows wide open.

I recently saw a photo of a 95% clogged water heater vent that had a dead squirrel in it. It would periodically set off the CO detector, eventually they found the cause. I think they may have seen the PVC vent turning color from the heat build up.

Interesting thought. Yes, I left the windows open.

 

[JohnX14]

Also, for the cost, I'd have 2, for redundancy.

 

[rlitman]

..Any ideas...

Yes, but it's a bit late now. When a CO detector is going off with a high CO alarm (four fast beeps), you call the fire department!

Around here, the Fire Marshall directs commercial CO alarms to silently send the FD immediately. The fire department will have much better CO sensing equipment that can not only tell there's any CO left, but they may also have a special pulse oximeter that detects if you inhaled CO recently, and will enforce an evacuation until they can ensure the environment is safe. Massimo Rainbow pulse oximeters (not the stuff you can get on Amazon) are sensitive enough to tell if you've smoked A cigarette in the past few days.

Carbon Monoxide is also flammable gas, so CO detectors will sense high levels of flammable gasses in the air, but they're supposed to trigger a "trouble" response in that scenario. I had a odor-insensitive relative who left a natural gas range burner opened (not burning) that triggered his CO sensors to give a malfunction beep.

Also, for the cost, I'd have 2, for redundancy.

CO detectors (at least all the ones I'm familiar with) have a 7-10 year operating life. So maybe buy the 2nd one at your next battery swap time so they're not all failing at the same time?

 

[Fav Onefour]

What is the date on the detector? I have a bunch of that style. They seem good until they are outdated.

At the very least, I'd get a second one and see if you can get comparison numbers. I would seriously doubt you'd be posting on the forum if those numbers were correct.

 

[manwithtools]

What is the date on the detector?

I went ahead and opened it up again and found the date of manufacturer. It’s 04.

 

[Fav Onefour]

Sorry, I missed the date check answer.
It's outdated. You can ignore my last advice along with all the other ideas of checking every device in the home. Just replace the detector.

 

[bluedog225]

It’s been longer than I thought since I updated my technology. I think I have three or four of these things total. But I took a three to the cabin because I burn wood and charcoal.

I’ll get at least two new ones for the house.

Given the zero after I reset it, there’s no way I’m going to call the fire department at three in the morning when I can evaluate the situation, open the windows, and go back to sleep.

 

[rlitman]

...Given the zero after I reset it, there’s no way I’m going to call the fire department at three in the morning when I can evaluate the situation, open the windows, and go back to sleep.

The ONLY reason I'm not arguing with you over this point is the fact that the false alarm was from a unit WAY past EOL, and you had other detectors not alarming.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

The 999 seems like a lot. At that level, anyone exposed would have symptoms within minutes and be unconscious pretty soon after that.

So...very likely the CO detector is bad.

But....the downside risk of missing this is pretty high.

If you don't want to bug your fire department, you could likely get the gas company to come out (for free) to check for CO. If it is CO, the water heater is a likely suspect.

Or, an alternative and the only sure way to check for CO exposure, is with a blood test. If someone comes out with a CO detector, they'll tell you what they find when they check it. But maybe somethings not running or the wind is from the other direction or who knows what. A blood test will tell you with 100% confidence. Half life of CO in a human is 4-6 hours. So, even 8-12 hours later you'd have 25% CO still hooked up to your red blood cells, blocking O2 molecules.

Final thought....Just as a public service reminder....CO detectors do not detect natural gas or propane. You can buy a detector that will check for CO AND hydrocarbon gases....but the regular ones don't.

I was at an industry meeting last week and there was a representative from NTSB there talking about natural gas safety. She asked "Who has a gas detector in their house?" to a room of 500 natural gas people. I didn't see any hands raised. She was a bit disappointed as NTSB issued recommendations for gas detectors to be installed in all customer premises in 1976. It just hasn't caught a lot of traction yet.

 

[bluedog225]

Got a couple of new units.

Unfortunate that the end of life feature on the kiddie didn’t trigger as designed. I would have replaced it.

 

[CraigStu]

In our last house we had a 3 yr old SimplySafe system w/ a CO detector in the basement where the natural gas heat and water heater were. One day my wife called me and set it was sounding. I was 60 min away. I said open all windows and doors in the basement, and make sure cats and dogs stay upstairs and call me back. 15 min later she said that had fixed it so I stopped and got a new unit at HD. Figured I'd compare it to the sounding unit. As best as we could tell the SS unit has bad. I talked w/ them and they sent a replacement. I go through all this just to say that it seems to me that these units are as best quality as they can build for the price but my experience, plus rlitman's comments above, says they are actually not very high quality. BTW I kept the one from HD and mounted it right next to the SS unit for future comparisons.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Got a couple of new units.

Good to have several units in the house so you can compare readings.