# CO alarms/sniffers



## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

Installed a 40 gal ng wh this morning. New tank was 2.25 inches taller than the old tank which left me with minimal but acceptable rise in about the first 3' of flue pipe. Carpet cleaners came in about an hour after I was gone. Don't know what that has to do with anything but it's a piece of the puzzle. Around 5:00 pm the ho calls in and reports that he has two CO detectors going off. I send word back to him that I'm on my way and don't use any hot water. I am at this point assuming that I mucked (sorry muck) something up. 

I get back over there and the first thing I do is a draft test. Wh is drafting just fine. Ok let me see the CO detectors. Both are battery powered. When did you last change the batteries? A little over a year ago. Ok, let's get some new batteries. New batteries go in and the units test properly. So now I take one of the detectors down to the mechanical room, turn the wh on high so it fires, and just stand there for about 5 minutes (all of this because I do not own a CO sniffer). I get nothing. So I go throughout the house, with the ho with me every step of the way and end up in the attic at the 2nd furnace trying to make this thing go off. I never get anything. At this point I start reading the back of the CO detector and discover that these 10 year old detectors should have been replaced after year 7. Nevertheless they test operable. I advise ho to replace them as soon as possible. We speculate as to whether any of the chemicals that the carpet cleaners used might have caused it (I doubt it). I'm stumped. Don't know why they went off. It's difficult to believe that replacing the wh in the morning and alarms in the afternoon are coincidental but not impossible. I have encountered some very bizarre coincidences in this business.

Any ideas?

Are CO sniffers worth having? Which ones?

Has anyone ever heard of or encountered any problems of this sort associated with carpet cleaning?


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

it could have been some oils burning off the new tank, ive had new equipment set off detectors after leaving because a mech room door had been opened. after going back and checking after the unit had fired and the house aired all the detectors read clean.


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

and sniffers are a great investment.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

You lost me on this post


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

******* said:


> You lost me on this post


Lost you where and how? I was trying to be brief because I didn't have time or energy to write every detail.

I'm trying to figure this out so tell me what you don't understand about the post.


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## rocksteady (Oct 8, 2008)

i realize that you don't own a CO tester but that's what i'd do first. it's always nice to have a known good and calibrated piece of equipment to test "suspect" equipment with. i've found consumer testers of almost any kind are not nearly as accurate or precise as an industrial or profesional equivilant. who knows what could have set them off but i'd be hesitant to just accept that they're working fine now without testing them against a known good unit. telling the HO to pick up a pair of new ones is a good start. if they don't go off again, i'd say you're good.








paul


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

probably just a normal day in the plumbing world. Dont know why but seems like we as plumbers have some of the most strangest stuff happen, and it will only happen to us. I go to peoples homes all the time to fix little stuff and the most famous line i here is" of course it wont do it while your here"


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

I carry a Fyrite Pro 125 Combustion Analyzer with a thermal printer in my truck, which is a bit over kill but it will give me the parts per million. You can and should buy a much cheaper unit if all you are looking for is sources of CO2.

Mark


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

ToUtahNow said:


> I carry a Fyrite Pro 125 Combustion Analyzer with a thermal printer in my truck, which is a bit over kill but it will give me the parts per million. You can and should buy a much cheaper unit if all you are looking for is sources of CO2.
> 
> Mark


If I was just looking for CO2 I wouldn't care or bother :laughing:!

I know what you meant. Just had to be a smart aleck, you know, there's one in every crowd .

Any suggestions on make/model for a simple but reliable sniffer? I'm always suspect of test equipment. Even though they can be calibrated, how do you really ever know whether or not it is accurate. I guess redundancy would solve that but I'm not carrying two or three of everything around with me.


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

I like everything in the Bacharach line

http://www.bacharach-inc.com/analyzers-monitors.htm

Mark


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## TDB (Jun 25, 2008)

I use a supco co meter. Can get them off ebay (or clones of them) for less than $100. Fluke makes a popular meter but its too expensive compared to others...


Was anybody cooking with a gas stove?

Is the heater putting out CO? An old Forced air can have a cracked heat exchanger which will eventually put enough CO in a room to set off the wall detecters.

Only way your W/H will put it out is a faulty flue.

Does the carpet installers carpet seam glueing release CO? It may...


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

TDB said:


> I use a supco co meter. Can get them off ebay (or clones of them) for less than $100. Fluke makes a popular meter but its too expensive compared to others...
> 
> 
> Was anybody cooking with a gas stove?
> ...


They weren't installing the carpet, only cleaning it. I really think the carpet cleaning was not to blame.


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

I had a case once where I had a bunch of package units on the roof with cracked fireboxes. I used my meter to verify no ones life was in danger and the only home which went off the chart was a home were the lady was cooking carnitas and refried beans on a filthy stove. There was obviously something wrong with her stove and I told her she needed to shut it off and call an appliance guy. On that case I believe the manufacture changed out all of the heat exchangers (100s) and extended the warranties 10-years.

Mark


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