PSA for Christmas Day - Carbon Monoxide Detectors

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dadsbee

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My Christmas Day public service announcement. To all Grandparents, parents and single folks alike. If you don't have a Carbon Monoxide detector in your home get your *** out there tomorrow and buy one and if you do have one test it NOW. We were trying to contact our Daughter yesterday to find out what time they were coming over for Christmas Eve and what time to have supper ready and we couldn't get a response. Finally made contact with the son in law early into the afternoon we we able to find out they were at the hospital and had been since very early AM. THANKFULLY they had a CO detector and it went off, or the day wouldn't have been as happy as it was later in the day. Granddaughter spent 1/2 the day at the hospital on oxygen for CO poisoning, but it could have been a lot worse. Make sure your furnace vent pipes are clear, your furnace is running clean and for God's sake make sure your CO detector batteries are good! Theirs thankfully were! No way I want anyone missing something like this on Christmas morning!

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Thank God they are ok..... You and the wife must be a wreck yet relived....Your so right with what you've posted about these alarms....
 
:thankyou: Glad they are ok! That could have been bad. I got a small dose of Carbon Monoxide 40 years agon from a truck at work. Got sick at my stomach and a busting headache, but thankfully figured out what it was in time to bail out and get fresh air!
 
BOY!!. I spent about 12 years "in a previous life" doing HVAC/ R service/ install and CO detectors were just getting underway back then. There were at least 3 memorable CO "near hits" while I was doing that. None of them were cause by our equipment BUT BUT I worked for a Lennox dealer and went to work for Motorola just as the "big mess" started with the Lennox Pulse recalls. Just like Ford on the exploding tires issues, they did not immediately stip up, and ended up killing some folks.
 
One of the best / worst examples I can remember was a furnace we did not install, and turned out to have VERY aggressive and uncooperative owners.

The furnace had been correctly installed in an partially unfinished basement utility room along with washer / dryer/ water heater. The furnace (90+ efficient) had been correctly vented out the back wall of the house, and correctly spaced the required distance from windows or doors

The owners BUILT A VERY LARGE DECK which pretty much occupied the entire space across the rear of the house OVER THE TOP of the basement windows and the furnace vent terminations!!!

Worse, the housewife insisted on leaving the basement window open above the washer dryer, providing a path for furnace combustion products to enter back into the house!!!

The furnace vent had to be completely re worked because they are required to be pitched for condensate drainback. Because of their height position exiting the basement, there was inadequate pitch available to just extend them out to the outside edge of the deck.

The owners absolutely refused to have or pay for any proper solution. I don't remember what the outcome, but our company was not involved. Two of the most obnoxious people I remember dealing with in those years.
 
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. Christmas might have been a nightmare for your family. Glad it wasn't. God bless yall and Merry Christmas!
 
I have a Lennox pulse 90+ furnace for 26 years now. Just this week it was smart enough to turn itself off when the exhaust vent froze over. Took me a few minutes to figure out the problem. High winds, snow and -30. Will be getting a co detector immediately.
 
Wow Wayne. A near miss...........I am so glad things did not end more seriously. Give your granddaughter a great big hug.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.
 
Bodyperson said:
I have a Lennox pulse 90+ furnace for 26 years now. Just this week it was smart enough to turn itself off when the exhaust vent froze over. Took me a few minutes to figure out the problem. High winds, snow and -30. Will be getting a co detector immediately.
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Pulses manufactured after a break date are supposed to be immune from the problem. It was only starting to show it's head when I left and went to work for Motorola. They are/ were one of the most efficient furnaces made. How often do you have it serviced? The big maintenance item is the air flapper material, and on later ones, the non metallic horn on which they mount. The gas flapper is in the elbow assy down below the silencer, below the gas valve. They can fail, but not often

Other big maintenance is simply keeping them clean. Remove/ clean/ lube the blower and motor, and clean the secondary heat exchanger fins. I used to use a big low storage bin for "catch" and a week sprayer with "coil clean."

Once in awhile the flame sensors fail. They resemble a spark plug with 10mm threads. The ignitor IS a spark plug don't remember the number. Access by the small door at bottom left
 
67Dart273 said:
Pulses manufactured after a break date are supposed to be immune from the problem. It was only starting to show it's head when I left and went to work for Motorola. They are/ were one of the most efficient furnaces made. How often do you have it serviced? The big maintenance item is the air flapper material, and on later ones, the non metallic horn on which they mount. The gas flapper is in the elbow assy down below the silencer, below the gas valve. They can fail, but not often

Other big maintenance is simply keeping them clean. Remove/ clean/ lube the blower and motor, and clean the secondary heat exchanger fins. I used to use a big low storage bin for "catch" and a week sprayer with "coil clean."

Once in awhile the flame sensors fail. They resemble a spark plug with 10mm threads. The ignitor IS a spark plug don't remember the number. Access by the small door at bottom left
Click to expand...
I can hear when the flapper is getting worn. I get it serviced every other year these days. I’ve had to replace two circuit boards.
 
CFD244 said:
Wow Wayne. A near miss...........I am so glad things did not end more seriously. Give your granddaughter a great big hug.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.
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Thanks. She's "stuck" here with us for at least tonight. Her parents left this am to check the house and get supplies for their next Christmas stop at the son in laws parents. They couldn't get back to us with 2 feet of snow falling and blowing this afternoon. They made it about 1/2 way here and deverted to his parents so at least everyone is under a safe roof. No worries for this one to get hugs!
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Thankful that they had a detector. I knew a young family about 50 years ago that lived in an old house close to University of Alabama. They weren't feeling well and Charlie said he would sleep in another bedroom because he thought he had the flue. Next morning in laws couldn't contact them so she went to keep on them. Charlie was dead and Sue and the baby were transported to hospital almost dead. Turned out that birds had built a nest in the flue of the furnace, Joe
 
Back in the late 90s, my then wife and I had gone to a weekend Rock festival and were sleeping in my nearly new Ford Econoline van. Being near new, all of the weatherstripping was in excellent condition, and sealed very well. One night when we were turning in after having more than a few wobbly pops, a cold front had moved in, and the temperature had dropped from 90* to about 40*. We had lots of warm bedding and clothes, but she insisted on leaving a small propane heater going. I told her to shut it off, or at least crack a window a little bit. She did neither, just crawled into bed, I was already nearly out, and just assumed that she had done so. Nope.
Woke up early in the morning with the worst headache I've ever had in my life, and also felt like there was an elephant on my chest. I managed to get up and open the rear door, triggering a rush of air, somewhat like a vacuum. Wife hadn't moved by that point, I made my way to the washroom, head pounding, and back, before I realized that she had left the heater running and it had depleted almost all of the oxygen. She finally got up, complaining of a headache as well, and I still consider myself fortunate that I woke up.
 
Unvented heaters, whether in homes, cabins, or campers, are always a hazard. Unfortunately there are many YouTube and other "reviews" where stuff like this is glossed over or ignored.
 
Quite a few years ago, at a local to me campground, some campers died when they brought their little charcoal burning hibatchi into their tent.
 
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