sooty smell

[canasta]

My central heating and hot water boiler for my private apartment is producing a sooty smell that smarts on the eyes. I have it cleaned twice in last 6 months - both times it had a LOT of soot and took an age to clean. Last week we had the flue cleaned and had a small amount of soot in it. Still the problem persists so we took decision to replace it. Problem I have is that the engineer cannot replace it for two weeks - I'm reluctant to let anybody else do it as he has done other work for me that was first class.

So...question Sooty smell - making eyes slightly water - is this carbon monoxide? Is it dangerous?

[m Ransley]

Why are you asking here, go buy a Co alarm, a unit with digital read out, like KIDD that remembers-holds peak readings, even small amounts are bad, amounts less then the alarm range to set it off. It stinks, its bad, don`t run it, its that simple. Plug in electric heaters or put on sweaters.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Well, no. . . CO is odorless. BUT! If your furnace is running that poorly, it most certainly is producing a lot of CO. If you can smell other byproducts of combustion then it is likely that CO is present in the living areas.

What does the digital CO detector say? [$40 at the home center. Required by law in more and more municipalities. You are foolish if you don't have one.]

And aside from the CO- the other danger is that your furnace might start your house on fire. As long as you are well insured and there is nothing in the house that you care about, that isn't a big problem.

[What I'm saying is- "Turn the furnace off NOW."]

Jim

[Banty]

Yep. Get CO detector, and write the landlord invoking all the habitability statements that a lawyer can muster for you (try without the lawyer first - just talk to him or her while calling any local renter's rights organizations, but most likely you have local ordinances protecting you in this regard).

Banty

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Scarey part is- it appears that the poster *is* the landlord. He/she has been hiring folks-- and canastahotel.com is a UK Hotel.

Jim

[Banty]

Hopefully the rooms have CO detectors!

If you're right, then the solution is to move out (go to a hotel room!) and fix it. Period. Don't cheap out.

Banty