If you're burning fuel for heat, you need CO detectors. In the past decade, I've had 0 smoke alarm activations but 2 CO activations. Like most people, my utility systems were located in utility rooms and forgotten about.
CO is odorless, color less, and quite simply you don't realize it's there until it's too late. As I understand it one of the signs is simply feeling tired. That's easy to misinterpret as being tired.
What prompted this PSA was a visit to my aunt's house. She's got gas appliances but didn't have any CO detectors. For not much money and less than an hour to install we had that issue fixed. It's definately in the "cheap insurance" category, and almost in the "stupid not to" category.
Good for you. Also remember they have a limited life and there is a date on them. If you have one, check it our to be sure it is still working properly. I recently replaced mine, as well as the hard wired smoke detectors.
They, like smoke detectors, have a limited life and must be replaced every few years. When you install one, write the replacement date on it with a magic marker. Graham
A few weeks ago one of my Kidde combination Smoke and CO detectors started chirping every 30 seconds. It's a talking unit, but it didn't make any anno uncement, not even "Low Battery", so I wasn't sure what was going on. I tes ted the battery and it was good, so I put it back in. Once I did that, the chirping stopped. I then checked the manual and found that the chirping was the signal to let the user know that the CO detector portion had reached i ts 7 year end-of-life. Sure as heck, the date on the side of the unit showe d that it was 7 years old.
Here's the strange (and dangerous) part. The manual reads as follows:
Alarm Replacement Seven years after initial power-up, this unit will "chirp" every 30 seconds to indicate that it is time to replace the alarm. A label has been provided on the side of the alarm that has "Replace by" printed on it. Write the replace by date on the label. The date written on the label should be after seven (7) years of cumulative power. REPLACE IMMEDIATELY! IT WILL NOT DETECT CO IN THIS CONDITION.
The issue I see here is that all it takes is an R&R of the battery to silen ce the EOL alarm. I immediately ordered a new detector, but I rehung the ol d one so that I still had a smoke detector in the meantime. The unit did no t chirp once while I waited for the new detector to arrive, a period of abo ut 4-5 days. This appears to me to be a major flaw. The manual says in big, bold letters that the unit will not detect CO in this condition, yet I was able to silence the EOL alarm just by removing and replacing the battery. Had I not checked the manual, I might have just shrugged my shoulders and a ssumed it was a glitch.
I called Kidde about this and they were somewhat vague, basically saying "Y es, replacing the battery will silence the EOL alarm, but it *should* start chirping again within a few days". When I asked whether or not it would ac tually detect CO during that time, she said "If you press the test button a nd you get the verbal announcement during the test, then yes, it will detec t CO." She said that users should test all detectors at least once a month and always immediately after the batteries are replaced.
Since I still have the old detector, I am going to put some batteries in it and test it. Assuming it gives the CO alarm announcement during the test, I'm going to leave the batteries in and see if it starts chirping the EOL a larm "within a few days". If it doesn't, I will be on the phone with Kidde once again.
One day ai realized my smoke detectors have not set off an alarm from cooking for a long time. They are hard wired so there was no battery, thus is was easy to ignore them
The new ones are dual powered and yes, at least once every couple of weeks we set them off while cooking. Good to know they are working even if it is a PITA at times.
I think it has been compulsory for some time that all new houses in Alberta have SDs installed on each level. CODs are only recommended AIUI. I have a 60+year old house and have 3 SDs and 2 CODs (one near the bedrooms and the other in the basement). A few weeks ago, a car was left running and nearly killed an entire family. This sort of thing happens all too often. Graham
Have 2 CO detectors - one in the basement (gas furnace and water heater), the other on the main level (gas cook stove and gas logs in the family room fireplace). The garage is on this level but we live where it's warm enough to not need to run the vehicles in the garage.
Have 7 smoke detectors on 3 levels - laundry, basement (dual w/CO), basement workshop, 2 near the master bedroom (one each ionization and photo), 2 near the upstairs bedrooms (one each ionization and photo). All installed since we bought the house 10 years ago and most less than 5 years old.
There is no place on earth where it is cold enough that you "need to run the vehicles in the garage". Working as a mechanic in years gone by, CO was always a risk because there WERE times it was necessary to run vehicles inside the garage, and we only had hoses to slip over the tailpipe and stick out through a hole in the door. In later years, we had a fan forced evacuation system.
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