CO detector for boiler required / recommended?

[Steve Walker]

My previous (non-condensing) boiler was fan flued and under-negative pressure. That was fitted in 1993!

[Steve Walker]

With that set-up, the burner housing is under positive pressure, but the entire casing surrounding it is under negative pressure as the air is moved from the casing to the burner housing.

[Fredxx]

Sorry, I have seen both, even a case where the air pressure sensor in the fan body on the exhaust melted through lack of water where the heat exchanger had also overheated. The fan in the exhaust was in a high efficiency but not condensing Vaillant boiler.

The two I have seen recently have a burner under pressure from a fan, where the boiler casing is at lower than atmosphere pressure.

The output from the fan, mixed with gas, is directed into the burner, with air taken from the boiler casing.

[Martin Brown]

Simple reliable cheap detectors were not so easily available then. Houses used to burn down more frequently back when smoking was a lot more common and soft furnishings were full of flammable PU foam.

The odd house explodes spectacularly every now and then. There was one not far from me a couple of decades ago. DIY gas central heating on bottled gas. No one was injured but after the detonation and subsequent fire there wasn't much left of the house. What there was remained there for years as a charred reminder of what bad DIY can do. The house insurance was voided by the insanely dangerous DIY gas installation.

Gas explosions and CO poisoning very are real hazards if you fail to properly maintain such appliances.

[Fredxx]

Yes, when someone dies in a gas explosion details are found the BBC website. Of course they are real hazards as is falling down a mineshaft:

Being killed as a pedestrian doesn't make the news from being such a common occurrence.

[Tim+]

Okay, I see what you?re getting at. My boiler manage to leak from the combustion chamber to its casing, cooking a number of wires but without leaking gases externally.

Tim

[ARW]

You have mixed up CO and CO2.

However CO mixes freely with the air and the detector can go pretty much anywhere.

CO2 detectors I saw for the first time last week in a school.

[ARW]

dragged from an AICO CO detector I fitted a couple of years ago

[Chris Bacon]

I wionder whether those were to do with the anti-virus efforts (a build-up of CO2 implying insufficient ventilation, increasing the possibility of transnmission).

[Robin]

yes, the government's funding them in all state schools in England for just that

[Jeff Layman]

That's interesting. How did you get those readouts?

I see that it should have been tested at least 120 times according to the instructions, but only 17 were actually done! Can you remember what it reported as the last time the test button was activate before it was tested on 8 October? I suppose that if it was checking the CO level of a log burning stove which was only on in the cooler months then it wouldn't need to be tested every week, but I would still expect to see

50+ or so checks done.

[Mike Humphrey]

That looks like the AudioLink app. If you run the app on your phone it listens to the microphone. Then you tap the test button on the detector three times, and you get a minute or so of very loud squawking (like modem tones but at smoke-detector volume!) which the app decodes to show you the details.

Mike

[ARW]

It is the AudioLink app.

[ARW]

This CO detector is in Watford so I do not see it often. It's in a kitchen in a HMO with a gas cooker.

I noticed a flashing red light on it so did a download with the AICO app.

The dates of the high CO readings coincided with a Chinese family staying there.

Almost certainly an oversized wok or pan on the hob if what I learnt on my AICO installers course is of any use.

[ARW]

I can vaguely remember some of it[1]

I have changed mobile phones and lost the data from previous downloads but there had only been one alarm when I did the other test.

[1] That was the weekend I spent 2 hours in an Italian restaurant at a window seat opposite a strip club looking out for a Latvian stripper that someone wanted to meet.

I do more than just electrics.

[ARW]

[Jeff Layman]

Well, it is - sort of - related to making connections. ;-)

[Jeff Layman]

Strangely enough, although RadioLink gets a mention, AudioLink isn't mentioned in the Ei262 or Ei168RC instruction manuals. That seems a bit odd; I wonder why?

[ARW]

ISTR this has been mentioned before.

The instructions were on the box not in the manual

[olbas]

I'd actually buy 2 (or perhaps 3). The reason being I had an old CO detector that started bleeping one cold night. I strongly suspected it was due to age (10+). I opened all windows as a precaution, and rang the number on the unit for advice. I was fairly sure it was just the unit, but they insisted on a site visit. The engineer was not equipped with his own monitor, and insisted on disconnecting the supply. 2 cold days later I got a plumber round who tested it all and declared the boiler safe. So now I have 2 CO detectors, so I can discount another false alarm. (I suppose it should be 3, with one acting as a decider). Now I know CO is dangerous, and you can't take risks, but the 'professionals' gave such a poor service that I'd rather not be placed in such a situation again.