How do I know if my CO alarm went off because of Carbon Monoxide?

[green-foam]

On 23/07/2021 at 22:29, Guest Barbara Harris said:

Why does my carbon monoxide go off when the wood burner was lit

Carbon monoxide is given off by unburnt organic fuel, I would suspect your wood burner or its chimney have a leak, you should get it checked by a HETAS person soon as possible, and do not use it until it has been checked.

[green-foam]

Just to point out and avoid confusion, CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is what makes fizzy drinks fizz. CO is Carbon Monoxide and is lethal in small doses.

Burglar alarms do not create CO since there is no combustion happening in the panel. I would also have to ask if what he said was true why did your CO alarm not start beeping again?

[Guest Natalie]

My Kidde CO detector beeped twice and has not beeped again in the middle of the night. The digital screen reads zero and it has not beeped since . What does this mean ? I’m now scared to go back to sleep . We have no fireplaces, cooktops, or furnaces running. Only the air and it’s summer here for reference. 

[Harry]

Hi Natalie, what is the replacement date on the unit, please? Kidde CO alarms last for ten years, usually.

Harry

[Guest Rob A]

On 24/11/2017 at 08:51, Safelincs said:

Hi Janie

I have not heard of screed setting off CO alarms, however, I am aware of one chemical that can set CO alarms off. The hydrogen generated when eg car batteries are charged reacts with the sensor in the same way as carbon monoxide does.

Please keep in mind that CO also can come from your neighbours  (if they have a vent on the outside, or from a shared roof space) and from the road if you are living next to a very busy road.

Harry

 

On 24/11/2017 at 08:51, Safelincs said:

Hi Janie

I have not heard of screed setting off CO alarms, however, I am aware of one chemical that can set CO alarms off. The hydrogen generated when eg car batteries are charged reacts with the sensor in the same way as carbon monoxide does.

Please keep in mind that CO also can come from your neighbours  (if they have a vent on the outside, or from a shared roof space) and from the road if you are living next to a very busy road.

Harry

Hi

Hi

We had screed laid in our basement yesterday. About an after the builders left our carbon monoxide alarms started to go off.  We have three separate alarms and they all went off.

They’re not interlinked and they are all of different models.

One of the alarms shows the carbon monoxide level and was reading over 250.   
We opened all the doors and windows and the levels went down but during the night alarms have gone off again.  There are no other possible sources of carbon monoxide in our house, and taking the alarms outside eventually silenced them.   
It’s interesting that there is so little information on screed releasing CO whilst drying.  I am a doctor so aware that this level of exposure is unlikely to be serious unless we were in the basement a long time, but the alarms triggering is a pest during the night.   

[Guest Sandra]

My co alarm went off and when I took it down something wet was coming out of it and the batteries looked a little corroded. If my batteries were going bad would that make it go off? There was no reading on the display, it was blank. 

[green-foam]

If the batteries are corroded, and "something wet" came out of your CO alarm, and its display is blank, I would replace it A.S.A.P.

[Guest Alarm going off]

My alarm went off four times back to back until I took batteries out and put them back in. It has not went off again. Do I have a leak or what could cause this

[green-foam]

If the batteries are less than 1 year old, and the alarm has not sounded since, but does sound when the test button is pressed, and the alarm has not expired (Some CO alarms have a 5 year life, others a 7 year life) then you have had a false alarm.

 

[Guest Meg]

Hi. 
had carbon monoxide alarm go off in the middle of the night. 
Fire brigade found reading of 7, gas man found no reading but couldn’t go inside boiler, he disconnected gas. He also stated that fridge nor freezer could be responsible. 
Had engineer  out to check boiler, he found nothing amiss. He did however find a reading of 2 behind fridge and declared that fridge responsible as gas from fridge or freezer could activate and produce carbon manixide?

whi is correct? Should I buy new fridge?

[green-foam]

I suggest that your "engineer" is in error and there is nothing wrong with your fridge or freezer.

Fridges and freezers work by removing heat from inside what is essentially an insulated box. They do this by using a sealed system of small pipes and a compressor (Which is outside of the box, at the back)  This sealed system does not contain carbon monoxide, also if there was a leak in the pipes your fridge or freezer would no longer get cold.

Check the date on your carbon monoxide alarm as most will only last for 5 years, some 7 years. Also check the age of its battery, some have to be changed annually, but quite a lot have a "battery for life"

You probably had a false alarm, in which case reset/clear your detector. If it continues to sound alarm condition, open all the windows and wait for it to stop.

Another thing you can do is take the detector outside wait for it to stop, bring the detector back in, if it works when you press the test button all is well, if it starts again open all the windows and call the gas company.

[Guest Lisa]

Since having my chimney cleaned, my carbon monoxide alarm has been going off when it's windy outside. This has never happened before, is there something wrong? 

[green-foam]

It sounds like wind is blowing carbon monoxide back down the chimney. Did your chimney have a cowel?

[Guest Christal]

Can a not working fridge give off Carbon Monoxide? Cause I think mine went off and my fidge just went out trying to get another fridge but it seems to click on but not getting COLD could that be 1 reason my CO detector went off?

[green-foam]

Fridges do use a hydrofluorocarbon to keep them cool, if your fridge leaked it is possible that your CO alarm detected this.

[Guest Jimmy]

We had the floor screed in our extension done this morning and this evening our CO alarm went off for the first time ever.

[green-foam]

On 26/02/2022 at 19:30, Guest Jimmy said:

We had the floor screed in our extension done this morning and this evening our CO alarm went off for the first time ever.

It is not unusual for floor screed to activate carbon monoxide detectors.

[Guest Gabe-Syverson]

I have more than one CO detector but this morning only one of them went off. Is this normal?

[green-foam]

It depends if they are interlinked or not. (You do not say) Also it depends on how long it sounded for, as interlinked alarms do have a slight delay.

What happened when you pressed the test button.

[Guest Gemma]

Husband has just told me that the Kidde CO monitor went off while I was out. He’s unable to tell what the number of beeps were only that it beeped and he hit the reset button. He changed the batteries as it has been a number of years since we did so. The alarm hasn’t made a noise since. If there was CO present would the alarm go off again even after replacing the batteries/resetting? 

[Guest Omey]

I live in a mobile home and have two co detectors one near the boiler in the hall and one near the cooker there only about 10 feet apart only  one went off . I put the one in the hall into the kitchen it’s not going off . I took the batteries out of the one that was going off and took it outside into my car after about 10 mins it went off again but the one that’s now  in my kitchen is still ok . And one more thing my daughter had just finished making pasta on the gas cooker and steamed the whole place she forgot to put on the extractor fan . It has to be faulty there about 5 years old 

[green-foam]

And your question is?

As an aside most standalone carbon monoxide detectors have a working life of 5-7 years (I changed mine in 2020)

[green-foam]

Sorry, but there have been long delays with this forum recently.

On 04/05/2022 at 23:39, Guest Gemma said:

 If there was CO present would the alarm go off again even after replacing the batteries/resetting? 

 

Yes. But you should still carry out a test as per manufacturer's instructions to establish does the device still work.

[Guest Anon]

My fire and Carbon monoxide alarms went off simultanousley twice Once at 0014hrs and once again at 0134hrs, Unfortunately neither alarm nor boiler is digital so I can't tell if it's just the battery, should I be worried?

[green-foam]

It would be worth making sure the devices are clean and dust free. You should also test them to make sure they are working, another thing to check is how old are they? and when did you last change the batteries.