Carbon Monoxide alarm?

[dandysmom]

Reading Smudgley's thread and EmmaG's reply, thought I'd ask: do you have one?
It's the sort of thing I've thought about occasionally but never gotten around to buying. I do have a smoke alarm. Actually, I don't even know if a gas boiler gives off CM.....??

[yola]

Yes I have one, but only because Sebastian sleeps in the room where our boiler is (combi-boiler - 1/2 way up the houe rather than traditionally in kitchen). I insisted on it.

However, I told OH about Smudgley's ordeal and he did tell me to ask the engineer to check for carbon monoxide AND gas emissions when he comes tomorrow as we've had no end of problem with the darned thing.

[EmmaG]

I believe a gas boiler can give off CM. I purchased one after seeing a programme on TV where a husband had died because of CM poisoning, but the wife was ok because she was asleep downstairs (she slept in their spare room because her husband snores) she was devastated and I thought for the cost of an alarm it seemed silly not to get one.

[smudgley]

Our boiler has been playing up for a couple of weeks, not lighting when asked to & occasionally a funny smell from it, we were worried & had decided to get it checked out incase it was anything serious. That was something John was going to do tomorrow & obviously now will be doing tomorrow. John bought a C/M tester yesterday when he went shopping, he was reading the instructions yesterday & trying to test it etc, but we were going out for a Christmas meal with the caravan club we are in last night & I told him to leave it & do it another time or we would be late.

[Donna]

I have one of those temporary ones that last three months. bought one to put near the fire in the lounge when sean kicked a balloon up the chimney - wasnt sure if the balloon went out the top of the chimney or got stuck... but the test proved it was safe..

[Mags]

We've had a carbon monoxide alarm for a few years now, we originally bought one as we used to have a Baxi backboiler system for our central heating, and I was always a bit concerned about it in case there were any emissions from it.

We have now replaced it with a combi condenser boiler, a lot safer.

[yola]

Originally Posted by Mags

We have now replaced it with a combi condenser boiler, a lot safer.

But scarily expensive if it goes wrong . . . we've had to have switches replaced on about 3 occasions, and last year the main condenser unit failed (and me with a 6 week old baby in the house at the time ), that was about £500 to replace

I'm hoping it's a switch again this time . . .

[Jac]

I have one but only because I nearly lost my Mum a few years ago to CM poisoning.
I went to her house and as she opened the door I said her house stunk. (didn't go down well)
To cut a long story short I phoned the gas board. They came out within an hour.
The guy took a reading and said If my Mum had been in that room another hour she would have been dead. In her case it was her fire. The gasses were coming back into the room instead of going up the chimney to the flu.
After he left she said she had been suffering from headaches and had been falling asleep in front of the TV.

[Fran]

Yes, we have had a CM monitor for a few years because our boiler is in Em's bedroom. It still worries me though that the boiler is in her bedroom. Smudgley's scare has really heightened the importance of annual checks on boilers and fires and the necessity for CM monitors. Our boiler is quite new, less than a year old but I still worry...

[HellBelle]

We have a CO detector in our front room because we have a gas fire in there that we use very irregularly (usually so Mr C can curl up in front of it when he comes in wet and cold!). The man from British Gas said that appliances that didn't get used much were more likely to be a source of danger. We got one from Tesco and I feel much happier putting the fire on now.