PSA for those of you like me that have "old style" gas wall heaters

[GAJ]

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CO (CARBON MONOXIDE) ALARM IN EVERY BEDROOM AND IN THE HALLWAY NEAR THE WALL HEATER.

Woke up this AM to our CO alarms going off and with a headache.

The "master" was screaming "warning Carbon Monoxide Alert" and the slave units hard wired in the bedrooms were intermittently strobing.

Lit the 30 year old wall heater yesterday at 3pm and they went off at 6:30 am this morning as likely the vent is clogged or there is a failure in the combustion chamber.

We aren't taking any chances on such an old unit and simply having it professionally replaced.

PLEASE do yourself and family a favor and get CO alarms if you use gas heaters. They don't have to be hard wired and now you buy 10 year ones with a permanent battery that will tell you when to replace it. No batteries to replace.

Dodged a bullet. arty

 

[wazzuFreddo]

yikes! glad you guys are ok.


I have the Nest Protect and their thermostat, so if the CO alarm goes off, it shuts off the heater.

 

[dravnx]

I had to pull the battery out of my CO detector last night. The constant beeping was making me nauseous and giving me a headache.

 

[GAJ]

I had to pull the battery out of my CO detector last night. The constant beeping was making me nauseous and giving me a headache.

Perfect.

That deserves one of these!

 

[WoodsChick]

Good advice. Lost a newly married friend years ago to this. His new wife and mother-in-law fell asleep on the couch in the living room. They were unconscious but still alive when his coworker busted through the front door after seeing his car still parked in the driveway but no response. We have the 10-year ones everywhere.

 

[GAJ]

Good advice. Lost a newly married friend years ago to this. His new wife and mother-in-law fell asleep on the couch in the living room. They were unconscious but still alive when his coworker busted through the front door after seeing his car still parked in the driveway but no response. We have the 10-year ones everywhere.

Terrible.

 

[byke]

You mention old style, which would imply that there's a newer style that's safer? I assume it's a potential hazard with pretty much any type of combustion?

 

[gnahc79]

Years ago a friend lost his adult son this way .

Last year I got 5 of the Kidde P4010DCSCO combo smoke/CO interconnected alarms. No issues so far.

 

[Mr. White]

You mention old style, which would imply that there's a newer style that's safer? I assume it's a potential hazard with pretty much any type of combustion?

Any gas heater has the potential to be unsafe in regards to CO poisoning. A crack/hole in the heat exchanger for example.

 

[augustiron]

Another anecdote on this:

Be wary of battery only powdered units, opt for hardwired + battery.

Every year here in "second home country" I hear of homeowners arriving to their second home where a battery only CO monitor was triggered, but wore out it's batteries long before the homeowner arrived, unaware of the deadly CO levels.

Couple that with ignoring symptoms by naturally expecting to feel groggy after the long drive and bad things happen.

 

[byke]

Pretty sure there was a really sad story out your way maybe five years ago.

 

[Eldritch]

You mention old style, which would imply that there's a newer style that's safer? I assume it's a potential hazard with pretty much any type of combustion?

His unit was 30 years old. That is WAY past the typical useful life of such a device.

Central Heat would be the modern solution, yes. A more contemporary local heat solution would be steam or electrical, because CA is banning all Gas Equipment before the end of the decade.

 

[byke]

Haha well that's no good. We have a propane furnace, stove, dryer, water heater....we gotta get the fk out of this place. :laughing

 

[AbsolutEnduser]

His unit was 30 years old. That is WAY past the typical useful life of such a device.
.

Why not a 67 year old furnace?? His is a newb.. oh wait, he has a wall heater? Maybe should have had this:

 

[Eldritch]

Haha well that's no good. We have a propane furnace, stove, dryer, water heater....we gotta get the fk out of this place. :laughing

I haven't heard them making any noise about banning propane yet, and I haven't heard any noise about forcing people to update existing yet.

Right now it is all just Building Code stuff. All Natural Gas Installations in CA will be banned in new construction the next few years (a lot of cities already banned), and of course once that is a statewide mandate, any permit work done that impacts the HVAC at a property will require an update to electric in order to close permits on your work, so as older Gas systems fail and you need to pull permits to repair anything that isn't in kind, they will require upgrades to Electric.

I reckon Gas won't be totally gone for another 20 years or so in CA, which is about when electricity will be delivered reliably to power these systems without exploding your town with fire.

:laughing

Why not a 67 year old furnace?? His is a newb.. oh wait, he has a wall heater? Maybe should have had this:

Yeah, those old guys are fucking tanks, but those wall mounted units, gas or electric, are fucking death traps because they hardly ever get maintenance and people leave them in place until they break or burn people to death in a terrible fire while they sleep, whichever comes first!

 

[CDONA]

My first solo apt. had one, old complex back in the 70's, wrong side of the tracks.
One nite a big bang woke me up and the whole front grill was on the floor.
I guess it/I survived a late ignition, worked fine after.

 

[bikewanker]

Guess I’d better get out the sleeping bag and a couple of extension cords for the electric heater to get me through until tax time.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

I was wondering why the house felt so cold when the heater was on and working fine last night. Then I remembered I have gone down 2 pant sizes since August and there isn't as much "insulation" as there used to be. :laughing