Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (1 Viewer)

strathspey

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May 19, 2009
62
4
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Coachbuilt
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4 years
All cold weather campers, please don't forget to check your Carbon Monoxide detectors. They do have a finite life and need renewing every few years. If you have not got one, they cost around £25

Lloyds Pharmacy sell Carbon Monoxide alarms for £12.99.
 

gazznsam

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May 15, 2009
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Eastwood, Notts
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13
someone asked about knock out gas alarms,
most lpg gas detector alarms work for all flamable gasses, which covers the knock out gasses (which is why it makes their use seem so unprobable, the fridge has a standing pilot light, some people have room vented heaters, so why havent the gassers ever blown a van up.. let alone killed someone, as would happen to me, last time i was put under at hospital i spent a week in icu afterwards (and 4 hours trying to revive me), because some of the pills i am on react with the gas apparantly,

anyway, just thought i'd post that lidl have the gas alarm on sale right now, it's £12.99, comes with a mains adaptor, but it runs on 12 volts, when i bought one i e-mailed the makers to ask about voltage tollerance, and was told it'll be fine in a motorhome with voltage upto 17 volts, and it has been, some people said the next batch came with a fag lighter connection wire after i bought mine, but the connection is via eyeletts to screw terminals on the back of the unit, so easy to change, just get the polarity right.


had mine for 4 years now, only accidentaly set it off once, i was re-filling a butane soldering iron at the front of the van... outside but with the cab door open, alarm went off within 2 seconds of begining the fill, and it's located in the middle of the van where all the gas items are, so it's very sensative, and darn loud.
 

Kon tiki

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Oct 11, 2007
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An alarm for LPG needs to be set low down as LPG is heavier than air hence the drop out holes. Also I doubt that these would detect carbon monoxide or even some of the other flamable gasses that are lighter than air. So I don't think they would be any use for the so called knock gas (not that I believe its possible but that topic has been discussed enough)

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gazznsam

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May 15, 2009
273
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Eastwood, Notts
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so if the alarm is no use for the knock out gasses as it's too low, then the dog who sleeps on the floor wont be affected by the knock out gas....

thats enough for me to make my own mind up about knock out gassings.

afaik these alarms work like most other flamable gas alarms, there's a hot wire in a gauze as the sensor, works like a davy lamp, flamable gas will burn inside the gauze, safely so it dosent ignite the gas outside the gas, only instead of seeing the flame rise as in a davy lamp, the current through the hot wire changes, setting the alarm off,

Should work on any gas that will burn, but dont take my word for it,
i'm sure my gas detector destructions listed a load of flamable gasses it would trigger for... tho dog farts arent one of them luckily, as toffee occasionaly lays with her bum against the alarm, and she hasnt set it off yet, despite our noses saying she should have :roflmto:
 
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sinbad1

Deleted User
Should work on any gas that will burn, but dont take my word for it,
i'm sure my gas detector destructions listed a load of flamable gasses it would trigger for... tho dog farts arent one of them luckily, as toffee occasionaly lays with her bum against the alarm, and she hasnt set it off yet, despite our noses saying she should have :roflmto:

Umm is dog fart gas ,a non flamable type of methane :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

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geoff1947

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May 20, 2008
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HELP Carbon Monoxide

Have just bought one for the van which has a rear lounge/bed NOW my question is where do I fit it. Advice pse::bigsmile:

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steveclecy

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Jun 10, 2009
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ALDI special

Not as cheap as Amazon deal, ALDI have a 5 year warranty Carbon Monoxide detector on sale from Sunday, 04/10/09 at £17.99

Steve
 
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sinbad1

Deleted User
Have just bought one for the van which has a rear lounge/bed NOW my question is where do I fit it. Advice pse::bigsmile:
Follow the recomendations that came with your unit, There's not a lot of difference in density of air and CO, even heavier gases rise through convection. Personally i thnk the best place for these detectors are either a mid position or high and close to any source or mid way between any potential CO producing equipment such as a gas fire, fridges etc.

Regards

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mythor

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Dec 2, 2009
36
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scotland
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one year and six months
detectors

got mine in Tesco duel pack with a fire alarm I think I paid £22. for both thought it was very good value its up and working
mythor
 

ourcampersbeentrashed

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Apr 19, 2008
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well over 5 years
They do have a finite life and need renewing every few years. If you have not got one, they cost around £25 but are definitely worth having.


Check with your local FIRE BRIGADE

some fit both fire "Angels" and Carbon Monoxide detectors for FREE xxxx
 

Molls-Phot

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Oct 8, 2009
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Whilst browsing a Wickes store I noticed a First Alert carbon monoxide alarm for less than £10. They also had the fold away warning triangles for just 47 pence each!

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Jaws

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Sep 26, 2008
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I stand to be corrected but believe Carbon Monoxide is heavier than air.

If that is true would it not be better to put a detector below your sleeping head height ?
If placed above your head you could be dead or at least quite poorly by the time the gas reaches the detector
 

scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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I stand to be corrected but believe Carbon Monoxide is heavier than air.

If that is true would it not be better to put a detector below your sleeping head height ?
If placed above your head you could be dead or at least quite poorly by the time the gas reaches the detector

They are always installed above head height in American motorhomes..

if in doubt Link Removed

also here Link Removed

Question - Does carbon monoxide rise or sink if produced inside a
house? Why? Does natural gas rise or sink?
(I am trying to figure out where to position gas detectors).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Although the molecular weights of these gases differ, convection and not
density differences dominate the distribution of CO, methane etc. The
release of gases associated with combustion tend to rise because they are
hotter than ambient. For this reason smoke detectors and CO detectors are
usually placed high on the walls of hallways etc.
 
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imprint

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Jul 14, 2009
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I can't speak for dogs (woof, woof), but human raspberry tarts certainly do burn.

Sometime last century, we had an American in college who could more or less fart to order. Wearing blue jeans, he lay down, face downwards, legs apart. He farted, and someone applied a match. The result was a quick flash of blue flame running along the crease of his jeans.

One of life's unforgettable experiences. (Think he went on to become a Supreme Court judge in the USA, whihc must say something.)

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imprint

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Jul 14, 2009
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I forgot to say my room-mate, who was also present, went on to be more or less head of infra-red defence work in the UK, which must say something about our defences...
 

polecat

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May 3, 2009
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Re siting of smoke and co alarms up high.

While it is not so important in the small volume of an RV, generally the wall or ceiling within 6" of the wall/ceiling junction should be avoided because air does not flow well in that area.

[on a similar note to the dog setting off the gas alarm - my LPG alarm went off and there was no evidence of a leak. Eventually realised there was a very faint smell of rum on the doormat next to the detector. Traced it to the bottle that had tipped over on the top of the fridge and was dripping a couple of drops a day.

Given the price of booze, the detector paid about a third of its purchase price that day]

Hi there last year i was busy doing my xmas baking so the rv was nice and warm i thought i will make a pan of nice warm gluwien yummy so it starts to warm up next thing gas turned off yep you got it fumes, gas detector sniffed it turned gas off pies in oven dam, but hey oh it shows it works:Smile:
 
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stagman

Deleted User
As far as I know there is no recommendation as to where to fit a CO detector in a motorhome . If you read your instructions on where to fit ,it will nearly be impossible to comply when fitting to the motorhome . But in general they should be fitted as follows . If fitting to the ceilling it should be at least 300mm away from any wall .If fitting to a wall it should be at least 150mm bellow the ceilling. If fitting in a bedroom / sleeping area it should be fitted near to the breathing zone .Hope that al makes sense .:thumb:

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JaG

Oct 30, 2008
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It saved our lives!!

We can certainly support the essential need of a Carbon Monoxide Detector - it saved our lives.
We had just picked up our Toyota Hiace 'Gray Warrior' and were with MotorhomeFun at Newark in March of this year. It had no heater in it and it was very, very cold, minus 4 to be precise. At 1.30am we were so cold we lit a small portable canister heater we had got for emergencies. Being cosy now we dropped off to sleep only to be woken 45 minutes later by the Carbon monoxide Alarm going off. Being a sealed van with no vents (yes, I hear you say we should not have lit it) the heater had taken most of the oxygen out of the van. Try deadening the sound of an alarm at that time of the morning (I ended up sleeping on it for an hour before it would reset).
Thankfully, our only damage was a headache. Without it we would not have woken up, of that we are almost sure. So, we will NEVER be without one.
Graham & Jean
 

Jaws

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Something very VERY important here JaG..

















It did not disturb us at all so thats all right then :winky::roflmto:

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mandymops

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I'm a newbie
stupid question

I'm completely new to all this. I don't have a heater or anything as sophisticated as that. The only thing is the gas hob. Do I need one?:whatthe:

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