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nzavala
Sep 13, 2008, 12:05 PM
My story begins in July of 2008. I was feeling tired and sleepy all the time. At one point I had white spots in my throat for four days. After this, I had flu symptoms. My boyfriend was experiencing head aches, chest pain, and leg pain. My brother was the only one free of symptoms.
In the mean time, I had a faulty water heater and was waiting for UPS to deliver a part the water heater company sent me to replace. I had a qualified water heater technician install it. After he installed the part he said there was a back draft from the flu and there could be a possible CO leak. Five minutes later the CO/fire alarm goes off, and I call the fire department. I was told that there were lethal amounts of CO in the air. They recorded 135ppm. The gas company was also here, and the CO levels were completely gone by then. Of course, I checked myself into the ER and there were traces of CO in my system. I was then given oxygen from three tanks of oxygen.
After this, I bought a new water heater because a different HVAC technician told me the one I had was completely useless. I also bought several digital CO monitors. It was concerning to see high readings, for example, above 70ppm on these brand new detectors. So I had the gas company come again and do a home inspection. They couldn't find anything.
I then bought a couple of CO/explosive Gas detectors, and continued to get readings above 10ppm. The highest readings on these detectors was 21ppm. Last week one of the CO/explosive gas detectors went off, and read GAS. My other detectors didn't give any readings. So I dismissed it. Today, the same detector went off again and read gas, but I couldn't smell any gas in my home.
One of my neighbors thinks I have faulty detectors because only one or a few show readings instead of all of them. We have had so many technicians check out the problem, but no one knows where it is, or what is causing it. The fire department, the gas company, HVAC, and mechanical engineers have been here. They have checked the flu, the chimney, replaced the flu, but I still get readings.
I don't know what else to do.

mygirlsdad77
Sep 13, 2008, 12:32 PM
If your meter is reading gas when it goes off, I would check all of my gas line fitting with a liquid leak detector. All joints inside and outside of the house. If it is a small enough leak, you may not be able to smell it. I have personally run into this problem and it took some serious effort to find the leak. After the water heater and furnace had both been replaced, the alarm would still go off and read GAS. It ended up being a very small leak in the gas line about one foot inside of the house. Hope this helps. I would have this looked into, over and over until the problem is solved.
A small gas leak can still be a very dangerous and even deadly problem.

wmproop
Sep 13, 2008, 12:35 PM
Move the second detector beside the one that keeps going off,see if they both detect something and go off, if not I would say you have a defective detector

derobert
Sep 13, 2008, 10:44 PM
My story begins in July of 2008. I was feeling tired and sleepy all the time. At one point I had white spots in my throat for four days. After this, I had flu symptoms. My boyfriend was experiencing head aches, chest pain, and leg pain. My brother was the only one free of symptoms.
In the mean time, I had a faulty water heater and was waiting for UPS to deliver a part the water heater company sent me to replace. I had a qualified water heater technician install it. After he installed the part he said there was a back draft from the flu and there could be a possible CO leak. Five minutes later the CO/fire alarm goes off, and I call the fire department. I was told that there were lethal amounts of CO in the air. They recorded 135ppm. The gas company was also here, and the CO levels were completely gone by then. Of course, I checked myself into the ER and there were traces of CO in my system. I was then given oxygen from three tanks of oxygen.
After this, I bought a new water heater because a different HVAC technician told me the one I had was completely useless. I also bought several digital CO monitors. It was concerning to see high readings, for example, above 70ppm on these brand new detectors. So I had the gas company come again and do a home inspection. They couldn't find anything.
I then bought a couple of CO/explosive Gas detectors, and continued to get readings above 10ppm. The highest readings on these detectors was 21ppm. Last week one of the CO/explosive gas detectors went off, and read GAS. My other detectors didn't give any readings. So I dismissed it. Today, the same detector went off again and read gas, but I couldn't smell any gas in my home.
One of my neighbors thinks I have faulty detectors because only one or a few show readings instead of all of them. We have had so many technicians check out the problem, but no one knows where it is, or what is causing it. The fire department, the gas company, HVAC, and mechanical engineers have been here. They have checked the flu, the chimney, replaced the flu, but I still get readings.
I don't know what else to do.
Surely the fire department, gas company, etc. have brought out accurate, calibrated CO meters? How do their readings compare to yours?