carbon monoxide leak

cutter

I have a friend who has a gas fired boiler in his detached garage, he almost died a couple of years ago from carbon monoxide. Is the boiler junk or does it just need some boiler cement. I have no idea of the manufacture of this boiler, or why it has not been fixed or replaced yet. In Minnesota any building that is not heated will freeze, maybe he has the anti freeze solution in the boiler????
Any ideas or suggestions on fixing or replacing?

nicholas bonham-carter

Excessive CO in a garage, might come from a blocked boiler chimney, or an idling car.
Some more information will be needed in order to advise on repair or replacement.
Unless the boiler has been filled with antifreeze, or completely drained, parts of the system may well have frozen, and broken.--NBC

cutter

It was not from an idling car, he does body work in that garage. I will ask him some more questions

BillW

I hope he is not spraying paint in the same area as the boiler is. CO can leak from a plugged chimney, cracks in the firebox or other parts of the boiler. The respirators he may be using to protect himself from paint vapors or sanding dust WILL NOT protect him from CO.

Jamie Hall

In fact, there is no respirator which will protect from CO. You need a full breathing apparatus to do that.

He needs to shut the boiler down until he can find the source of the CO, and then repair it. And no, boiler cement will not be a satisfactory repair.

cutter

BillW, Jamie Hall, That boiler is still being use to heat the garage through Radiant in floor. He sprays paint and also sands bondo in the garage. The boiler was in the same open space that the paint spraying and bondo sanding was being done. I did not know that he had another friend try and figure out what caused the carbon monoxide leak. They took the outer sheet metal off the boiler and also what was needed to look inside the boiler combustion chamber. The boiler is 8 years old but the combustion chamber looks like a much older boiler and he was told he will need to replace it in a few years.

The over spray from painting and the bondo dust being sucked into the boiler while it was firing caused the rapid deterioration of the boiler. The boiler combustion chamber was cleaned and it is being used currently.

The boiler now has it's own little room and a better exhaust fan was installed where the paint spraying is being done.

JohnNY

This doesn't sound resolved. Cutter, you haven't mentioned anyone using a combustion analyzer or CO wand-type detector to source the leak. Someone told your buddy he would have to replace his boiler in "a few years", but that's true of every boiler.
You need a specialist in there right away to either find the breach or replace the boiler immediately. And in that environment, you need to go with a sealed-combustion, category 4 boiler. Don't mess around with atmospheric boilers.

cutter

JohnNY, Thanks for your concern, the carbon dioxide may have been caused by the dirty flue leaving the boiler along with the dirty boiler. He has a carbon dioxide detector in the garage now to alert him to carbon dioxide. He has not had a build up since. I will let him know about a sealed-combustion, category 4 boiler.

Jamie Hall

Please. Carbon monoxide. I hope. Carbon dioxide is not toxic -- though too much of it can kill you by displacing oxygen. We breathe it out all the time. Carbon monoxide is toxic in astonishingly small quantities.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Sounds like he has the situation somewhat??? under control. He need to be very cautious about getting this right.

The boiler room door should not even open to the garage. The boiler room should be sealed as airtight as possible and have a separate outside entrance.

Otherwise the garage exhaust fan could affect the boiler operation & it's combustion air flue problems Also be sure the boiler has adequate combustion air and not from the dust/paint laden garage air.

cutter

Jamie Hall said:

Please. Carbon monoxide. I hope. Carbon dioxide is not toxic -- though too much of it can kill you by displacing oxygen. We breathe it out all the time. Carbon monoxide is toxic in astonishingly small quantities.

yes Jamie, carbon monoxide, must have been a little a little short circuit between my ears when I was typing this.

cutter

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Sounds like he has the situation somewhat??? under control. He need to be very cautious about getting this right.

The boiler room door should not even open to the garage. The boiler room should be sealed as airtight as possible and have a separate outside entrance.

Otherwise the garage exhaust fan could affect the boiler operation & it's combustion air flue problems Also be sure the boiler has adequate combustion air and not from the dust/paint laden garage air.

I will pass your information along to him. I would doubt that he has it built the way you describe. When I talked to him last I wondered what kind of a door he had from his boiler room but did not ask. I would bet the door is from the garage to the boiler room.