personal CO meter

kcopp

What are folks using for personal CO meters? The one I have is a cheapy and want something reliable....

STEVEusaPA

Which one are you using?
I have this one for personal safety
http://lghttp.71222.nexcesscdn.net/8071E0C/magento/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/o/pocketco2.jpg?lightbox[autoresize]=false
But use my analyzer if I suspect a real issue.

Bob Harper

All my crews carry Sensorcon Industrial models with the vibrate alert and intrinsically safe. I take it on trips but TSA wants it off in airports since they're so polluted and it alerts in planes. Alerts while in traffic all the time, too. And when the landscaping guys are running their gas powered leaf blowers and mowers. And when I enter an empty house for a real estate inspection with no one else there.

NY_Rob

I have a Sensorcon Inspector... quite rugged and reliable.
The beltclip is all metal... like a beartrap!
Original battery lasted 1.5yrs with the unit never turned off.

Mike_Sheppard

I use the Testo one. Has worked very well for me. On Friday I walked into a boiler room with 400ppm in the air. 2,000,000 btu atmospheric boiler was sooted and rolling out because someone covered the combustion air louvers in the wall.

Tinman

I have two Sensorcon Industrial Pros and see no reason to change.

GW

What NY Rob said

captainco

The Sensorcom is the best. Can last up to 4+ years which is much longer than most. Battery is easily changed. Can be calibrated. May say EOL (end of life) but it may not be. I have checked some and calibrated them at over 4 years and they are still good and accurate.

NY_Rob

My Combustion Analyzer is due back tomorrow from the factory where it's been calibrated and re-certified. I'm going to run it next the my two year old (never recalibrated) Sensorcon to see if it's still accurate at low incidental levels.

If you want to laugh... put the Sensorcon behind you when you "break wind"...

ratio

I received my new Sensorcon Insperctor yesterday!

While not heavy, it has a feeling of mass to it and seems well built, with a rubber gasket betweem the two halves, four screws holding it together, & a metal D ring/clip on the back. I hesitate to call it a belt clip, as it's only about an inch deep & has teeth on it, but it looks like it'll hold securely on whatever you can close the clip onto. If you've ever used suspenders, you know what the clip looks like.

Of course, I turned it on & then looked through the instructions. Operation is straightforward & no suprises; hold the power button down to turn on/long hold to turn off; mute & max toggle on & off with a push (mute will time out after 15 minutes).

Apparently, the CO concentration in my living room is 0-2 PPM. IDK how accurate that 2 PPM (that's 0.0002%, or less than one oz out of 15 tons, or one inch in nearly 8 miles!), but the calibration centers around 50 PPM so I'd expect to be able to distinguish the "oh ****" moments. I walked into the kitchen & happened to catch the oven burner on, so I held the sensor along the back of the stove—then I quickly left! The alarm sounds at 35 PPM. It's not as loud or as bright as I was expecting, but it is noticable. You'd have to be watching it if you were in a loud mechanical room, but those're the very times I'd be most interested in what it has to say.

If I carried a company ID on a lanyard, I think I'd hang it there. As it is, I'll carry it in my pocket until the novelty wears off & then probably only get it out of the truck when I'm hitting a new job or want to see what, exactly, I'm breathing. All in all, while it's clearly marked "This is not a personal safety device." on the back, I feel much safer with it in my posession; & there's nothing like red lights flashing & beepers beeping when you're trying to condemn a HX for excessive CO production!

NY_Rob

If you have an unvented gas stove- you'll always know when someone used the oven... even up to a couple of hours ago with closed windows and the Sensorcon.

I leave my Sensorcon in a prominent location just outside the kitchen so we can always see it. My wife has trained her self to crack a kitchen and front or rear window now when running the oven because of the Sensorcon.

You'll be amazed at the CO numbers you'll see if you perform an oven "self clean" then realize you should only do it when you can open all windows for a couple of hours!

ratio

Heh. Yah, I wasn't suprised by it, not really. If I had a nice tight house I'd worry more about it, but as it hasn't killed me in the last decade I feel confident that it won't the next.

We don't use the self-cleaning function though, and not because SWMBO is uninterested in cleaning the oven.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

I like the testo.
https://www.testo-direct.com/images/products/cache/testo/0632_3173/main-wide/testo-317-3-ambient-co-meter.jpg

AnthraciteEnergetics

@Bob Harper Industry is required to meet OSHA PELs and ACGIH TLVs which for CO is 50 or 25 ppm average over 8 hours. Instant alarm at those levels is standard on most instruments and is horribly conservative and far lower than what residential CO detectors are set for (and they rely on integrating the levels over time, not instant alarm). If it works for you, great, but expect plenty of alarms and don't panic!

I understand the airport thing, lots of planes burning huge amounts of fuel and a lot of anxious stressed out hurried people. I wouldn't want the attention of a bleeping gas monitor on my belt in that environment!

HomerJSmith

I always go in and sniff and if I can't smell CO, I don't worry about it. I always carry a canary with me for backup.

Leonard

When we go to wife's brother's family up in Maine for thanksgiving my eyes are burning when she cooks the Turkey all day. Unvented propane oven.

He's a fire cheif too , guess I should tell him to bring his work CO meter home.

NY_Rob

^ at least have them crack a couple of windows when the oven is on. It's radiated heat and the exhaust heat will make up for the heatloss from open windows... and the CO will be close to 0 ppm 10-30 min after the bird is finished.

Leonard

They are close the windows, conserve the heat, granola types, wood stove. If it were me I'ld open the windows and put a box fan in to air the place out for an hour or 2. Or make a "leaky air room" outside and throw the oven out there. But it's not my house. Instead of opening the windows they got a air/air heat exchanger to save heat while changing the air, but even after it runs all day it's barely tolerable to me.

In my house we have an electric oven and counter top stove , plus outside exhaust fans over each. But they're in Maine on a peninsula, basically end of a 25 mile utility extension cord. Lot of ice outages so they made themselves not totally dependent on electricity.