Carbon Monoxide going off.....reason???

[COWindStove]

We put in a Drolet Savannah wood burning stove in October. My husband and an experienced friend installed it since there aren't any "certified" companies out in our plains. We've had great use except for 2 experiences. First was on an extremely windy day and we had significant smoke in the house. We came to the conclusion we need to extend our pipe above the peak of our house. It was pretty scary when the carbon monoxide detector went off in the middle of the night after the fire was put out. This happened right before we left for Christmas vacation and haven't done it yet. Second issue is tonight. We've been running it straight for 3 days with zero issues until our carbon monoxide detector goes off tonight. No smoke, no wind....can't see an issue. We are burning old cedar posts. The only thing we can figure is possibly due to the pipe connections. When my husband installed it he put self tapping screws in the single wall. At one spot he dented the pipe. I'm wondering if the gaps are too big? We'd sure appreciate any feedback. Thank you!

 

[DougA]

A CO detector going off should always be treated seriously. If the stove is burning normally with an active fire and good draft, it would be highly unlikely (almost impossible) that any gaps in the pipe would cause a CO problem. The hot fire and high draft would more likely cause air from the house to go into any gaps and out the chimney rather than the other direction.

First, check to see if there are any other sources of CO. Car in garage, any other heater source, any can of old ashes that might be anywhere in the house?

Is the stove drafting normally? If the fire is dying and no draft, then yes, smoke could be seeping out the gaps or even out of the air intakes in the stove. If you light some incense sticks or something similar, and move it near the stove and gaps, you can see whether air is going in or coming out of these areas.

Make sure the house is well ventilated after the alarm goes off and report back.

 

[COWindStove]

You got it! I've been adding ashes to the bucket all day. It was still warm/hot and the lid wasn't sealed. It's now been moved outside. Great idea about using the incense. I'll be ordering some tonight. Thank you so much!

 

[begreen]

Be sure that ash bucket is on a non-combustible surface. Even outdoors leaves can be set fire by the heat.

 

[TheRambler]

Its always best practice to immediately seal the lid on the ash can and take it outside. The CO put off by hot ashes can kill you or your family. Very glad to hear you have CO detectors, they very well may have saved your life.

 

[BobUrban]

X3 -No ash/coals in the house longer than necessary to clean the stove out. Outside in a safe place. Mine go into my fire pit.

You can test the air flow with a lighter around door, gaps, seals, etc. and forgo the awful smell of incents in the house.

 

[CenterTree]

You got it! I've been adding ashes to the bucket all day. It was still warm/hot and the lid wasn't sealed. It's now been moved outside. Great idea about using the incense. I'll be ordering some tonight. Thank you so much!

OP: check out this thread for your own peace of mind.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/had-4-co-detectors-going-off-last-night.136655/
An indoor ash bucket (even with a lid) is NOT a good idea IMHO. Most metal bucket lids will not seal completely anyway. Use it and get it OUTSIDE ASAP.

I had a close call. You be safe

Glad your "source" was found without incidence.

 

[tcassavaugh]

my first thought was the possibilities of the batteries being low and needing replacing....good call doug. i pull my ashes from my ash bins in the stoves. they no longer have, or have very few, live embers in them. most of the time my ashes from my jotul ash bin go outside on the back yard if there is snow, raining or recently rained. if not, i put them in a container down stairs in the basement that is a 6 or 10 gallon garbage can with a locking lid I got probably 10 years ago. I use that one especially when I have the second stove (Summit) going and transfer the ashes from the ash bin (not the fire box) to the container. I have a pile of ash that has accumulated over the years that is a cone probably 3 ft high by 10 feet across on the bottom.....I dump/add to that pile normally during or right after a soaking rain.....once again, the can has also set for a number of days and contains no embers before I dump it. I had thought about using the ashes in a garden, if I ever started a garden....yeah, that's probably not gonna happen.

 

[DougA]

Glad things worked out and you found the easy answer.

TO MODS: We've had enough threads like this and I think there should be a sticky made on how to deal with CO detectors going off. I looked and didn't see one. What scares me the most is that it appears people are taking the alarm much less seriously that they should. It seems everyone treats it like a smoke detector and searches for the cause without understanding that they could die before finding anything. My thought would be to get everyone out of the house and leave the doors open on the way out. I doubt anyone has ever done that when it's freezing outside.

I have no expertise in this but lots on the forum do and it would be a great service to add a sticky that people can find answers to quickly and easily.

 

[TheRambler]

my first thought was the possibilities of the batteries being low and needing replacing....good call doug. i pull my ashes from my ash bins in the stoves. they no longer have, or have very few, live embers in them. most of the time my ashes from my jotul ash bin go outside on the back yard if there is snow, raining or recently rained. if not, i put them in a container down stairs in the basement that is a 6 or 10 gallon garbage can with a locking lid I got probably 10 years ago. I use that one especially when I have the second stove (Summit) going and transfer the ashes from the ash bin (not the fire box) to the container. I have a pile of ash that has accumulated over the years that is a cone probably 3 ft high by 10 feet across on the bottom.....I dump/add to that pile normally during or right after a soaking rain.....once again, the can has also set for a number of days and contains no embers before I dump it. I had thought about using the ashes in a garden, if I ever started a garden....yeah, that's probably not gonna happen.

As innocent as this may sound, storing ashes inside a dwelling or other structure is a bad idea. Theoretically with completely cold ash this would be a "safe" practice, but why risk it?

 

[mfetcho]

Good response Doug. I have had 2 situations in my burning experience that set the CO2 alarms off. The first time I had the fire department out trying to find the source. They went through the whole house and couldn't find it. The natural gas company ended up finding it with their meter that actually pulls in air and is much more sensitive. It was coming from the wood stove that had been loaded that morning before work and was now "out". I guess not. The CO2 detector that went off was the second floor detector (wood stove on main floor). It had been a windy day and we got a down draft while the stove was smoldering. We had gotten all of us out and opened windows.
To Dougs point, CO2 detectors go off for a reason and they should be taken seriously! Even with a good setup, weather can effect how stoves function.

 

[TheRambler]

CO and CO2 detectors are different, though some are combos. Very broadly speaking, a pure CO2 detector is just a smoke alarm.

 

[mfetcho]

CO and CO2 detectors are different, though some are combos. Very broadly speaking, a pure CO2 detector is just a smoke alarm.

Good point, I was refering to CO detectors in my previous post. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[DougA]

Yup, a smoldering stove acts just like a pail of ashes. You've discovered what I was trying to point out. CO detectors are new for most people and when they go off, finding the cause is not that easy because CO is odorless, tasteless and invisible. Most of us know that we've got a problem before a smoke detector even goes off but CO is just plain weird and deadly.