CO and Smoke Alarm Set off on second fire with Drolet 1800 Insert

[tristan15]

Hello,

I have a Drolet 1800 escape insert into an existing CMU and brick chimney. The installation was done with a chimney sweeping company. I am doing my second fire now (top to bottom, no smoke), the paint smell has been pretty strong which is to be expected.
The fire is currently going strong, unit is hot, door is closed, air control is maybe at 30 to 50% open.

To my surprise, both the CO detector and Smoke detector have been going off. There is absolutely no visible smoke. The fire is still going strong.

Is it possible that the paint off gases would trigger both of these alarms? I am obviously very worried and have opened all windows and doors as soon as this occurred.

Thank you for your help.

 

[begreen]

The paint is offgassing as it bakes in. This will get better with each hot fire and should be all done soon.

 

[stoveliker]

Probably. But don't assume this is going to be the case on your fourth burn or so...

 

[tristan15]

The paint is offgassing as it bakes in. This will get better with each hot fire and should be all done soon.

Thank you, that's good to know. I still went ahead and ordered a more accurate CO meter from Klein that will display the PPM.

Safety is my main concern. Do you know if my basic smoke alarm and CO alarm should be replaced now, is there any chance that this paint off gassing would have messed with their sensor and their ability to work properly going forward?

Thanks!

 

[tristan15]

Probably. But don't assume this is going to be the case on your fourth burn or so...

How many hours of burn time is typically needed to fully cure a stove this size?

 

[stoveliker]

The alarms should not need replacing.

The smell can reappear any time a higher temperature of the stove is reached. So following any break in procedure in the manual, and ending with a hot fire, should get rid of the smell.

 

[Corey]

I would generally say 'possible' and likely related to the burning paint. I think others may disagree, but it's been my experience that cheap / general / consumer use 'CO detectors' can detect a range of flammable gases or hydrocarbon vapors - CO is also a flammable gas, so same category. Certainly you can get scientific grade instruments which are exclusively sensitive to CO. But in a home environment, it's typically not worth that expense - and detecting flammable gas/vapors is not necessarily a bad thing.

On the smoke side, if you have an ionization-type smoke detector, these are often the most sensitive and will react to very low levels of particulate matter- and would also be consistent with your 'no visible smoke' statement. Photoelectric smoke detectors often do need a slight amount of visible 'haze' in the air (still may not be visible to the human eye) - but they do tend to be less sensitive
overall.

If you have the option, a good, hot burn on a day when you can open windows would be good to help speed up the 'bake-off' process.

 

[tristan15]

I would generally say 'possible' and likely related to the burning paint. I think others may disagree, but it's been my experience that cheap / general / consumer use 'CO detectors' can detect a range of flammable gases or hydrocarbon vapors - CO is also a flammable gas, so same category. Certainly you can get scientific grade instruments which are exclusively sensitive to CO. But in a home environment, it's typically not worth that expense - and detecting flammable gas/vapors is not necessarily a bad thing.

On the smoke side, if you have an ionization-type smoke detector, these are often the most sensitive and will react to very low levels of particulate matter- and would also be consistent with your 'no visible smoke' statement. Photoelectric smoke detectors often do need a slight amount of visible 'haze' in the air (still may not be visible to the human eye) - but they do tend to be less sensitive
overall.

If you have the option, a good, hot burn on a day when you can open windows would be good to help speed up the 'bake-off' process.

Thank you very much for your answer. That is why I am doing today, burning a hot fire and opening my garage and windows to try and get through that curing process. I spoke to Drolet and they mentioned that 24 hours of use is typically what it takes to cure the paint and get rid of the smell.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I have one of these plugged in right above nearest heat register. You may want to get something similar so it's detecting 24/7 vs when you choose to.

Amazon product ASIN B00002N86A

 

[RomanW]

Thank you, that's good to know. I still went ahead and ordered a more accurate CO meter from Klein that will display the PPM.

Safety is my main concern. Do you know if my basic smoke alarm and CO alarm should be replaced now, is there any chance that this paint off gassing would have messed with their sensor and their ability to work properly going forward?

Thanks!

My 1800 freestanding is doing the same thing. There are no leaks in the chimney, but the off gas smell is pretty gnarly. It stopped going off after the smell dissipated.

 

[tristan15]

My 1800 freestanding is doing the same thing. There are no leaks in the chimney, but the off gas smell is pretty gnarly. It stopped going off after the smell dissipated.

That's good to know! Thanks for sharing,

 

[EbS-P]

I never read any CO on my meter during burn in. CO is quite a differ molecule than smoke but the detector may have som cross sensitivity to other VOCs. I did notice one night I sniffed my stove out (closed down too soon) and could smell it in the house. No detectors were going off but I did see CO and VOCs were all 5-8x higher than base line in my air quality meter. If the CO went off at the same time as the smoke and this was during the hottest part of the burn and you could visually see vigorous flames i doubt it was CO in the room. One would expect high CO once draft is week at the end of a burn cycle indicating possible draft reversal.

 

[RomanW]

I should specify, my smoke alarm was the one going off, not the CO meter

 

[ctreitzell]

Here I go again, digging up corpses...hey, I'm new here

I was going to start a thread asking what folks are using for smoke and CO alarms...I suppose this thread qualifies for a smoke detector discussion

I was previously using cheap $10 smoke alarms and they were just far too sensitive. Open the stove door to reload, or need to push a burning split back from leaning on the window and BANG that alarm is sounding

so we got a Nest Protect
my goodness what a massive improvement!

Frankly it works great:
1- not too sensitive to smoke on reloads or cold starts;
2- it has warned me about CO and smoke when the flue got too cold and I tried to restart choked embers by opening the stove air intake and smoke fed back in to the room from the stove air intake while I was sat reading right next to the stove! Gave me plenty of time to panic open the windows and doors and reheat the flue with a hair dryer...alarm woke the whole house up, but whatever...no one was harmed
3- the Nest app sends notifications to smartphones and tablets so I get a heads up if toast or bread is burning in the "plate warmer"...anywhere I might be (as long as connected to inet)
4- has a motion sensor light function...maybe a novelty, BUT, that tells the user the detector is alive and functioning

at the moment I only have one Nest Protect in the downstairs room with the stove; on my upstairs landing there is a cheap alarm and if that is going off, there is A LOT of smoke

My Panadero is notorious for smoking people out of their houses; it has given us plenty of headaches. The Nest Protect has been a joy in use. Even when the room is filled with smoke, the Nest will give you a break from the alarm if the user has informed the detector that smoke clearing processes are under way and will announce a a time before the next alarm sounding occurs in the event sufficient smoke has not yet cleared.

You just don't get that kind of intelligence with a cheap smoke detector.