Vermont Castings Radiance Model 2240 Emitting Carbon Monoxide

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DeanK

New Member
May 13, 2023
2
Billings, MT
My 93 year old mother has had this stove in her sunroom since probably the early 90's. It's a natural gas model set up with a rear B vent which goes less than 2' horizontally before going vertical in a wood chase. It operates on a millivolt thermostat and has a fan kit on it.
It has operated flawlessly until this past winter when she was awakened at 2 a.m. by firemen at her front door. Thankfully she has a monitored ADT alarm system with a CO detector that triggered a central alarm. That said, the detector was in the basement furnace area so the CO levels were high enough that the furnace return air brought the levels in the basement to a level that triggered the alarm. When the firemen tested, the level in her bedroom was at 190 ppm and they commented that she wouldn't have woke up if exposed at those levels much longer. When they tested the stove it wasn't emitting CO until the fan came on.
The only recent work done by a HVAC company was the replacement of the millivolt generator. I'm not familiar with what it takes to replace the generator but wondering if something changed as a result of that work.
The stove is red tagged and has been off since this occured. I had a service person from the Vermont Castings dealer out but they didn't really troubleshoot it but would just rather sell a new unit.

Sorry for the long winded story but any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Check to see if the service tech replaced either the rubber grommet or the RTV silicone in the hole where the wires from the millivolt generate (aka thermopile) penetrate the bottom of the firebox.