I just wanted to post my findings for all to see as a reminder of how easy it can happen to anyone.
I have been working on completing by wheel house build for multiple years. (don’t ask, thats a whole can of worms I don’t want to open) My family and I have been using it for the last 2 winters as it has been under construction and just short on the fit and finish and some creature comforts. I have been fairly religious about using a CO/gas detector even though I have a forced air, outside venting furnace. I had never had the detector show a trace of CO or gas until I began heating it last Saturday to work in the shack in comfort and help my wood finishes dry.
After a few hours I noticed the CO counter was not on 0 and around 34 or so. I was curious if the stain fumes were possibly to blame for the elevated levels but really did not believe that theory too much. I came out the next morning to continue working and the beeper was going off, so the levels had gotten even higher over night. I aired the house out for just a couple minutes and the levels dropped back to 0. Well, they slowly rose back to the 30’s through the day.
To shorten up the story, I ran a few tests early in the week and kept getting high levels in the end, faster if I ran the temp setting on the thermostat higher. About the only thing I could think of was the heat exchanger must be cracked. Contacted the MFGR and I was just past my 2 year warranty so any cost would be on my end. I found a service center close by to take it to and was set to drop it off that evening. Being the “Mr.Fix it myself” I am I spoke with a few friends and one suggested a smoke test to check for leaks in the chamber, great idea.
Well, to have a visual on the whole chamber the unit would have to be taken apart. I himmed and hawed about it and decided that Id rather take a stab at it myself than pay someone to do What I can, if anything I could pay someone to put it back together…(we know how that goes, more expensive)
What I ended up finding was about 200 Asian beetles in various stages of cremation inside my burner tube. Those worthless POS’. However, if I had put the vent screen on the intake/exhaust that I had not gotten around to yet none of this would have happened.
So who is to blame, well myself of course for not doing what I should have when I installed the heater. And it would also have been my fault had my family died from CO. Please, use a CO/gas detector, save yourself some hassle and maybe even your life and put a screen on your heater vents.
