Carbon monoxide detector

Travelling with two children in our van (and me being ultra paranoid) meant that one of our first purchases when we got our van was a carbon monoxide detector.

Last weekend we had a very enjoyable weekend in the Yorkshire Dales. We travelled on the Friday evening and used the stove that night (it was not used again). On the Saturday night we cooked on our Cobb and only when the Cobb was cold did we place the base in the back of the van, with the fuel rack and used cobblestone left outside.

At 4.30am on the Sunday morning the carbon monoxide detector went off, Thinking that there was nothing of any risk in the van, we opened the windows and reset the detector. It didn't go off again but needless to say I didn't get back to sleep for worrying. I am now worrying that we are going away next weekend.

We didn't use the heating, apart from to demonstrate it to our curious son for a few minutes on the Saturday afternoon. The alarm was placed on the glass top during the night.

Could it have been a false alarm or could something have set it off and if so, what?

Thanks

false alarm or not, it woke you up, you reset it, it did not go off again.

You are alive.

Probably a false alarm. No need to worry.

Possibly still smouldering coals from the Cobb. Incomplete burning produces CO.

If it was not a false alarm then it did it's job and will do again.

We've had domestic CO alarms for years at home and none has ever gone off. My guess is that there has not been a false alarm, but some small amount of CO has been emitted which has activated it.

At work, as we work in confined spaces, we carry personal gas monitors for oxygen, methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide. More than once for me the CO sensor has alarmed, probably due to a generator or something outside passing a small amount of the gas into the space. No doubt no harm would have occurred but best to have the alarm at a sensitive level than to be dead!

Was there any ventilation at the time?
Could be becouse the amount of oxigene in the van dropt by breathing of the people in it ( in this case 4?) and setting the alarm to go off...

Hotel, CO is very different to CO2. CO comes from incomplete combustion of gas or for barbecue coals etc. I think it's time for you do do a search . There have been plenty of earlier posts on the topic.

Did no search , was just guessing that when the dedector sensed a faulty percentage of oxygene could lead to a alarm .
Don't know what the manual of that detector says...
I don't need to search, the original poster could try to before making a new topic

Which funnily enough , is exactly what I did, and I can tell you that there were five previous posts - discussing what carbon monoxide is and where it comes from (which I already knew), what brands of detector there are and where they should be positioned. But not one that I could see offering any advice on what might cause one to go off in that particular situation, falsely or not.

Thanks for the help though ....

motacyclist said:

We've had domestic CO alarms for years at home and none has ever gone off. My guess is that there has not been a false alarm, but some small amount of CO has been emitted which has activated it.

At work, as we work in confined spaces, we carry personal gas monitors for oxygen, methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide. More than once for me the CO sensor has alarmed, probably due to a generator or something outside passing a small amount of the gas into the space. No doubt no harm would have occurred but best to have the alarm at a sensitive level than to be dead!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, you must be right ... would just like to know what it was but I guess I'm never going to know.

Carbon Monoxide, CO, is produced by incomplete combustion. In the California, parked up, there are only two possible sources of CO,
1. Incomplete combustion from the Gas Burners
2. Faulty Diesel Parking Heater. Safety mechanisms prevent incomplete combustion but a leak in the heat exchanger could allow CO into the vehicle interior, but this is extremely rare, so rare I can find no instance on the WWW.

In your case you hadn't used the gas burners and the Parking Heater was not in use.

Therefore there are only two possible causes:
1. The Cobb
2. False Alarm

hotel california T5 said:

Was there any ventilation at the time?
Could be becouse the amount of oxigene in the van dropt by breathing of the people in it ( in this case 4?) and setting the alarm to go off...

Click to expand...

A CO detector will detect CO. Nothing else.

Tinternet has some items on false triggering of CO alarms. for peace of mind might be worth doubling up your CO alarm for a while see if the suspect alarm triggers again, against a second unit.

Rob H.

Good ventilation is the key.
Whereabouts in the California did you have the alarm?
False positives are better than false negatives.

hotel california T5 said:

Was there any ventilation at the time?
Could be becouse the amount of oxigene in the van dropt by breathing of the people in it ( in this case 4?) and setting the alarm to go off...

Click to expand...

As i said above....and WelshGas also found ,
Think with three or four people in a not optimal ventitalted Cali where you have coocked in ....
"could disturb the composion of the air" and "i think can set the alarm off "
Just my 50 cent , i'm staying on my first thought!
No matter what others here think , funny like or dislike whatever , i don't care!

I am no fan of placing those things in a car , howmuch air in a Cali ...5 m3 ...?
Think those are not made for car use...

hotel california T5 said:

Think those are not made for car use...

Click to expand...

It was used outside, not in the Cali.
The Cali used with the roof up has basic but adequate ventilation in my opinion, probably false alarm but in future maybe leave the stove base under the van instead and sleep easy.

Our detector has a readout on it, and a cumulative total. Using it at home, I often noticed the parts per million increasing very slightly when near to the hob, but not getting high enough to trigger the alarm. At least you can see where you are at any given moment with that type.
We used to use one of those £10 portable canister hobs in our old van for years with the window open. This detector detected some CO during combustion. They always say not to use any burning device in an enclosed space. Even the Cali has a warning on the hob lid to this effect. Knowing that our detector can be seen to detect some CO without raising the alarm is actually reassuring.
So maybe get a new detector for peace of mind and extra detail, and stick the other one somewhere else for "daytime" duties only.