Randy, may I make a plug? There are companies that make a living by appealing to the panic factor. (The Y2K one was one of the biggest scams. And how about those gas mask sales after 9/11?)
But I've noticed that people quickly become used to the smell of anything in pretty short order. Leaking natural gas in a house is one example. My nose has picked it up many times in various homes, to be verified after my insistence to call the gas company.
And CO is odorless. I am not a panic perpetrator, but I do have a CO detector, which is ALSO a combination flammable chemical detector. They rank right up with smoke detectors. As you said, $60 - $80 might seem steep, but they last for years and I think anyone would find it a cheap price if it saves their life.
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I'm very sensitive to natural gas odor (or, actually, the mercaptan they put in it, since gas is naturally odorless), but I know some people don't really notice it, leading to tragic results. I didn't realize flammable gas detectors were so cheap now. Good to hear. And now that I look more closely, I see some of the detectors in the link I posted at the end detect gas as well as CO -- and for as little as $50. -rc
You recommended strongly that people buy both smoke detectors and CO detectors. Yeeeessss.... but with a caveat. A lot of apartment smoke detectors are too sensitive. I lived in one apartment where boiling two pots of water on the stove at the same time (and no, there wasn't anything under that burner that was smoking; it was quite clean) set off the smoke alarm at the far end of the apartment. Inevitably, I took the battery out of the smoke alarm. It was that or give up cooking.
And I know it's not necessary for them to be that sensitive. I know that because in my current apartment I have one right outside the kitchen, and I've never yet had a false alarm from it, in five years.
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I agree that's ridiculous. The solution isn't to not have an alarm, the solution is to get a better one. -rc
Hold Your Breath - Comments
Randy, may I make a plug? There are companies that make a living by appealing to the panic factor. (The Y2K one was one of the biggest scams. And how about those gas mask sales after 9/11?)
But I've noticed that people quickly become used to the smell of anything in pretty short order. Leaking natural gas in a house is one example. My nose has picked it up many times in various homes, to be verified after my insistence to call the gas company.
And CO is odorless. I am not a panic perpetrator, but I do have a CO detector, which is ALSO a combination flammable chemical detector. They rank right up with smoke detectors. As you said, $60 - $80 might seem steep, but they last for years and I think anyone would find it a cheap price if it saves their life.
---
I'm very sensitive to natural gas odor (or, actually, the mercaptan they put in it, since gas is naturally odorless), but I know some people don't really notice it, leading to tragic results. I didn't realize flammable gas detectors were so cheap now. Good to hear. And now that I look more closely, I see some of the detectors in the link I posted at the end detect gas as well as CO -- and for as little as $50. -rc
Posted by: Mike from Dallas | May 15, 2007 10:34 AM
You recommended strongly that people buy both smoke detectors and CO detectors. Yeeeessss.... but with a caveat. A lot of apartment smoke detectors are too sensitive. I lived in one apartment where boiling two pots of water on the stove at the same time (and no, there wasn't anything under that burner that was smoking; it was quite clean) set off the smoke alarm at the far end of the apartment. Inevitably, I took the battery out of the smoke alarm. It was that or give up cooking.
And I know it's not necessary for them to be that sensitive. I know that because in my current apartment I have one right outside the kitchen, and I've never yet had a false alarm from it, in five years.
---
I agree that's ridiculous. The solution isn't to not have an alarm, the solution is to get a better one. -rc
Posted by: Mia, Victoria, BC, Canada | May 19, 2007 9:57 PM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on, or post a comment about it.