How to check the operation of the carbon monoxide sensor yourself?

Do you have any ways and methods to check the correct operation of the carbon monoxide and gas sensor. I bought one for PLN 100 and hung it over the gas released from the burner. He doesn't answer, but he should.

Thank you

I brought it closer to an open oven and it worked right away.

The sensor reacts to carbon monoxide, not to gas, you have it written in the manual. Carbon monoxide is produced by improper combustion.

The sensor I bought is a gas and carbon monoxide sensor and the manual says that it reacts to meta, lpg, and carbon monoxide.
I put the photo in the attachment

Depends on how high you held it above that burner and what type of gas you have.
Bottled gas is heavier than air, so keep it close to the burner.

I kept close to the burner above the burner itself and the gas is from the gas pipeline, not the cylinder.
And how to check it? are there any methods to check such a sensor? So reliable, because such sensors owe life or not.

Well, I guess you checked it out and draw your own conclusions!!!

There are calibration gases, but it should react the fastest to the test you gave it.
I check them all with a lighter. I fire it up, blow it out and put it on for a while. Everyone should start screaming!

It has to react from the gas from the lighter even.
And the carbon monoxide sensor is checked with a lit cigarette, it is supposed to react to the smoke from the cigarette placed against it and that's it.

Cigarette smoke detector? It probably won't work.

that's what the service told me, I checked one in the store and it reacted to a strong puff of smoke

Hello

piracik wrote:

Cigarette smoke detector? It probably won't work.

This will work on CO. It's in cigarette smoke.

...or press: TEST

But the test does not check the real gas response of the sensor, it only checks the general functioning of the alarm.

And that's it.
There is no need to make an effort to react to carbon monoxide. You also do a test with a cigarette or gas from a lighter, but with an unknown gas concentration. You know that the sensor burns out every day and its sensitivity decreases. By pounding his throat with a nice dose of gas from the lighter... Then why do we have to calibrate our sensors so often?
Here, in my opinion, proper ventilation is required, which settles the subject. Supply and exhaust.

Hello.

Of course, you should read the manufacturer's instructions in terms of the need to calibrate the sensor after triggering. Unfortunately, some electrochemical sensors require calibration after being triggered. The sensor, on the other hand, can be triggered by cigarette smoke exhaled by the smoker.

Carbon monoxide test below:




The natural gas test is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffR_HnVYHHk

Forgive me for digging up the topic, but the suggestions contained in it simply knock down.

Detectors are properly tested only with the use of calibration (or test) gases.

Any other activities such as lighters, cigarettes, gas from the installation or cylinders, sprays, etc. are unreliable and may cause decalibration and damage to the detectors.

Example:
A household methane detector detects this gas in the range of 0-100% LEL (Lower Explosion Limit). The lower explosion limit of methane is 4.4%v/v according to EU standards. So the detector detects in the range of 0-4.4%v/v. Gas from a lighter, cylinder or burner has 100%v/v, which is about 20 times more than the measuring range of the detector.
Household explosive gas detectors are built on the basis of a semiconductor sensor (rarely a more expensive catalytic sensor). Such sensors first need to have oxygen to measure. If the sensor chamber is filled to a large extent with gas displacing oxygen, the measurement will be incorrect.
In addition, exceeding the range can cause decalibration or even damage to the detector.

At the same time, such a "test" if successful, will not give us information whether the detector detects at the correct level. The detector is supposed to alarm at 10%LEL (0.44%v/v), and we gave the gas 100%v/v, which is about 200 times more. How do we know at what threshold it worked? Equally well, a decalibrated detector may react after exceeding the threshold of 100% LEL and will not be able to activate the alarm in an emergency situation or it will be its last alarm.

A home carbon monoxide detector usually detects in the range of 0-100/0-200/0-300ppm. Giving him a cigarette or other smoldering elements, we give him from 1000ppm to even several thousand ppm.
It is also risky to use carbon monoxide sprays. The concentration inside the spray can is specified (eg 300ppm). However, by spraying it, we significantly dilute them in the air. Thus, we do not know at what threshold the detector worked. Such a test is unreliable. And even more so, such a test is pointless in the case of detectors that are supposed to react to 20, 30 or 60ppm.

In order for the detector to work properly, it must receive a specific reference gas mixture. For this, the detector needs time to react and stabilize the gas in the measuring chamber.

piracik wrote:

I check them all with a lighter. I fire it up, blow it out and put it on for a while. Everyone should start screaming!

Exactly. The ones out of calibration, measuring incorrectly too.
I just don't understand why such advice comes from users signing themselves as "specialist in heating systems". Forgive me, but such tests of detectors do not check the correctness of their responses, therefore such a service is invalid.
These are safety devices on which human life depends. Such a disrespectful approach is unacceptable if someone claims to be a service or specialist.
It's just that the calibration gas costs money, and the lighter is cheap, right? And the service is cheaper than the competition. And the fact that the client is left with a decalibrated sensor is only then the court cares after the accident. Something to think about for all "specialists" who offer their services to others.

mirrzo wrote:

You know that the sensor burns out every day and its sensitivity decreases.

Unfortunately, this is also not true. What happens to the sensor over time depends on its type. What my colleague wrote concerns the catalytic sensor (extremely rarely used in home detectors). But a semiconductor or electrochemical sensor with "burn-in" has little to do with it.

Domelski wrote:

I just don't understand why such advice comes from users signing themselves as "specialist in heating systems".

Domelski wrote:

Such a disrespectful approach is unacceptable if someone claims to be a service or specialist.

As for the "specialist in heating systems", this status is granted automatically. I don't know the exact criteria, but I generally assume that if someone has a counter of posts on a given topic, they get this description. Therefore, a given user may be an amateur and not a professional. Whether someone professionally deals with heating and detectors can possibly result from the posts of a specific user.
There are many professionals here who can and should be expected to be professional, but there are also many amateurs who are only interested in widely understood heating, etc.

Generally, like all internet forums, Elektroda should be treated with a grain of salt, because among the valuable information you can always find advice that can do more harm than good.

I also treat forums with a grain of salt, but I wrote this post because unfortunately I come across these tips implemented in practice on unaware customers. And not only on home sensors.
The subject of "how to check" is unfortunately catchy in our reality for various types of "pseudoservices".

That's why my post is a bit of a warning for "checkers", but also for users who are looking for information.

Manufacturers used to allow this type of launch (cigarette lighter, cigarette)

You can see that a colleague "specialist" works in the topic (> 2000 posts) and wrote that he checks.
But I didn't know that "specialist" was automatically broadcast. Mea culpa.

Domelski wrote:

That's why my post is a bit of a warning for "checkers", but also for users who are looking for information.

I used to play once in testing a carbon monoxide sensor to see if it works at all. I used a chalk spray for this and followed the instructions on the package.
But I came up with the fact that I have no idea what the real concentration is in the bag at the time of the test and whether I have overdone it. As a result of such a test, I only checked whether the sensor reacts at all, but I had no idea if it reacted correctly.
Therefore, I also consider such a test to be pointless.
It is said that a man learns best from his own mistakes, but it is also worth using the experience of others so as not to repeat the same mistakes.

BUCKS, such a test with a spray and a bag can be done, for example, for your own home sensor. If you have a range up to 300ppm and a spray up to 300ppm, you will not exceed the range and check if the detector will work at all.
It is important not to fill the bag to the max - in the sense of not increasing the pressure in which the sensor works.

However, as you say, such a test is not reliable and does not tell us anything about whether the sensor is out of calibration.

But I've already seen aces with such ideas that the head is small, testing people's sensors in buildings and issuing protocols.
I've seen guys with a hose for the exhaust pipe, types with a lighter and an 8m pipe for methane detectors (no one told them that propane-butane doesn't really want to go up, detectors burnt and drowned because no one said that the lighter should not be lit ) etc.

Proper testing is very difficult actually because in addition to gases you have external conditions (temperature, humidity, pressure, flow, debris in the air, problem with filling the chamber, etc.). Therefore, for example, calibration is already done rather in a laboratory where you can have stable conditions.

As for me, at home everyone checks what they want and how they want as long as they don't pose a threat. But if someone does it for others, I'm sorry, but there is no mercy.

Domelski wrote:

I've seen guys with a hose for the exhaust pipe, guys with a lighter and an 8m pipe for methane detectors (nobody told them that propane-butane doesn't really want to go up, detectors burnt and drowned because no one said that the lighter should not be lit ) etc

Good!

I bought a Kidde 10LLDCO carbon monoxide detector, the one with a 10 year battery.
I started the car in the garage for a few seconds.

After a few minutes, I returned to the garage and the peak concentration reading was 24 ppm.
I think, that this minimally invasive and economical for the sensor and the examiner method that allows to determine the activation of the sensor.

Kidde's consultant knows of cases where sensor testers almost cost their experiments with their lives...

Adamcyn wrote:

I started the car in the garage for a few seconds.

After a few minutes, I returned to the garage and the peak concentration reading was 24 ppm.
I think that this is a minimally invasive and economical method for the sensor and the examiner, allowing to determine the activation of the sensor.

I'm going to protest a bit here. The amount of carbon monoxide in the exhaust depends on many factors (correct combustion of the mixture, oxygen access - which decreases with the amount of exhaust gas in the garage, which makes the detector work worse, but that's a different topic) and most importantly on the catalytic reactor (i.e. the catalyst). The catalytic converter, unless it is cut out at all, works properly only when it warms up to operating temperature.

And now. We did research in garage halls and we had cases (not rarely) when the car emitted thousands of ppm well above the scale of measuring devices at a very fast pace. These are the cars that are to be "caught" by the detection system.
If you were not in the garage, and your car will have such a defect and its emission will be very high, you can hit a deadly high concentration at the entrance to the garage. Just over 1% is enough for 2-3 breaths to end in death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxide_poisoning_w%C4%99gla
Also, paradoxically, such a functional test can end fatally. Why are you inhaling those smells? It's a pity for the lungs because there's a lot of crap there.

See this case: https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic3430753.html

I'm sorry, but the only valid detector test is with a dedicated test gas applied in the right way and under the right conditions. Any other games will in no way determine whether the device is working properly, and most of these games even lead to damage to the device, which is often invisible.

So once again:
I started the car for a few seconds in the garage, sitting in the car.
I left the garage.
After a few minutes, I returned to the garage.

Domelski wrote:

Also, paradoxically, such a functional test can end fatally.

can't.
The emissions were comparable to the normal operation of the car in the garage (entry, exit).
This was confirmed by the CO reading I expected: 24 ppm.

So far from the case you describe:

Domelski wrote:

If you were not in the garage, and your car will have such a defect and its emission will be very high, you can hit a deadly high concentration at the entrance to the garage.

I'm sorry, I'm honored.
Somehow I didn't notice that "several seconds".
Of course, this type of normal exploitation will not kill anyone.

Some Kidde sensors have a peak concentration button - to read the highest CO concentration detected - stored in memory.

This is a very useful feature in my opinion.

The one you bought has that option. This is a nice test to see if something bad happened, such as when we were away or when we slept.
It is a pity that it does not show the date and time of occurrence of this concentration, and at most it tells us that the given result took place in the meantime since the last check of the highest concentration, when it was still 0, or since its deletion.
Low concentration is not signaled with an alarm, but it can be seen on the display or read the highest value.

Domelski wrote:

I'm sorry, I'm honored.
Somehow I didn't notice that "several seconds".

Others may not notice it either!!!

Due to the seriousness of things, I propose to close this topic with a summary:

The average user does not have the possibility to safely and reliably check the carbon monoxide detector .

Domelski wrote:

You can see that a colleague "specialist" works in the topic (> 2000 posts) and wrote that he checks.

I can see my friend that you are very fond of me.
Nowhere did I write that I perform tests under protocols.
I don't calibrate the detectors and check them as you do as part of their inspections.
I also do not have the signature of a specialist detectors, only heating systems, and these are probably two different fields.

Domelski wrote:

I just don't understand why such advice comes from users signing themselves as "specialist in heating systems". Forgive me, but such tests of detectors do not check the correctness of their responses, therefore such a service is invalid.

Domelski wrote:

As for me, at home everyone checks what they want and how they want as long as they don't pose a threat. But if someone does it for others, I'm sorry, but there is no mercy.

I only wrote how I check if the entire system, e.g. gazex, works. Whether the detector responds to gas, an alarm occurs and the valve closes. So I check for myself. I am not interested in the exact activation concentration because this measurement and calibration is within the scope of the service. Detectors are shipped every 2 years.
There was no mention of earnings testing anywhere. Only from you.

Domelski wrote:

In addition, exceeding the range can cause decalibration or even damage to the detector.

You got me a little confused here.
I had the detector calibrated about two months ago. I had a pretty serious gas leak last week. The detector got 100% of the dose. Do I need to recalibrate it? How to avoid such situations in the future?
Are smaller doses of such gas safe for the detector or can they also decalibrate or damage it?