CO Detector

Anyone measure peak CO reading in the room with a DF520?

Thanks,

Dave

Hopefully Zero (0). You don't want any CO if at all in the room, but you may have stray fumes....

I have a digital CO meter located above the DF520, it reads "00". I can open the door for a minute to look at the fire ring and it still reads "00". You need a good draft, if you have a marginal draft the 520 could draft through the coal bin. Also be sure that the auger is completely covered in coal, like at least 10" of coal on top of it. I test fired mine when I first fired it up with only one bag of coal and the auger was exposed and it caused high CO readings. I recommend if you are having a problem to get a DWYER Manometer and hook it up to the stack and get a draft reading, they are cheap and way better than guessing or worrying.

I test fired mine when I first fired it up with only one bag of coal and the auger was exposed and it caused high CO readings.

Was the the boiler and chimney up to operating temperature when this happened? If it was, there is a draft problem somewhere, for sure, if CO went all the way down to the end of the long pipe, assuming the pipe was filled with coal. Unless you were using the short pipe only ?

Normally reads 0 zero, however I noticed a peak of 11ppm. I suspect it was due to running the whole house fan one night. I'll have to monitor it further.

Definitely, a fan can be a problem with any unit.

daluds wrote:Normally reads 0 zero, however I noticed a peak of 11ppm. I suspect it was due to running the whole house fan one night. I'll have to monitor it further.

You should never run your whole house fan when your coal stove is on. At best it will pull the air out of your stove & kill your fire........
At worst it will suck the CO into your house & kill you!

(I take the on/off knob off the WH Fan switch .... fall-spring)


Your CO detector should always read ZERO or you have a big problem! (Don't mess with CO! )

It must have been the whole house fan since its been reading 0 for days now. Thanks for the feedback. I hoped closing off the doors to the basement with the whole house fan on would not effect the draft. I'll measure the draft with the whole house fan on and doors to basement shut to confirm.

stoker-man wrote:

I test fired mine when I first fired it up with only one bag of coal and the auger was exposed and it caused high CO readings.

Was the the boiler and chimney up to operating temperature when this happened? If it was, there is a draft problem somewhere, for sure, if CO went all the way down to the end of the long pipe, assuming the pipe was filled with coal. Unless you were using the short pipe only ?

Everything was cold, I dumped one 50# bag in the bin and fired her up. The auger wasn't full of coal, it didn't have any coal in it when I started the fire in the pot. I saw the smoke come out of the auger tube and out the basement window. I also inadvertently had the air setting all the way up so it was really blowing air hard into the empty tube.

That explains it.

Checked the CO detector last night, and it was reading 0. However, the peak showed 10ppm was measure since the last time I cleared it. I didn't run the whole house fan so will have to look into this further. Does the CO readings increase when the DF520 is opened to remove ashes or check the fire?

Thanks,

Dave

daluds wrote:Does the CO readings increase when the DF520 is opened to remove ashes or check the fire?

Yes they can. What kind of weather were you having last night?

The chimney really needs to be warmed up before it will draft correctly. Trying to solve a draft problem in the summer might solve itself once the chimney warms up and the outside temps drop. When you open the fire door the ash sitting on the sill will get sucked in, if it kind of puffs out then the draft is too low.

Been running coal for heat this week, and noticed there is a lot of hot air and dust coming out of the top of the front door. The door sits crooked so its not level to the top of the opening. I readjusted the insulation rope to match, and will see if this helps. The CO detector reads 11ppm when its been running for a while so I suspect this is the source of the reading.

Should I try thicker insulation rope? Where would I purchase this insulation rope?

Thanks,

Dave