Carbon monoxide alarm went off at 1am... No appliances or heating on?

l3mmmy

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

We recently bought a house with a wood burning stove and the last owners left us their Kidde carbon monoxide detector. It's date of manufacture is only 2016 so it's not old.

Anyway we woke in the middle of the night to the alarm going off. It was incredibly loud and scared the hell out of us! It was a pattern of 4 chirps followed by a break, then again. It did the sequence about 3 times then it stopped and didn't go off again.

I checked the online user manual and this pattern is 100% the warning alarm. The low battery alarm is just one chirp then a long pause (like smoke detectors).

I'm confused as the heating wasn't on and we don't have any other gas appliances. Also I'm confused that it stopped sounding after a few sequences.

Do these things have false alarms? I read that they rarely just 'go off' without reason but it didn't go off again.

I text the old owners of the house and they said it never went off while they lived there (3 years).

Should I call someone?

Mister_G

If it's not the battery, then I'd be inclined to throw it away and buy a new one.

They're not exactly expensive and your lives may depend on it.

brewerdave

I've had two CO alarms fail for no reason since I had one fitted in Nov 2016.

First one was replaced by the firm who had installed the log burner about 6 weeks after install. Went off continuously even when I put it in the garden!! The fitter said that in his experience,about 50% of the cheapos failed in a couple of years.

Benight

l3mmmy wrote: »

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

We recently bought a house with a wood burning stove and the last owners left us their Kidde carbon monoxide detector. It's date of manufacture is only 2016 so it's not old.

Anyway we woke in the middle of the night to the alarm going off. It was incredibly loud and scared the hell out of us! It was a pattern of 4 chirps followed by a break, then again. It did the sequence about 3 times then it stopped and didn't go off again.

I checked the online user manual and this pattern is 100% the warning alarm. The low battery alarm is just one chirp then a long pause (like smoke detectors).

I'm confused as the heating wasn't on and we don't have any other gas appliances. Also I'm confused that it stopped sounding after a few sequences.

Do these things have false alarms? I read that they rarely just 'go off' without reason but it didn't go off again.

I text the old owners of the house and they said it never went off while they lived there (3 years).

Should I call someone?

I think there can only be 4 possibilities:
1. It was not an alarm signalling CO (e.g. perhaps a low battery etc instead)
2. It was a false positive
3. It was a genuine alarm having detected CO
4. The device is faulty.


In relation to the same numbered points:
1. You have checked the user guide and are confident this is a CO alarm signal
2. You have investigated and found these they rarely just 'go off' without reason
3. You cannot be sure, but you have identified no obvious source of CO
4. This leaves the only remaining possibility. You don't want a faulty monitor, so for the sake of about £15, buy a new one.

If the new one also signifies you have CO, then you need to look harder for the source, and in the meantime keep the place well ventilated.

I'm pretty sure new Kidde CO monitors come with a 7 year manufacturers warranty - but that only applies to the original purchaser

Februarycat

When mine did that it was the battery, I just replaced them and was ok. I do need to buy a new one this year as I think the one I have only lasts for 7 years.

[Deleted User]

Could just be common or garden dust. The sensors can be easily tricked by an amount of dust entering the device.

stripeyfox

Had the wood burning stove been used earlier in the evening?

stripeyfox

l3mmmy wrote: »

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

We recently bought a house with a wood burning stove and the last owners left us their Kidde carbon monoxide detector. It's date of manufacture is only 2016 so it's not old.

Anyway we woke in the middle of the night to the alarm going off. It was incredibly loud and scared the hell out of us! It was a pattern of 4 chirps followed by a break, then again. It did the sequence about 3 times then it stopped and didn't go off again.

I checked the online user manual and this pattern is 100% the warning alarm. The low battery alarm is just one chirp then a long pause (like smoke detectors).

I'm confused as the heating wasn't on and we don't have any other gas appliances. Also I'm confused that it stopped sounding after a few sequences.

Do these things have false alarms? I read that they rarely just 'go off' without reason but it didn't go off again.

I text the old owners of the house and they said it never went off while they lived there (3 years).

Should I call someone?

IMPORTANT! Was the wood burning stove in use (or had it been used earlier in the evening)?
Wood burning and mulifuel stoves can produce Carbon Monoxide too