Do Carbon Monoxide Detectors Expire?
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that displaces oxygen in the blood and deprives the heart, brain, and vital organs of oxygen. Large amounts of carbon monoxide can overcome you without warning and kill you within minutes.
Do carbon monoxide detectors expire? Carbon monoxide detectors expire after 5 to 10 years of use. Most carbon monoxide detectors have an expiration date on the back of the sensor to let you know when it’s time to replace it. The detector will also start chirping every 30 seconds once it has expired.
- Why do carbon monoxide detectors expire?
- How do I know if my carbon monoxide detector is expired?
- What is carbon monoxide?
- Where does carbon monoxide come from?
- Where should I install carbon monoxide detectors?
- When should I replace the batteries in my carbon monoxide detectors?
- Why is my carbon monoxide detector beeping or chirping every 30 seconds?
- How do I know if my carbon monoxide detector is working?
- What is a dangerous level of carbon monoxide?
- How long does it take to die from carbon monoxide poisoning?
- What does carbon monoxide smell like?
- What does it sound like when my carbon monoxide detector goes off?
- What should I do if my carbon monoxide detector goes off?
- Carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms.
- Carbon monoxide poisoning treatments.
Why do carbon monoxide detectors expire?
Most people don’t realize that carbon monoxide detectors only last 5 to 10 years. This is because the sensor components that react with carbon monoxide gas become less sensitive over time.
How do I know if my carbon monoxide detector is expired?
Some carbon monoxide detectors have the expiration date stamped on the back of the sensor, but not all of them do.
Make sure you write the dates on the front of the detector, the day you purchased it, and the expiration date.
Carbon monoxide detectors have an end-of-life warning just in case you forgot to put the expiration date on it. The end-of-life warning is a loud beep or chirping sound every 30 seconds.
Most people do not know what this sound is and remove the batteries from the detector to make it stop beeping, and usually, they don’t replace the sensor for a very long time.
What is carbon monoxide?
Carbon monoxide, also known as CO, is an odorless, tasteless, colorless gas that displaces oxygen in the blood and deprives the heart, brain, and vital organs of oxygen. Large amounts of CO can overcome you without warning, and kill can kill you within minutes.
Where does carbon monoxide come from?
CO is found in fumes produced by fuel-burning appliances such as cars, small engines used in generators and power washers, oil boilers, and gas furnaces and stoves.
Where should I install carbon monoxide detectors?
According to the National Fire Protection Association, it is recommended to have CO detectors installed in the following areas of your home:
- Outside any room with a heating appliance such as an oil boiler or gas furnace
- One in any room that shares a wall with the heating appliance
- One in every bedroom
- One in hallways outside every bedroom
- At least one on every level of the house
- It is recommended that they are installed four to six feet of the ground at breathing height, but they can also be installed on the ceiling.
With an average price tag of $50 – $90, most people only install one or two CO detectors in their house.
This is no time to cheap out because a CO detector in the living room is useless when you’re sleeping and your bedroom is directly above your boiler room.
CO can spread directly into your bedroom without ever reaching the CO detector in the other areas.
Carbon monoxide is the same weight as air, so it doesn’t sink, and it doesn’t rise like natural gas.
The airflow in your house determines how far and fast it spreads from the source, so if you have central air heating, there is more airflow in your home than if you have baseboard heat or radiators.
Therefore, it’s vital to install enough CO detectors throughout your home to provide adequate coverage.
I installed nine CO detectors in my house; seven are connected to my alarm system, and two are plugin versions.
I install alarm systems for a living, so I just had to pay for the parts, which are around $90 each; otherwise, I would have to pay $150 plus labor for each one and two battery-operated ones from home depot for $80 each.
I installed one near my boiler, one in my office, one in my living room, one upstairs outside the bedrooms, and one in each bedroom for a total of seven CO detectors connected to my alarm system and one battery-operated sensor in each of my kid’s rooms for backup.
I have a generator on the right side of my house where my kid’s rooms are, so I don’t want to take any chances; I paid an extra $160 for peace of mind.
If the detectors connected to my alarm system go off, a signal is sent to the central station. Once they receive the signal, they call my house, and if I don’t answer the phone, they dispatch the fire department.
It cost me $790 to install them, which is not bad for little peace of mind. It was painful when I had to replace all of them five years later when they expired.
The new ones last ten years so I started a small fund for the next time I have to replace them.
When should I replace the batteries in my carbon monoxide detectors?
Your CO detectors start beeping every few minutes when the batteries are low. As the batteries get weaker, they beep more frequently.
Please don’t make the mistake of removing the batteries to silence them or putting them in a drawer because they are driving you crazy. Replace the batteries as soon as you can and get them back up.
Why is my carbon monoxide detector beeping or chirping every 30 seconds?
Your carbon monoxide detector is beeping every 30 seconds because it either has a low battery, has reached the end of its life, or is malfunctioning.
If you’re not sure when you purchased the CO detector, you should replace it.
When the detector senses dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, the unit will sound a loud alarm pattern.
The alarm pattern is four short beeps followed by five seconds of silence followed by four short beeps.
How do I know if my carbon monoxide detector is working?
If you know for a fact that your CO detectors have not expired yet, you can press the test button on the detector. It will beep for a few seconds and turn off.
Some of the newer detectors speak to you when you press the test button and announce the battery level and the detector’s status.
If you do not know how old the detector is, pressing the button is not going to indicate if the sensor is expired or not. It only tests the battery, so if you don’t know how old the detector is, you should replace it.
What’s a dangerous level of carbon monoxide?
Carbon monoxide is measured in PPM’s (parts per million).
To feel the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, we would have to be exposed to a level of 50 ppm for eight hours.
I got the charts below from the Kidde website. They’re one of the biggest manufacturers of Carbon monoxide detectors
Carbon monoxide levels that will set off your alarm
| Carbon Monoxide Level | Alarm Response Time |
| 40 PPM | 10 hours |
| 50 PPM | 8 hours |
| 70 PPM | 1 to 4 hours |
| 150 PPM | 10 to 50 minutes |
| 400 PPM | 4 to 15 minutes |
How long does it take to die from carbon monoxide poisoning?
Carbon monoxide levels and their symptoms
| 50 PPM | None for healthy adults. According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), this is the maximum allowable concentration for continuous exposure for healthy adults in an eight-hour period. |
| 200 PPM | There are slight headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea after two to three hours. |
| 400 PPM | Frontal headaches with one to two hours. Life-threatening after three hours. |
| 800 PPM | Dizziness, nausea, and convulsions within 45 minutes. Unconsciousness within two hours. Death within two to three hours. |
| 1,600 PPM | Headache, dizziness, and nausea within 20 minutes. Death within one hour. |
What does carbon monoxide smell like?
Carbon monoxide has no smell or color. That is why it’s called the silent killer.
What does it sound like when my CO detector goes off?
When the detector senses dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, the unit will sound a loud alarm pattern.
The alarm pattern is four short beeps followed by five seconds of silence followed by four short beeps.
What should I do if my carbon monoxide detector goes off?
Leave the house ASAP. You won’t know how long you’ve been exposed to carbon monoxide, so you might pass out. Go outside and call the fire department. They will check the CO levels in your house and determine where the CO is coming from.
Carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms
CO poisoning is described as having flu-like symptoms. Symptoms of CO poisoning are headaches, dizziness, stomach ache, weakness, confusion, and chest pain.
Carbon monoxide poisoning treatments
Get into fresh air immediately and call 911. Once at the hospital, treatments may include breathing pure oxygen through a mask placed over your nose and mouth to help the oxygen reach your organs and tissues.
In some cases, a pressurized oxygen chamber in which air pressure is two to three times higher than usual is recommended to help speed the replacement of carbon monoxide with oxygen in your blood.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be used in extreme cases of poisoning to help protect the heart and brain tissues vulnerable to injury from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Related topics
Can carbon monoxide detectors detect smoke?
CO detectors will not detect smoke. They are designed to detect CO gases unless you have a CO detector and smoke detector combo unit. It will say it on the detector if it’s a combo detector.
Can carbon monoxide detectors detect natural gas?
Carbon monoxide detectors will not detect natural gas leaks. They are only designed to detect carbon monoxide unless stated otherwise.
Can cigarettes set off a carbon monoxide detector?
Carbon monoxide is produced from the incomplete burning of virtually any combustible product.
Although cigarettes produce small amounts of carbon monoxide, it is not enough to sound a carbon monoxide detector unless there is a room full of people smoking in a room without any ventilation.
