Important: Have you had your boiler serviced?

[Blu]

If I hadn't called Transco last night, we could have been killed by Carbon Monoxide fumes.

When I got home, there was a 'fumy' smell and the air just didn't feel right. Even though I knew it wasn't gas, I called the emergency Transco number. The upshot is that a defect in te boiler and in the flue were causing fumes and serious amounts of Carbon Monoxide to escape straight through the floorboards into the spare bedroom, which is also my workroom. I am sleeping there atm as I am working late at night and v early morning, and tend to keep the door closed.

We moved in in Spring, and the previous owner signed a thing to say he had had the boiler serviced last winter, we were planning to 'get round to it' again this year when the post Xmas finances had recovered.

If you haven't had your boiler serviced this year, DO IT NOW, and if you smell fumes, get help.

Luckily we have an immersion heater, but it's going to be a very chilly few weeks til we can get a new boiler installed!

Better Chilled than Killed!

You can also buy little carbon monoxide warning patches to stick on the side of boilers & gas fires from DIY shops

That should be AS WELL AS getting your boiler serviced though.
Well done Blu - a very narrow escape. Systems of carbon monoxide poisoning are very similar to flu, so can go unnoticed.

Poor you Blu it really is cold today aswell. Glad you smelt it though. Also you can by carbon monoxide detectors - they are like smoke alarms

Ooops - SYMPTOMS - of carbon monoxide poisoning!

The scary thing is that some people refuse to take the advice that they are given.

All landlords have to get a gas safety certificate done every year to be able to legally rent out a property. The firm I work for went to one house to do this certificate and found the installation to be "immediately dangerous".

The tenant refused to allow the gas engineer to switch off the gas "because I have 3 children and need my heating"

Of course we informed transco who turned the supply off anyway.

Well done Blu.

Re the detectors: the Transco man said that the plastic stick-on ones are not a good indicator of safety, and it's much better to get the more expensive smoke alarm type.

In case anyone doesn't know, Carbon Monoxide doesn't actually smell. It was the fumes from the burner that was faulty that I could smell, so if it had only been the cracked flue, we might not have been so lucky.

I'm feeling really guilty now, DS had very, very bad flu for 2 weeks before Xmas; I wonder if it was CO?

Can someone bring this thread back to the top this evening so that the evening poster see it? I'd hate this to happen to another MN-er.

my boilers just broken so no hot water or heating and my hair really needs washing! if the gas man doesn't get here tonight guess I'll be boiling kettles to bathe ds...

Thanks for that, Blu, and I'm glad you're ok. We were assiduous about buying an alarm for ds1's flat but don't have one ourselves! We have our boiler serviced yearly but I'll buy an alarm anyway - they're available from Argos .

Eddm, we've had no CH or hot water for 24hrs as we ran out of oil. Never done that before, in 7yrs. Thankfully they delivered oil this pm and the radiators are warm again. We boiled loads of saucepans and kettles for a bath - it takes ages! Hope your gasman comes soon.

Bother bother have been phoning the only plumber we really trust to know his stuff for over a month and he doesn't return phone calls anyway, you've reminded me, we will get it serviced...! I'll get one of the little CO patches, at least, until we track down a plumber who will come out to us.

Blu what a lucky escape.

When I was a student in a rented house we had a really cold spell . My mum heard on the news of someone who had died of CO poisoning from a boiler so we checked ours only to discover that the flue had iced over and we were out in freezing cold with a hairdryer to unblock it.

Have you tried British Gas, Zebra? The Scottish arm does servicing contracts so the English bit might do the same.

We're moving house, anyway, almost certainly going to rent, I think in a house without central heating! He's a great plumber... when we can get hold of him -- hey! You did me a favour. My Childminder has a good mate who started out as only her beloved plumber, I'm getting his phone number....now!

DH does our basic plumbing, actually, but he's not a CORGI engineer so can't do the boiler.

We rent our house and our landlord sends a guy out to service the fire every year, we usually get ours done around April. What they do is take the gas fire apart, there is a back boiler there, and they clean it all out with a hoover. Then they check the Gas meter in the cupboard and the gas cooker. And that's it. We also have carbon monoxide detectors that they put in and check at the same time as doing the fire. Our carbon monoxide detector is like a smoke alarm

How scary Blu