Do you check your gas for CO?

Do you check your gas for CO?

  • Yes

    Votes: 21 20.2%
  • No

    Votes: 78 75.0%
  • What's CO?

    Votes: 5 4.8%

  • Total voters
    104

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So, nearly 1/3 of respondents check CO levels This is a lot like many other SB polls, many of which I have run, reporter bias. I have nearly 2000 dives, I have never seen a CO monitor. Not that it is a bad thing, just think almost nobody checks.
I agree. Last week I put a portable CO tester I have together in a box with an O2 tester and set them up to connect to a tank at the same time. Not so nifty as a single unit but seems to work great and I don't have to hold the sensor against the tank valve and I get both readings at the same time. I believe I will carry it to Mexico.
 
I haven't gotten around to coming up with anything final, but I thought these were kind of neat for testing. It limits the flow from the lpi. Only downside is you have to connect a reg to the tank. I do not have one of these, but it's a thought.



TruMix 4001 BC Hose Adapter, 2 LPM Flow
 
It maybe a little different when one is weightless and horizontal.

Added later: Also the PP of the CO is greater underwater so one is getting denser (more) CO than at 1 ATM.

Walk into - or should I say I had to go into a house that had a gas powered 3" trash pump running in a basement stairwell pumping water out of the basement - had to move suction lines around. The CO levels would have to have topped any level you could possibly get even at 100' - CO poisoning provides me a very distinct feet and you are very much aware of the problem long before it becomes a recovery, very much aware. You will feel the pounding and tingling and you have to know you can't keep standing there.

I've worked on stock cars, drag cars and owned a landscape company - I've had all sorts of engines running in confined areas and experienced it enough to know that "feeling" - it is very obvious.

Most if not all CO related deaths I have ever heard of have come from poorly plumbed furnace or water heater or someone running a generator in a garage - the deaths were from people sleeping while the incident occured - not wide awake, senses full on.

I would test tanks filled remotely by a gas compressor, tanks filled by some small one off operation or such - but you very rarely hear of problems, fill stations have monitors and IMO, you'd be well aware something was wrong long before.....
 
I've worked on stock cars, drag cars and owned a landscape company - I've had all sorts of engines running in confined areas and experienced it enough to know that "feeling" - it is very obvious.
I wear my Sensorcon CO clipped to my trousers as I don't trust the various buildings I enter. You really should.

but you very rarely hear of problems, fill stations have monitors and IMO, you'd be well aware something was wrong long before.....
Yeah, right. Have you ever asked to see a fill station's CO monitor? Try it. In the unlikely event that you find one hooked up, ask if it has automatic shutoff for CO and what level.

No one knows how many drownings or even travelers flu were caused by CO as they don't check. Just write those off and try to keep them quiet. Your faith is misguided.
 
This coronial inquest then will be of great interest
Hard to read as lengthy and detailed as it is, but I did see observations of lack of knowledge all too typical, i.e. compressors can create CO internally regardless of the air intake, even electric compressors. The various levels of CO in the tank tests done were frightening.
 
In 4,381 dives, never checked and never had any reason to think I had excess CO.
 
Walk into - or should I say I had to go into a house that had a gas powered 3" trash pump running in a basement stairwell pumping water out of the basement - had to move suction lines around. The CO levels would have to have topped any level you could possibly get even at 100' - CO poisoning provides me a very distinct feet and you are very much aware of the problem long before it becomes a recovery, very much aware. You will feel the pounding and tingling and you have to know you can't keep standing there.

I've worked on stock cars, drag cars and owned a landscape company - I've had all sorts of engines running in confined areas and experienced it enough to know that "feeling" - it is very obvious.

Most if not all CO related deaths I have ever heard of have come from poorly plumbed furnace or water heater or someone running a generator in a garage - the deaths were from people sleeping while the incident occured - not wide awake, senses full on.

I would test tanks filled remotely by a gas compressor, tanks filled by some small one off operation or such - but you very rarely hear of problems, fill stations have monitors and IMO, you'd be well aware something was wrong long before.....

This I believe is incorrect. When I 1st got my compressor I inquired about an inline CO detector and was told there is no such thing. So don't depend on that it may not happen. A fill station operator would need to check each tank after it was filled for CO the way they check for nitrox% post fill. I've never seen any fill station operator do that.

Also don't forget the deeper you go the more the PP of N increases which starts to dull our senses below 50 -60FSW so it's not the same as on land other factors besides CO are working against the diver breathing CO contaminated air.
 
Anyone ever had a CO hit experience above the water line - I have, twice, and it's way way noticable that something is wrong - it's not an on off light switch, more like a dimmer switch at least for me.




Walk into - or should I say I had to go into a house that had a gas powered 3" trash pump running in a basement stairwell pumping water out of the basement - had to move suction lines around. The CO levels would have to have topped any level you could possibly get even at 100' - CO poisoning provides me a very distinct feet and you are very much aware of the problem long before it becomes a recovery, very much aware. You will feel the pounding and tingling and you have to know you can't keep standing there.

I've worked on stock cars, drag cars and owned a landscape company - I've had all sorts of engines running in confined areas and experienced it enough to know that "feeling" - it is very obvious.

Most if not all CO related deaths I have ever heard of have come from poorly plumbed furnace or water heater or someone running a generator in a garage - the deaths were from people sleeping while the incident occured - not wide awake, senses full on.

I would test tanks filled remotely by a gas compressor, tanks filled by some small one off operation or such - but you very rarely hear of problems, fill stations have monitors and IMO, you'd be well aware something was wrong long before.....

This is inaccurate and very misleading. The average person who is suffering from CO poisoning doesn't know anything about it and doesn't know that the "symptoms" he "maybe" going through are indications of CO poisoning for him to take corrective action. Most likely the person will just "fall asleep" and never to wake up again (on land). All symptoms, if any, will be ignored. One recent tragedy here in Libya was the death of a whole family of 7 people due to CO poisoning coming from a power generator. The family, five kids including a new born and the parents, were in their living room all together watching TV with the mother breastfeeding her baby. They ALL went to sleep watching TV not to wake up again. The baby was found attached to his mother in "breastfeeding" position dead with his mother. This scenario happens often in similar circumstances. Underwater it is far worse and the lights just go off.

You may have some resistance and experience with it due to your work and know when to leave before you fall asleep just like some folks who survived it because they had the foresight to crawl to open a door or window to take fresh air in before they "fell asleep." In similar scenarios some people survived while others in the same house perished because it was too late for them.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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