Best Carbon Monoxide Detector for 2024

1 week ago 3

Carbon monoxide is commonly known as the "silent killer" -- a gas that can spread through your home without any color, odor or even taste to alert you to danger. Breathing in carbon monoxide can restrict the amount of oxygen carried throughout your blood and cause breathing difficulties. This is why a reliable carbon monoxide detector is critical for ensuring your safety and that of your family.

In its early stages, carbon monoxide poisoning can lead to headaches, nausea, dizziness and general weakness and, if not treated, can be fatal. It's easy to confuse it with flu, too, making it important to have a carbon monoxide detector in your home. You don't want to risk CO poisoning with an old or defective monitor. Whether you're a new homeowner or it's time to replace your existing detector, we found the best, most reliable models to help ease your mind and protect your home.

A carbon monoxide detector is necessary to help protect your household from this potentially deadly gas. The detector can alert you to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and give you time to evacuate and, if necessary, seek medical attention.

All carbon monoxide detectors share the same basic function, though they may vary in efficacy, and additional smart features like digital displays or emergency notifications to your smartphone, as well as doubling as a smoke detector in some cases.

To help you get the best carbon monoxide detector, we put a number of popular models to the test, evaluating their ability to detect carbon monoxide at two hazardous concentration levels: 250 and 400 parts per million. Here are the best options for keeping you safe.

To put these detectors to the test, we took to the lab and built a test rig designed to measure each unit's response time to varying concentrations of carbon monoxide, specifically at 250 ppm and 400 ppm. Our goal was to determine each detector's respective effectiveness at detecting potentially hazardous levels of carbon monoxide. To declare our winners, we also took into account features that add to the overall user experience, performance and cost-efficiency of each unit.

For the 250 ppm concentration level, we try to simulate a situation where carbon monoxide has begun to build up to hazardous levels. We test twice at this concentration and average the results. At 400 ppm, we replicate a worst-case scenario, a potentially deadly situation, and give the units a pass or fail score. Spoiler alert: They will all save your life, which goes to show how important it is to have carbon monoxide detectors installed on every floor of your home.

CNET's test rig for carbon monoxide detectors pumps the hazardous gas directly into an enclosed test chamber, where we can measure each detector's effectiveness at quickly sounding an alarm at various CO thresholds.

This is one of the most dangerous tests we've ever conducted. Carbon monoxide exposure is no joke. It's virtually undetectable and, well, quite deadly. We needed to create a safe way of testing carbon monoxide detectors without risking the health and safety of our laboratory staff. So I made use of my rudimentary carpentry skills and built a carbon monoxide detector test station. Its components are:

Carbon monoxide detector chamber -- made using wood, plexiglass, silicon, tape and a bunch of finish nails.

Carbon monoxide tank with gas flow regulator -- cylinder tank containing carbon monoxide at 2,500 ppm and balance air.

Testo 300 with carbon monoxide Ambient sensor -- our control device for this experiment.

Two portable carbon monoxide gas alarms.

The chamber houses two carbon monoxide detectors, a) the CO Ambient sensor portion of our control device, the Testo 300, which is a combustion analyzer used by heating engineers who carry out installation and routine maintenance of industrial and residential heating systems, and b) the unit under test, or UUT, which takes the place of each carbon monoxide detector we tested for you. The chamber is sealed with foam but not air-tight, since we're not particularly interested in making a carbon monoxide bomb.

A close-up look at the gas regulator on the tank of carbon monoxide used in CNET's carbon monoxide detector tests. There's a portable CO alarm attached to the line to help detect any dangerous leaks during our test process.

We installed a gas flow regulator on our tank to avoid pressure spikes, followed by a gas line to feed our gas mixture into the chamber. Two additional portable carbon monoxide detectors are used. One near the valve, to ensure there are no leaks and another that must be worn by the person experimenting to make sure there is no carbon monoxide buildup in the test station area. On top of all that, our respirator suits and amply ventilated location ensure that we get a constant stream of fresh air at all times. This might all sound excessive, but it's always good laboratory practice to put safety first, especially when you're dealing with such a stealthy and prolific killer.

We start by feeding our gas mixture to the chamber and closely monitoring the carbon monoxide concentration on the Testo. Once the concentration inside our chamber reaches at least 250 ppm or 400 ppm, we stop feeding the gas and start a timer. We want to assess how long the carbon monoxide detectors take to react to those conditions. As you may understand, we wanted to limit our exposure while making sure our results were repeatable.

Our results are summarized in the interactive graph below:

Read Entire Article