My sister recently got on a safety kick and got my family all the same Christmas gift. We all got fire and smoke detectors and also a carbon monoxide detector. I was lazy about getting them up until my sister hounded me. After my carbon monoxide detector went up it started immediately letting me know something wasn’t right in my home. I apparently had dangerous amounts of CO2. This is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. It is also poisonous if you are exposed too long. You could be hospitalized and die. So I immediately called my Terrel, Texas heating repair dealer to take a look at my furnace. That was the only place CO2 could be coming from. The furnace tech found that my heat exchanger had cracked and started releasing the gas. Thankfully it was a small, easy to repair crack and was caught early. If I wouldn’t have caught it, not only would I be inhaling bad fumes but would have a huge furnace repair on my hands. Since it was a tiny one, I was able to pay cash. Left too long a cracked heat exchanger would need to be totally replaced. A new exchanger costs about the same as a furnace. So I would have needed to buy an entirely new system. My sister feels so smug now that she saved me a ton of money and potentially my life. I can’t believe that a CO2 detector actually ended up being a useful addition in my home. I am glad that I got my furnace repaired.
