Dad and I were in the shop today, with the old Lennox roaring away at full impulse power, trying to work out how best to flare some aluminum tubing to run the hardlines to the transmission cooler, when he suddenly said,

"You know, it's the weirdest thing, but the last couple of times we've been in here I've felt a little lightheaded. Have you felt anything strange?"

"Well, I was really dizzy and faint-y last time, but that was probably the UTI I didn't know I had. I feel fine today... well, except for this slight headache."

We paused, then slowly turned to look at the heater.

DID YOU KNOW: It's impossible to get hold of a carbon monoxide meter on short notice in the greater Bangor, Maine area? It's true. I know because we spent a couple of hours looking for one. Plenty of CO detectors around--they're often built into smoke detectors these days--but something that will give you a numerical value? Nah.

Ultimately, we hit on the idea of checking in with the company that provides the fuel and services heating equipment in Dad's home and up at the shop. Surely they would have such a device...

... Except they reported that, if a CO leak is suspected, they are legally barred from entering the premises and investigating.

So who can?

The fire department.

Which is how we ended up with a full-dress fire engine up at our humble facility, with a couple of guys in full gear including SCBA units, one of whom waited outside on call while the other went in with an air quality meter to investigate.

A bit anticlimactically, they found nothing. The Lennox was running while the fireman was in there, and he said his meter read zero PPM of CO everywhere in the building, including right under the unit.

Which is good, but leaves us with the lingering question: what was that all about?

Well, at least we don't have to pay the FD for the callout. It's considered a public safety activity, like checking people's smoke detectors for them.

Anyway, after all that, we only got one of the two transmission cooler hardlines in, but, you know. Baby steps.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm reminded of the first hotel I worked at and the time a guest claiming they smelled gas in the stairwell after a power outage and a demand we call the FD lest they do it themselves resulted in a 20+ min scavenger hunt in the basement boiler room that turned up a pinhole leak in one of the gas lines. The "fix" was a pea-sized blob of metal from a welding stick and less than two minutes of work.

I might go over the events leading up to and after that incident, but suffice it to say it was very much a "I can't believe I didn't kill anyone" kind of shift.

Being fair, even a tiny gas leak is something best dealt with immediately.

It's much better to deal with them via a small fix than let it become a serious problem.

Over here it's not a Fire Department issue, but there is an emergency number to call and I've used it a couple of times to err on the side of caution.

>Being fair, even a tiny gas leak is something best dealt with
>immediately.
>
>It's much better to deal with them via a small fix than let it become
>a serious problem.
>
>Over here it's not a Fire Department issue, but there is an emergency
>number to call and I've used it a couple of times to err on the side
>of caution.

That's just it, it was a pinhole leak so tiny that nobody could actually smell gas and they spent 15+ minutes searching with one of those CO detectors that Gryphon mentioned.

Best guess that anybody could ever make was that the boiler pilot lights went out during the power outage and some gas drifted from the basement into the stairwell. Not enough that there was a danger of auto-ignition, but enough that you could smell it in the air.

I imagine that sparking up a welder over a known gas leak brought a touch of excitement to the day.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

LAST EDITED ON Nov-29-25 AT 05:31 AM (EST)
 
This reminds me of my youth, and my dad.
See, the old man worked for a company that
repaired and replaced the fuel-bearing parts
of gas stations. Everything from the tank in the
ground to the the pump itself.

And, at one point he got an...interesting...job.
These days, as I understand, if the tank is less
than pristine, they coat the inside in some sort
of spray-on material. The tank is 2mm smaller in
all internal dimensions but is once again water-tight.
Fuel-tight? Anyway.

This was not the case in olden days. No. What
you'd do was, you'd call the local fire
department(dunno why, not like they could do much...),
empty out the tank good and thorough, don a mask,
climb through the top "hatch"....and weld it tight.

Now, as noted, "clean good and thorough" etc,
but still. You almost certainly could not get it
bright shiny clean. Which means you kicked off an
oxy-acetylene torch in a confined space with at
least SOME gas fumes. See what I meant about
"dunno why the fire department"? If it had gone in
an unfortunate direction, they could have done
essentially dick.

Working with my dad in the summers was fun, but wow...

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

I think, if I had to weld the inside of a gas station tank, I'd have it filled with carbon dioxide and breathe through a tube. I'd rather suffocate and die myself than risk blowing up the whole thing.