I, too, have bad personal experiences with CO poisoning that make me a bit wary. A cabin full of fellow workers nearly died due to a malfunctioning pilot light. One woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache, realized the situation, and ventilated in time. Exceptional circumstances - a small, tightly sealed cabin - which are not representative of most homes.

I myself acquired a splitting headache after excavating an a closed space (which I thought was adequately ventilated) using a carbide lamp for ventilation.

If concerned, a CO detector (properly installed and maintained) provides an extra layer of safety.

Thanks for the info. These single burners look good at $34 USD. I need to check again -- maybe prices have dropped, or maybe it's a pricing quirk up here (last time I checked locally, they wanted over $50 CAD).

I purchased an alcohol stove though Ebay a number of years ago, which I think, would be great for a home situation. The problem is I don’t have the stove handy to look up any information and a search turned up the standard alcohol stoves already mentioned. The stove is made of stainless steel has a removable tank that attaches to the side (works with gravity) and holds around 1 pint of fuel. The stove itself has 1 burner and is adjustable. I believe this was manufactured and is in use in Asian countries. We have used the stove during power outages and it works great. If anyone has any idea what I am talking about and can point to an image that can be posted (there are none on Ebay right now), it might be something that would be useful.

Pete

Sounds like a marine stove of some sort. They are common in that environment, especially for safety reasons (lighter than air and won't pool in the bilges and go boom).

Possibly, but the construction would seem to me to make too unstable for a marine environment, as the fuel bottle might it unstable.

Pete

Okay, it sounds like a propane camp stove is what I want. I'll probably go with one of the two-burner ones for the low profile, stability, and the familiar cooktop.

I appreciate the info about the CO levels, it's reassuring.

And I will be putting in a combo smoke/CO detector anyway, so that's covered, too.


Thank you all, very much!

Compugeek, WallieWorld in Poway has the two burner Coleman stoves on the shelf. I'm rethinking and considering a two burner instead of the single. Seems to be more common and that means better parts availability.

A malfunctioning pilot light would not create a CO problem. More likely it would allow the room to fill with whatever combustible gas the cabin heater would be using. Since it was probably under thermostat control, as the temp in the cabin dropped, the t'stat would've opened the valve to feed the heater, but with no pilot light, the gas would've just kept coming. A CO monitor/alarm would've done you absolutely no good in that case.

CO is a by-product of combustion, and without it, you get no CO build-up. Sounds like what you got was either a propane or a methane (natural gas) flood in your cabin, which came really close to suffocating you all. You would need a low O2 alarm to protect you from that sort of problem. Had any of you lit a match at the time, you probably would've blown the cabin up.

I am a bit hazy on the details - I wasn't there. But it did involve incomplete combustion (that was the malfunction) of a pilot light. No explosive atmosphere was involved. Individual who woke up did so with a serious headache.

One of these might be useful - A Foker Double Gas Boiling Ring with Flame Failure Device (FFD)

http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Double_Burner_Europa_Gas_Boiling_Ring_with_FFD.html

It can be used with a whole host of external Gas Bottles (Butane Propane or LPG) from the Campingaz 901,904 bottles etc through to industrial propane bottles using the appropriate Regulator/Hose and Clips etc i.e most of the bottles supplied by Calorgas such as the Butane 15kg bottles and smaller Patiogas bottles.

A single 15Kg Calor Gas Butane Bottle would give about 25 hrs continuous use at the full 8KW output. Or to put it another way around 15-20 weeks normal cooking use for 1 to 2 persons.