I haven't sent my two units back yet, but the recall notice does state that it is not aware of anyone being exposed to harmful levels of CO due to this defect, so I assume that this problem was discovered during internal testing. Maybe a routine quality control check turned up a rare but serious flaw. I'm sure they do long-term tests, too, and maybe the catalytic converter in an older unit didn't perform well after sitting around for a number of years. Well, at this point, we'll never know, it looks like. I've looked for info, too, there's only speculation out there.

I haven't decided on a replacement smoke hood yet, but I do intend to turn in my EVAC-U8's. I agree, an EVAC-U8 is better than nothing in a fire, but protection against CO is the primary reason why I bought a smoke hood and if it can't be relied on to do that, then I figure I'll move on to something else.

Right now, the Safe Escape Fire and Smoke Hood seems like a good choice. It passes all the important smoke hood certifications, like in Europe and Japan (apparently the US doesn't really have one). The fact that they don't have a professional looking web presence (they sell through distributors) is sort of off-putting and makes me wonder about their quality. But I don't think they would claim to have passed all these safety certifications in all these different legal jurisdictions if they knew that they could get their pants sued off them many times over.