I know. I wish Brookdale would at least explain what the problem was otherwise we can only speculate. I'm sure that that EVACU8 was thoroughly tested when they first came out--the legal liability not to is too great not do a good job, in my opinion. I'm pretty sure that they would put batches aside and re-test them as they aged. I suspect that some units started underperforming in these routine tests over time due to some unforseen aging problem. Or maybe there was a rare problem from the start which was never encountered initially. Only as they tested more and more units over time did they finally discover it. Anyway, like I said, just pure speculation. Like you said, maybe there was a design flaw that should've been caught from the start. *shrug*

The recall notice say "may" expose users to CO, so it's not a definite problem for all units, so I kept mine. Actually, I had two but opened up one after the recall to see what the hood was like. The notice also says that no actual users were exposed to CO. Again, not knowing the nature of the problem, I figured that even if the CO-scrubbing performance isn't up to snuff in some units, it would still protect your head from flames and would most likely filter the other components of smoke. Better than nothing, I figured. Call it a calculated risk, and in my current circumstances, the critical need for a smoke hood is a lot lower than it was before so I was OK with that risk.

Yeah, you can't really test a smoke hood for CO yourself. What do we do? Lock ourselves in a closet with a charcoal grill and see if we come out alive 20 minutes later?