CO2 detectors the "Good The Bad and The Ugly

[0TreeLemur]

9 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

You can replace the battery yourself....one of mine is much older than the other,,,,the numbers displayed are almost always the exact same....have not calibrated either of them...

Curious.  Which battery do they use?

[EricJ]

21 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

Curious.  Which battery do they use?

Lithium CR123.    There's a vid on YT from Sensorcon showing how to change it.  
 

 

[tim417]

Does anyone have a direct contact number for Sensorcon Customer Service? I emailed their customer service address and have not gotten any replies in two days. The website doesnt seem to have a contact number for them.

I have a Sensorcon unit and after about 20 months I purchased the calibration service, sent the unit in and then received it back. Now, about two months after getting it back, I am getting an End of Life warning of 75 days during startup. 

Tim

[skydvrboy]

You might try 1-716-276-2975

It's listed as their sales number but I bet the salesman could either answer your questions or get you in touch with someone who could.

[tim417]

16 hours ago, skydvrboy said:

You might try 1-716-276-2975

It's listed as their sales number but I bet the salesman could either answer your questions or get you in touch with someone who could.

I just called that number. Selecting the customer service option goes to a voicemail. I left a message so we will see if I ever get a reply. Selecting the sales option gets a “sorry, your call did not go through. please try your call later” and then it hangs up. This does not give me much confidence. 

[Fly Boomer]

14 hours ago, tim417 said:

Does anyone have a direct contact number for Sensorcon Customer Service? I emailed their customer service address and have not gotten any replies in two days. The website doesnt seem to have a contact number for them.

I have a Sensorcon unit and after about 20 months I purchased the calibration service, sent the unit in and then received it back. Now, about two months after getting it back, I am getting an End of Life warning of 75 days during startup. 

Tim

Also, possibly 716 566 2728.

[tim417]

2 hours ago, Fly Boomer said:

Also, possibly 716 566 2728.

I called this number and got this message (the same one if I press the "sales" option when I call the first number):

"We're sorry, your call did not go through. Please try your call later."

I guess now we know what kind of customer support we will get from this company....

[Fly Boomer]

On 4/26/2024 at 12:49 PM, tim417 said:

I called this number and got this message (the same one if I press the "sales" option when I call the first number):

"We're sorry, your call did not go through. Please try your call later."

I guess now we know what kind of customer support we will get from this company....

I have heard good things about them, and I have one of their CO detectors, but it's disappointing that they make themselves so hard to contact.

[DanM20C]

Sensorcon has been a great company to work with. I had a really good relationship with them, but unfortunately they have had some employee turnover and that has ended.  I've been meaning to get back in contact with someone there and try to restart what I had in the past.  This week I'll try to do that.  If it works out I'll let everyone here know.  

Cheers,

Dan 

[tim417]

I have really been happy with the product for the almost two years I have used it. But it has been over a week of no response to any of my numerous emails and phone messages for support. I paid for a calibration, sent in the unit, received it back with a certificate of calibration yet it is showing End of Life warnings. 

I guess when it dies I’ll be looking for an alternative product with a company that has some sort of customer support. 

[PT20J]

I installed a Guardian unit when I did my panel upgrade

https://www.guardianavionics.com/guardian-aero-451-101-panel-co-detector-certified-norsee

[Ragsf15e]

On 5/7/2024 at 8:26 AM, PT20J said:

I installed a Guardian unit when I did my panel upgrade

https://www.guardianavionics.com/guardian-aero-451-101-panel-co-detector-certified-norsee

That seems like it would be ok, but the readout/sensitivity on the sensorcon is really nice.  The guardian doesn’t go off until 50ppm and you don’t know what the actual level is.  If I see 20+ on the ground, I already know I have a problem.  More than about 5 in the air, same.  I’m just hoping the sensorcon company isn’t defunct.

[Jim Peace]

18 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

That seems like it would be ok, but the readout/sensitivity on the sensorcon is really nice.  The guardian doesn’t go off until 50ppm and you don’t know what the actual level is.  If I see 20+ on the ground, I already know I have a problem.  More than about 5 in the air, same.  I’m just hoping the sensorcon company isn’t defunct.

yes the live readout is so important.  you can spot trends....

I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and have not heard back.  Their office is right next to where I park a jet sometimes...I will go over and see what the deal is next time there....

Does anyone here live in BUF and can do a drive-by to see if they are still a company?

[Fly Boomer]

9 minutes ago, Jim Peace said:

Does anyone here live in BUF and can do a drive-by to see if they are still a company?

Maybe @DanM20C know what is going on?

[tim417]

Thanks to @DanM20C, a rep from Sensorcon reached out and resolved my issue. 

It turns out that after two years of life, you will get an End of Life warning every 180 days past each calibration until the sensor eventually is unable to be calibrated. When that happens, you will need a new internal sensor which is about $69 for the “out of warranty” flat rate service. 

The Sensorcon is a very nice unit. The battery life is fantastic and it has served me well for the years I’ve had it. I’ll likely send it in for a new sensor when the time comes. Hopefully they work out their communications issues. 

[Brian2034]

In our hangar everyone flys with a CO2 detector from the local hardware store.

The type that is used in a house, small rectangular unit.

Those “scratch and sniff” are useless, ask me how I know!

 

[Fly Boomer]

36 minutes ago, Brian2034 said:

The type that is used in a house, small rectangular unit.

I encourage you to watch this from beginning to end, and reconsider:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOEBoeuyR0U

[Rick Junkin]

On 5/8/2024 at 2:55 PM, Ragsf15e said:

That seems like it would be ok, but the readout/sensitivity on the sensorcon is really nice.  The guardian doesn’t go off until 50ppm and you don’t know what the actual level is.  If I see 20+ on the ground, I already know I have a problem.  More than about 5 in the air, same.  I’m just hoping the sensorcon company isn’t defunct.

I included a remote mount Guardian CO detector with my panel upgrade as well, and my shop interfaced it with the G3X Touch. I have the real-time numeric CO level displayed in one of the G3X data bar fields at the top of the PFD, with the added bonus of having the CO data in the G3X flight log data file that I download for review post-flight to identify any trends. The G3X will also pop a CAS message when the CO level exceeds the 50PPM threshold in addition to the Guardian’s aural alert.

Good stuff, Maynard.

Cheers,
Junkman

[Ragsf15e]

Just now, Rick Junkin said:

I included a remote mount Guardian CO detector with my panel upgrade as well, and my shop interfaced it with the G3X Touch. I have the real-time numeric CO level displayed in one of the G3X data bar fields at the top of the PFD, with the added bonus of having the CO data in the G3X flight log data file that I download for review post-flight to identify any trends. The G3X will also pop a CAS message when the CO level exceeds the 50PPM threshold in addition to the Guardian’s aural alert.

Good stuff, Maynard.

Cheers,
Junkman

Oh, yes, that sounds awesome!

[tim417]

9 hours ago, Brian2034 said:

In our hangar everyone flys with a CO2 detector from the local hardware store.

The type that is used in a house, small rectangular unit.

Those “scratch and sniff” are useless, ask me how I know!

 

Most home CO detectors have far too high a threshold of CO before alerting in order to reduce nuisance alarms for fuel burning appliances. I suppose it is better than absolutely nothing, but I want to be alerted way before I am exposed to 400ppm for 15 minutes. 

[moodychief]

On 5/10/2024 at 4:00 AM, tim417 said:

Most home CO detectors have far too high a threshold of CO before alerting in order to reduce nuisance alarms for fuel burning appliances. I suppose it is better than absolutely nothing, but I want to be alerted way before I am exposed to 400ppm for 15 minutes. 

I have a Geiger CO monitor on both of my aircraft keychains.  It has LED lights that show the intensity of the exposure and a loud beeping noise when it hits a detectable level.

My wife freaked out last summer after we landed she opened the door and gusty winds introduced some exhaust fumes into the cabin. I had both keychains in the cockpit and  both started beeping like crazy.  She had no idea what she had done.

I had a friend that died in a crash due to CO and couldn’t buy an active monitor quick enough.

[JohnB]

On 11/29/2022 at 1:36 PM, DanM20C said:

I use 3 CO detectors.  I have a Sensorcon, a panel mounted Guardian, and I recently got a Lightspeed Delta Zulu headset.  The Delta Zulu has built in CO monitoring. 

The Sensorcon is a great product with great support.   They are still offering 20% off through a discount code of:  Aircraft20222   That is three 2's at the end, I'm not sure why they did that....  Just go to Sensorcon

I have been using the Delta Zulu for the past 20hrs or so of flying.  It has a few great features, one of witch is the CO detector.  If anyone is interested in buying a Delta Zulu or any other Lighspeed product you can through this link.   Dan's Lightspeed Link   It's my Affiliate link that will give me a small cut of the sale.  No discount, but you would be helping put gas in my Mooney! 

My main recommendation is that you have a digital detector.  Not the color changing spots.  The home detectors are much better than the spots, but not that great for GA.  I would do a minimum of a portable that measures parts per million, like a Sensorcon.  After that I think having 2 detectors makes a lot of sense. Often we don't know when a digital detector isn't working properly unless we can check it with a second one.  

Cheers,

Dan

Can't agree more. I have 4 CO units (yes 4) now installed in my airplane as I had a CO leak in my cabin once as I had 2 when that happened, and one's first instinct is not to believe the gauge is why more than one is needed. I've tried a bunch of the portable units (which work best) and have the following comments. I prefer getting a unit that will track 0 to 1000+ ppm and give you an audible and digital readout. I got rid of the units that only track up to 50ppm as there's a vast difference in what I would do if the CO level was 50, or if it read 1000. What I have installed now is

1- Guardian panel mounted CO detector - which is useless after 2 years, costly to get recalibrated/removed and re installed, won't integrate with garmin displays to display an actual value, and still self tests ok, but does not alert with elevated CO levels, not to be trusted

2- Sensorcon portable unit x 1 - I like this one, visible and the pro model Sensorcon AV8 pro also has a vibrate feature. Loud alarm heard over noise cancelling headsets. Detects 0-2000ppm

3&4 - Forensics portable aviation CO detector. I have 2 of these. Loud alarm and visible display, accurate, numbers correlate with the sensorcon. Gives you an idea of how much CO youre getting just hanging out waiting for takeoff from other planes. These are a bit less expensive than the sensorcons ($99-120 , vs $160-190 range for the Sensorcon AV8 models). You do have to change the batteries on these units around once every 9-12 months which is a snap. Range from 0-999 ppm 

If I have a high reading now, I know its valid and can make decisions based on the readings.

I replace at least one of my portable units each year along with my annual and toss it, so I always have units that are not more than around 2 years old. 

Useless devices

* Color changing dot card - ABSOLUTELY useless. One of the first senses that goes with CO poisoning is your color discrimination , so even if you were lucky enough to be staring at it, you would have no idea what color it was

* Sentry CO detector - tried one unit, similar to the Guardian, self tests ok, but does not detect CO at any level even higher than 50ppm

 

These are very handy, and potentially life saving devices to have in your airplane, and having a monitor that detects CO at a low level (below 50 and at least up to 1000) is very handy to see how much CO you're getting waiting behind airplanes and if I ever did see 1000+ on my monitors, I for one am landing on the nearest flat surface rather than trying to make it to a runway if there isn't one below me. (another reason why having more than one working to be able to make these kind of decisions)

 

 

[redcatcher27]

I have the sensorcon av8 inspector velcro'd to my instrument panel and have added it to my scan.

It's great, with a great battery life, and I'm so happy to have graduated from the silly cards.