Carbon monoxide risk posed by certain models of gas furnaces
Public Safety
Overview
Technical Safety BC warns of carbon monoxide risk posed by certain models of gas furnaces.
Technical Safety BC has received multiple incident reports of carbon monoxide exposures that involved a common product line of residential gas-burning furnaces manufactured between 1989 and 2011 by the Carrier Corporation. We found that each of the incidents we investigated resulted from furnaces that had a common design feature that contributed to the carbon monoxide exposures, namely polypropylene lined secondary heat exchangers.
Carrier Corporation manufactured these furnaces under the brand names Carrier, Bryant, Payne and Day & Night. Homeowners can determine whether their furnace is one of the affected models by locating the furnace tag on their unit and comparing their model number with the model numbers listed in Appendix B of the report.
If you are a furnace owner
- You should immediately contact a licensed contractor to test for the presence of elevated carbon monoxide levels, and have them inspect and repair affected furnaces throughout the remainder of the service life.
- You should install a carbon monoxide detector.
Technical Safety BC estimates that there are potentially hundreds of Carrier Gas furnaces in homes across the province, and there is a risk that these units may fail and emit dangerous levels of CO that could result in injury or even death.
If you are a licensed contractor
We recommend conducting combustion analysis to detect the production of elevated carbon monoxide levels and inspect and repair affected heat exchangers as part of regular servicing of these affected units. Please report carbon monoxide hazards and/or non-compliances to Technical Safety BC.
You should warn clients who own these units of the risks and advise them to install CO detectors if they continue to operate them.
