Good time to check your CO monitors

A sudden blaring voice: "There is carbon monoxide present. Check your monitor."

The message was repeated several times. It was in the middle of an ordinary weekend day when all four residents were home.

An investigation found nothing out of the ordinary. Just how do you find something that is colorless and odorless? The house was aired and no more signals heard. Life went on for a couple of weeks without further incident.

But then after a day of frustration with the clothes in the dryer not drying, a comment stirred a resident, an electrical engineer, to investigate. It was an accumulation of debris and lint in the vent leading to the outside that was affecting the drying process and enough to have obstructed proper ventilation.

Accumulating gases were the likely source of the CO alarm we had experienced earlier.

Lesson learned: keep the airways free and open; and it goes without saying, check the batteries in monitors.

Marjorie A. McClure

South Elgin