No, I'm not a teacher, but my job title does include the word "scientist," so I tend to ask a lot of questions. Yes, I bought a plug-in CO detector with a battery backup and placed it in the outlet closest to the unit. I only intend to use the unit as backup and to take the chill off, but not knowing why so many people think they are dangerous bugs me. I'd like to know if there IS hard evidence to support everyone's fears, because I haven't been able to find it myself. At least, not on the internet. :/ This post was edited by mrsfox on Sun, Oct 20, 13 at 2:04

The thermostat is not working right. If the thermostat does not heat or read correctly it will shut the gas off automatically. (Safety feature)

We also have one that was put in when the house was built. About 5 yrs ago, I guess. The previous owner never used it. We tried it the first winter we were here, and the smell gave me an instant headache and I had dh turn it off. We gave it one more shot this Christmas, and again..I got sick right away. The smell was horrible, and simply scared me. Then we had an ice storm two wks ago. The day it hit, and people all around us were losing power, I told dh to gave it another try. But, this time to call the gas company and ask their opinion on the smell. They sent a guy right out. That alone amazed me, because there were trees down all over, and the roads were a solid sheet of ice. He apologized it took so long (2 hours), cause he had to take so many different routes to get here. Anyways, he told us he had one that he used every night because he loved how much heat it put out. Especially after being outside working in the cold all day. Told us about some kind of emergency shut off it had. Something to do with oxygen levels in the home. Explained the smell would get better (I think you just get used to it). Well, our power flickered on and off the rest of the day. And by 4:00pm, we were officially out for 4 days! If it wasn't for that, we'd have FROZE! It heated up our living area, where we all hung out that whole time, to upper 70's in just minutes. But, it didn't get anywhere near warming up the other rooms, so we just kept them blocked off. At night, we'd turn it off because it still made me a nervous wreck. Especially with my kids sleeping on the floor in front of it. I do miss the heat. I'm always curled up on the couch with a blanket at night, with our heater running. With this, we were all in t-shirts it was so toasty. We have to rechaulk under our mantel, because it gets soooo hot. That I'm guessing it melted it. I wouldn't put one in our next home, if I had the chance. Because, in the end..I just didn't feel comfortable with it. But, I'm grateful we had it.

Hey! Do you have someone that is willing to replace the old ventless gas fireplace with a direct vent fireplace?