WARNING: Burnham Alpine 105 - Deadly Carbon monoxide danger - defective part

Jan 22, 2014

This warning could save your life or your family's life.
I purchased and had installed a Burnham Alpine 105 hydronics boiler on Jan 13th 2010. (four years ago)

On Jan 19th 2014 my wife noticed that the carbon monoxide detector located in the kitchen upstairs was reading a high number (27) but she had not been using the cook stove.
For the previous several days our littlest boy (8-1/2) had been complaining of headache and not feeling well. So my wife (bless her heart) worried, convinced me to check things out.
We unplugged the Carbon detector and took it downstairs to the utility room to check it out. The first reading on the scale was 60 something!!! And the gas dryer had not been used that day yet.

When I took a look behind the Burnham boiler I was shocked at what I saw! The FLUE TEMPERATURE SENSOR "white rubber" or white "plastic" or white what ever it was mad out of had completly disintergrated into about 1,000 pieces!!!!
and was hanging part way out, allowing hot exaust gas to spew into the room through the (about 1/2" OD) pipe extension that the sensor was normally mounted on. The only thing that prevented it from falling out was the electrical wiring to the end of the sensor which was secured to the back wall of the boiler.

It took about an hour with all doors/windows open to vent the house of these dangerous gases, and get the carbon detector to read zero.

I was forced to JURY-RIG the fix. I used hot glue placed around the senseo stem, then a heavy coat around the outside of the sensor and pipe, then taped it with high quality electrical tape, then cut about a 3/4" strip of high temperature engine water heater hose, wrapping it around and fastening in place with a hose clamp.

I know this is not the proper way to do this fix, but I had to maintain heat in the home here in Alaska.
I emailed the Mfg. sunday night...... no reply as yet. Tuesday I filed a complaint with INTERTEK about this potentialy deadly faulty part used on their boilers.
And today I'm placing a warning here on a forum.

PLEASE PASS ON THE WARNNG. Perhaps a life or entire family's life will be saved in the long run.

I tried to attach a couple pictures for all to see, but instead caused this post to be erased, and I had to type it all over again. (I'LL TRY AGAIN)

What I am hearing is that the boiler is 4 years old and that it has not been inspected on any regular basis. Good that your wife has a CO detector and some good sense to know when something is wrong.

Didn't realize that I was required to give you the full history of service as well.

Sorry to bump this up, but I was able to google this same exact issue and have the same problem. My sensory cap with the wires is totally disintegrated and just hanging there. Not sure what this does but I think it opens up the flue? Anyway, I have to rig something or use hot glue like you did and see if that will hold. Here's a pic of what mine looks like. But wanted to ask, if this was the cause of the two pipes leaking water?

Silicon is supposed to be good for at least 302* f in general. Flue limit temp trips at 204*f if sensor is shorted or open there is a fault for that.