How Often Should You Test a Gas Detector?
Test a fixed gas alarm with its button once a month, check a handheld sniffer before every use, and bump test any instrument used for safety decisions.
Read Article→Learning Center
Plain-language explanations of the measurements, sensors and numbers behind environmental monitoring.
Carbon Monoxide Meter vs CO Alarm: What Is the Difference?
An alarm protects sleeping people. A meter finds the source. A home needs the alarm; a technician needs the meter.
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How to Calibrate a Gas Detector (and When You Cannot)
Multi-gas monitors calibrate with certified gas through a hood. Sniffers only auto-zero. Home alarms cannot be calibrated; test them and replace on schedule.
Read Article→What Is a Multi-Gas Detector?
Four sensors in one box: oxygen, combustibles, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide. The confined-space standard.
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Gas Detector Sensitivity: How Small a Leak Can It Find?
Sniffers list floors of about 40 to 100 ppm of methane, a fraction of a percent of LEL. Home alarms deliberately trip much later, at 10 to 25 percent LEL.
Read Article→Why Gas Detectors Need Bump Tests and Calibration
A gas detector that has not been challenged with gas is an assumption. Bump tests prove it responds; calibration proves it reads right.
Read Article→Infrared Gas Detectors: When NDIR Beats a Catalytic Sensor
An infrared gas detector measures how much infrared light hydrocarbons absorb. No oxygen needed, no poisoning, fail-safe, long-lived, but blind to hydrogen.
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Infrared vs Heated-Diode Refrigerant Leak Detectors
Heated diode: cheap, sensitive, short-lived, prone to false alarms. Infrared: selective, durable, A2L-ready, pricier.
Read Article→Catalytic Bead Gas Sensors Explained
A catalytic bead sensor burns gas on a heated catalyst and reads the heat as a bridge imbalance in percent LEL. It needs oxygen and can be poisoned.
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What Is a Refrigerant Leak Detector?
A sniffer for HFC, HFO, CO₂ and hydrocarbon refrigerants. The sensor type decides which it can find and how small.
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Semiconductor Gas Sensors: How MOS Sensors Find a Leak
A MOS gas sensor is a heated tin-oxide element whose resistance drops in methane or propane. Sensitive and small, but it drifts and reacts to solvents.
Read Article→PPM vs %LEL in Gas Detection
ppm counts molecules; %LEL says how close to burning. The same leak reads very differently on each.
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