[George Henning]

George Henning on November 6, 2020 at 5:20 am #20305

Hi All,
As a new-to-me Seneca owner I was briefed on the importance of proper maintenance and operation of the onboard Janitrol heater.
On the III it’s in the aft fuselage and the ducting runs along the floor forward.
A CO Detector was recommended and I decided on the Otis Detector offered by Sporty’s.
My heater has worked great, the controls are straight forward and located on the aft center console.
The POH gives good guidance.
The Otis Detector is a nice, small unit, runs about $160, has a visual, vibrate and aural warning. The unit is portable and I’ve attached it on a forward map pocket, in full view. The unit battery is good for 2 years and the company would like you to return it for recalibration when time to change the battery.
The highest reading I’ve seen so far is 5PPM, the alarm comes on at 35 PPM.
I agree, go get one, cheap insurance!
Works Good Lasts a Long Time!
George
CLE

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[Kent Shaw]

Kent Shaw on December 6, 2020 at 8:03 pm #20364

If you feel air from any of your floor vents, then you may need to replace the seals. No one sells new seals so you need to fabricate your own. I got some 1/8″ dense foam rubber off Ebay, removed the vent flappers with a small jeweler’s screwdriver, drilled out the the two aluminum rivets holding the two metal plates together, replaced the foam rubber, used two #4 pan-head machine screw with a #4 washer and a lock nut to reassemble. I used scissors to trim the foam leaving about 1/8 ” of foam sticking out all around..

[STEVE]

STEVE on December 8, 2020 at 7:46 pm #20367

Hi Kent;
Did you happen to take pictures during your refurb project? If so, please send them to me so I can pass the details of this repair on to other owners.
Thanks
Steve

[Kent Shaw]

Kent Shaw on December 9, 2020 at 4:00 am #20368

I did not take pictures but I have seen pictures that other pilots made that may help. It was a fairly easy project to do. The biggest problem that a couple of pilots reported seems to be damage to heads of the 2 very small screws that hold the valve assembly on when removing the screws. I had no problems with mine. It looks like #2 machine screws but I did not measure them. I used one of the very small jeweler’s screwdrivers and that worked fine. One of the small gunsmith screwdrivers should work as well. Just make sure that your screwdriver is making good contact before you start turning it. You can put the two plates together with aluminum rivets like they were originally made but the #4 machine screws should make future replacement easier.

[Eric Parks]

Eric Parks on February 11, 2026 at 7:55 am #25716

I recently bought a CO detector that is a new model. Radiant Technology has the RI-2025-10-COPOCKET for about $80. It is a rechargable unit and they say it should last about 6 month on a charge. I just got it so don’t know about that. Unit is fairly small and you can carry it on your person or just have it in the cabin. Maybe velcro it somewhere. The point here is that it’s not part of the plane and so doesn’t require any certification or STC. It has an LCD readout for the CO ppm but the case will flash red and buzz if it reaches a dangerous level. Also gives temperature and relative humidity. 

https://www.radiantinstruments.com/product-page/co-pocket-carbon-monoxide-detector

 
Pen gives an idea of the size

 
Case is translucent white and will flash red and the unit will buzz if it gives a warning

 
Readout is LCD but you can barely see the temperature and humidity on the screen