Take the 2-minute tour ×  I've got a small portable heater
purchased from Target for about $10.  When you first turn it on,
it always has that burning smell from the element heating up. It
clears up after about 10 min.  Recently, I turned it on in a
room with a CO detector, and that smell set it off. What's the
correlation? There's no oil or anything to give off CO? Is it
still safe? Should I just open the windows while it's warming
up?  EDIT: It's electric. Detector is new and it sets off as the
heater is turned on. Is it really emitting CO or is the defect
just setting off a false positive on the detector?
share|improve this question Is the heater gas or electric? – 
longneck Nov 27 '13 at 15:16 A $10 portable propane heater is an
outdoors use only unit. You're going to pay more for something
that's certified safe for indoor use. A $10 electric heater
that's smoking off industrial contaminants such that it stinks
is highly suspect as to what it's contaminated with, shouldn't
be setting off a CO detector. Y