Gas detectors and gas sensors are devices that monitor the levels of combustible gases in the air. Because many of the gases with toxic fumes are both colorless and odorless, in the past canaries were used in mines as the only way of knowing when toxic levels of gas were filling the air. The miners knew that when the canary dropped dead, it was time to get out of the mine quickly.

Fortunately, advanced technology has contrived more humane ways of measuring dangerous levels of gases in the air without using small birds as a sacrifice. Today gas detectors are used in industrial settings, and residential settings. A natural gas detector may be used in homes to alert homeowners that levels of natural gas in the air has risen to dangerous levels and that the residence should be evacuated immediately.

Now, instead of the trusty canaries in the mines, miners use an industrial portable combustible gas detector to protect them while they are working. These gas detectors produce a gas detector log, which keeps track of the levels and types of gases that the detector has been exposed to.

A gas leak detector helps technicians locate gas leaks by measuring the concentration of several different gases in the air in different locations, thereby allowing them to find the exact location of the leak. A decidedly low-tech, but nonetheless effective method of gas detection is the use of liquid soap gas leak detectors. Using this method you squirt soapy water on the gas hose. It will bubble up and form a frothy lather in the spot where the gas is escaping from the hose. This is a cheap, easy and very effective way of detecting a gas leak in home appliances such as gas grills.

Radon is a radioactive gas, which is produced by the decomposition of uranium in the soil, and it is undetectable without the use of a radon gas detector. It s a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, which has been shown to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke in the United States. Radon gas detectors are designed to monitor levels of radon in the air within your home.

A propane gas detector might be a good item to have in a camper or on a boat or close by a gas grill. It monitors the level of propane gas in the air. For gas appliances such as stoves and hot water heaters, a gas pilot light alarm serves to alert homeowners when the pilot light goes out, thereby allowing excess gas to fill the air raising the danger of explosion, and the risk of anyone on the premises of becoming asphyxiated die to the methane gas replacing the oxygen in the breathable air.

An Atwood Protector LP gas detector is a device that is used to detect LP gas in campers, mobile homes and boats. A flammable gas detector by Alstom Power is used in industrial settings, and a detector of gas by MSA my also be useful. This type of gas detector is also designed for industrial uses such as power plants.

Gas detectors are another way to keep the air that we breathe safe from many of the odorless, colorless gases that can be dangerous to our health and property.