Customer Reviews

Kidde 442020 Radon Gas Detection Test Kit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In the U.S. there is a fairly easy way to see if you are at a higher than normal risk for radon. First, just type "EPA Radon Map" into Google. Go to the top address. From there you should be able to access a county-by-county map of your state's radon potential. There are three zones. Counties in red are "red zones" with an average radon level of greater than 4 pCi/L, which is the lower threshold for needing to repair your home. These are the counties with the highest risk. Generally, if your home has a basement, especially if it is finished and people inhabit it on a regular basis, you should really check your home. Also, don't assume that because you had your home tested when you moved in or several years ago that everything is still OK. I tested my home in 1998, and it was in the 2-4 pCi/L range. I did a test last week and the radon level had doubled in eight years!

About the product itself, it has clear instructions on how to start and stop the collection test. Also, you can mark on the return form to have your results emailed to you so you don't have to wait for the mail. We sent our results off in the mail on a Saturday and had the results back via email on Wednesday. The returned report not only contains your home's radon level but also a section on radon health risks - its much higher if you smoke, state radon contacts, and what you should do next depending on the radon level. I highly recommend this product.

Read this story and decide for yourself if you want to order this Kidde Radon Testing Kit.

I bought this, read the instructions, followed the directions perfectly as to the test conditions, and mailed the product to the testing agency at the proper address. In the paperwork that I sent, I requested that the test report be mailed to me "Via US Mail."

I mailed the package EXPRESS MAIL, overnight delivery. I have a copy of the USPS **signed receipt, ** confirming delivery on September 9, 2008.

I tried their website, entering my zip code and the serial number of the test kit as their website asks. I made sure that my Pop-up Blocker was off, as their website suggests. Their website did not give me the test results. According to their website, I was a total stranger. There were no test results or even an admission that they had received my test kit. I repeated this process almost daily. No success.

I sent them an email about two weeks later. No answer.

Four weeks later, I sent a letter of complaint with copies of all my documents. I received an email reply and I also got a full letter with a full report. The letter also stated that they had already sent me a letter two weeks earlier. (I have a problem believing that, judging by their lack of response to my email. It was only when I sent that letter of complaint with all the supporting documents that I got an answer.)

As I said, decide for yourself if you want to get mixed up in a time-consuming and money-consuming project like that.

I ended up buying the Safety Siren Radon Detector from Amazon. It is working now.

Waste of time... I followed the instructions for the Kidde Radon Test Kit and received my results in a reasonable amount of time via email. However, my lab result was a 5 with an accuracy range of +-5!!! So, I could have a score of between 0 and 10? Their recommendation was to buy another kit and test again! No thanks. If I would have known that there was a +-5 accuracy range, I would not have bought it in the first place. I checked online and found that the leading consumer magazine ranked the Kidde Radon Test last out of all test kits. After much consideration, I paid the money for a Safety Siren Radon Detector which I'll review after a couple of months. After 2 days, it has a reading of 2.7, which is normal for my area.

I paid the money, followed directions to the T, even sent it Priority Mail, but never received the results. This was a year ago, and nothing. What a waste of my time and money.

We purchased this radon kit and used it exactly per instructions. My results were emailed to me in were extremely high (20pCi/l). We ended up paying for the hourly reading (Radalink Radon Monitors)from a home inspection company licensed with the equipment. The results were much different - luckily low levels of radon(1.2 pCi/l). I'd say save your $20, heartache over possibly having to purchase the radon fans, and call a home inspector for a more accurate reading the first time.

I followed the instructions sent it in and got results.
Just as stated.
No problem.

I purchased two kits. One of the kits came with the seal open so we did not use. The other kit we followed directions and mailed our kit to the lab. We instructed to have our results sent via email. After a few weeks with no results I called. The lab was super helpful and promised to email the results again, plus gave me the quick result over the phone. Again, results never made it via email. I left a message with the lab to have the results mailed and that never happened. Overall, I'm not sure if I would use these kits again. Or if I do, I would have them mail the results instead of email.

Couldn't find one locally, so glad to find a reasonable one on Amazon. The purchase price included the mail-in lab testing, which is not always the case. We just placed the tray (about the size of a slice of bread) for 48 hours as instructed in the area of concern, and mailed it back to them in the sleeve they sent. The contents of the tray seemed to be bits of charcoal. Something I did not know prior to the test is there is no way to get official results without going through a lab, and labs are accredited by the US and presumably must submit their results. Law here (and perhaps elsewhere) forces home owners to divulge the results of a test upon a sale, so I was nervous about the test for various reasons. We had become alarmed about Radon due to a recent article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Upon further reading, however, it turns out that while Radon is a very serious problem and health risk, there is some political baggage attached to its danger -- the left seems to want to ignore it because there is no one to sue, and the right seems to want to publicize it because the danger is not coming from big corporate -- if i may be so crude as to abbreviate it that clumsily. Books have been written about the subject from both sides. Obviously, there is a lot more to it, but the whole matter unnerved me. And, I was further amazed to learn, by looking at the online US gov danger zone map, that the residents of NYC, which we are, are in less danger than, say, upstate NY residents. (Radon comes from the ground.) But to get to the end of this review, and here it is, our result under the level of any sort of concern, and this test was easy, fast and cheap.

Seems like a good deal at first - but after paying for the test, $20 for priority shipping, and the $10 "Expidite" fee, SIX days later (and a missed real estate transaction deadline!) and they STILL don't recognize our test kit number when we call, even though I have delivery confirmation and a signature from someone who received it. NO RESULTS, NO EXPLANATION.

The "Kidde" website has no mention of radon test kits anywhere. If you do manage to find the website where you can input the kit number, it's under an entirely different company name, "Dr. Home Air," which is different again from the company name in the mailing address! It's entirely shady.

If I could have given them zero stars, I would have. Learn from my fail, and hire yourself a professional from the beginning.

Putting in a radon mitigation system was necessary for the seller I bought my house from because it had a reading of 51.0. One should take action if it gets above 4.0 !
After the system was installed, the documentation showed it went below 4.0.
The mitigation fan recently broke and didn't want to replace it because I painted / sealed my basement floor when I bought the house (false belief that would stop the radon).
I followed the instructions and sent in this test. I got back a reading < 4.0 (not a risk) which I don't believe was right at all. I later bought a continuous radon monitor. After a few days I got my first reading from it (around 10.0) and it kept going up everyday.
It was around 20.0 when I had the mitigation fan replaced and then watched the reading go back down day by day (took about 2 weeks to get to safe level again).
Would not recommend this product.