CO detector goes off all the time when cruising very embarrassing - 2008 350 Cruiser - Merc 350
BriteEyes
Member Posts: 18 ✭✭
It is very annoying and we can't figure out what would cause our CO detector to go off when we are cruising.
We do smell the gas and have ensured the blowers are working and the two intake holes in the hatch component are clear of any articles.
The CO detector has a green light on and does eventually go out after we dock.
Does anyone else have this issue or know how to resolve it?
Could I have too much stored in my aft area?
Best Answers
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raybo3
Administrator Posts: 5,508 admin
I would be very concerned if you smell gas. I have a 342 and I never smell gas. Sounds like your CO detector is working but something else is very very wrong....2002 342 Fiesta Vee PC Point Of Pines YC Revere MA. popyc.org raybo3@live.com -
Black_Diamond
Member Posts: 5,439 ✭✭✭✭✭
Well you cannot smell CO. So by gas if you mean gasoline you have a dangerous situation. Back to the CO: cruisers can get the 'stationwagon' effect with exhaust. Blowers will not help. You are backdrafting your exhaust- very dangerous. Always make sure you have air coming in from the front (windshield), close your hatch to the cabin while under way. This all assumes you do not have an exhaust leak of course. Running with all the canvas up makes it worse too.Past owner of a 2003 342FV
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Answers
PC BYC, Holland, MI
PC BYC, Holland, MI
I have a bowrider but my detector was located in the head compartment. It went off when running also and I thought it was a low battery but it was wired to the main batteries of the boat. The engine when running sounded louder and it turned out to be a leaking exhaaust manifold which at the time was covered by mercruiser, The dealer fixed it so I can't relay any fix for you, but I think it was just a new gasket. Hope this helps
Art
The humble admissions of real life oversight here has me thinking. Thanks for sharing those stories.
I have had my cabin alarm go off (with the cabin door closed or open) after cruising for maybe 4 hours at trawler speeds.
If I removed the alarm from the cabin and placed it on the deck in front of the windshield it would continue sounding for a couple of minutes before shutting down.
All of this while having plenty of fresh air coming in over the windshield and thru the open center section.
So here is the question. Does the detector respond to a low level, lower than the trigger threshhold and trigger after a sufficiently long period of time? In other words does it cumulate a low level that is in itself below the threshhold and integrate it over time (remember calculus?) into a total number above the threshhold?
Maybe with my new engines, I will have fewer such issues since these engines are supposed to produce lower levels of CO than earlier versions. These engines are 7 years newer than the ones they replaced.
Just for fun I took the alarm into my garage and started the car. Door was open of course. It screemed at me within milliseconds.
Tony
Salt Shaker 342
This looks interesting, not cheap, but small:
http://www.aeromedix.com/Ultra-Low-Level-CO-Detector-CO-Experts-2014.html
Pocket model T40:
http://www.durawear.com/index.cfm/?s=1&a=catalog.search&keyword=t40&keyword.x=0&keyword.y=0
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Cheap at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Level-Carbon-Monoxide-Detector/dp/B00BTK3M46
Cheap in BU currency (1 Boat Unit =$100)
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Nice link BD but there's too many beans in our diet for the Pocket Unit (lets call it the PU).
Seriously, one of the issues back in the engine compartment on our 270 was a lack of fire resistant sealant in a number of spots at the bulkhead to prevent gases from moving into the fwd section of the boat. This could be catastrophic if you had a manifold leak ....or worse, gas fumes migrating forward
@Tony, good point and always something new to learn: alarm points on carbon monoxide detectors are not a simple alarm level (as in smoke detectors) but are a concentration-time function. At lower concentrations (e.g. 100 parts per million) the detector will not sound an alarm for many tens of minutes. At 400 parts per million (PPM), the alarm will sound within a few minutes. This concentration-time function is intended to mimic the uptake of carbon monoxide in the body while also preventing false alarms due to relatively common sources of carbon monoxide such as cigarette smoke.
OSHA will tell you 50ppm/8 hours, EPA limits at 35ppm/1 hour as some reference.Your furnace is set at ~9ppm at the register, max obviously.
A CO alarm is also not good much past 5-7 years, means I need a new one I think at 10 years
Got my 'learned something new today' award on that one!
PC BYC, Holland, MI
The low level CO monitors that I sell are the NSI 3000 model. I will not boat without one.
PC BYC, Holland, MI
PC BYC, Holland, MI
I'd think that there might be 2 in the cabin for redundancy and one at the helm if that sounds reasonable.
After reading Tony and MTs stories I may/may not have an answer for a very weird illness that came upon the Admiral on the 1st day of a week long memorial holiday cruise. She was 100% fine the 1st day out running the boat about 25mi with no canvas up. That 1st evening she completely collasped into a weakness and nausea that halted our plans for 5days eventually causing us to simply remain docked at a marina while she slowly regained her strength. No typical CO headache but certainly a very slow recovery that ended a boating week trip. May be unrelated since I have a working CO detector in the cabin, no canvas up, no following wind and had no issues myself but better safe than sorry so here comes an easy upgrade.
Ok maybe I can shed some light on the subject. As a firefighter we deal with CO alarms a lot. The alarm does not go of based on the length of the exposure; just the amount. Most are set to 40ppm but have seen some as low as 10. The typical household will have 4-6 ppm around your natural gas appliances when in use. This is why you don't install CO detectors next to the oven, furnace and or garage (just the exhaust from starting the car will set them off).
As for the difference between an alarm or monitor/detector... Usually only the FD or the gas company needs a monitor/detector to find the source of the leak. I would reccomend however a CO alarm with a digital read out. They are pretty cheap and will tell you the exact amount of CO you are being exposed to. By the way anything over 40ppm we are using airpacks for. 400 ppm is very lethal, very fast.
Now you have to know how to use your monitor once you install it. We constantly receive calls for the CO alarm going off. When we get there the alarm will read 87 or 97(depending on manufacturer). When turned upsidown these numbers turn into the initials LB/Lb for Low Batttery. Some will give a series of beeps every five minutes to notifiy of a low battery. Either way, read the instructions and know your detector.
CO is very real and very dangerous. The traditional signs of "rosy cheeks, headache and nausea" are late signs and symptoms. By then it is too late and you are exposed. CO binds with the blood 70 more readily than O2. It is also something that really never goes away out of your system. So everytime you are over exposed the worse it is for you. Eventually one day you just hit a breaking point. So install and check those alarms in the house and the boat!!
Hope this helps and I will try to answer any other questions the best I can. Be Safe!!
I'm sure you can find them on the web somewhere, but I believe they are supposed to be only sold through certified co specialists.
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Yes, I have them on my boat, and in my home on each floor. I would not trust my families safety to any other "alarm" or monitor. There is no such thing as to sensitive to me. If my kids are in an rea exposed to low levels, I want to know about it. I still have the detector model that the comes from the boat manufacture, as that one complies with the UL listing. The monitors exceed the UL listing as the the UL listing is concerned with high levels of CO. Here is a quote from the UL standard 2034: Carbon monoxide alarms covered by this standard are not intended to alarm when exposed to long term, low level carbon monoxide exposures or slightly higher short term transient carbon monoxide exposures, possibly caused by air pollution and/or properly installed/maintained fuel-fired appliances and fireplaces.