CO monitors too sensitive?

Well, if there was any doubt, our CO monitors seem to be working.

We went out for a weekend in the cove and our CO detector started going off during the day. I figured it was our buddy who was drafted up next to us. He was running his on board genny - and he has gas, not diesel. You could smell the exhaust in our cockpit, so not only was it unpleasant, it was no dangerous.

The exhaust exited on his port side near the swim deck facing us. Never had this issue before, so I reset the unit. (Of course no one was allowed down there during this time.) Not more than 10 minutes later, another one goes off.

I chose to call it. We would stay for the day as long as everyone was out swimming and having a good time, but we would retire back at the slip. Ran back to port with the cabin door open and the front berth hatch open to ventilate the cabin really well. Got back. Everything normal.

Until now. Next night. 2am and we are awoken by the CO monitor going off in the mid cabin. We all get up and head outside...to find my buddy (did I mention he is also our slip neighbor?) In his slip to our starboard side, running his genny. Not sure why he's running it, but it's on.

I call. I call again. I text. I knock on his hull. And again. Another call. No answer. Wife and kids now camping out in the cockpit (trying not to get eaten by mosquitoes), I start to get concerned. What if he can't get up? So I try again, and after 30 minutes, I finally board his boat. I knock on his cabin door and tell for him. No answer. I try again. Nothing. I open his door a crack and call in, "hey buddy! You in there? Can you wake up please?" Still nothing. I get my flashlight and peak inside, and I call again. Finally I get a response! "What?"

So I tell him that I think his genny is setting off our monitors, and ask if I can help him hookup his shore power. He responds with, "my genny isn't on." Well...BS on that one. Must have been so drunk when he got back he didn't realize it or was too lazy to hookup ti shore. Anyway, I follow up to ask if he at least has CO monitors down there. He said yes.

So, now we are all camped out sleeping in our cockpit. Neighbor running his genny but not aware of it.

Anyway, now that they have gone off, do I need to replace them? Is it because he has gas? This didn't happen when we were rafted up with other friends who have diesels.

Sounds like a good time to privately work out something with the marina manager where they force you to relocate to another slip. This approach gives you a out and puts the blame on them.

Your family comes first.

For what its worth, I’m glad you are viligant about listening to the warnings, not pulling the battery or disconnecting the units from power.

You don't need to replace the monitors because they alerted. Diesel engines don't emit CO that's why your monitors didn't alert when rafted up next to a diesel genny.

There should be signs posted or written into your lease agreements about generator use.

Please read and make him aware then if this behavior continues I would get management involved.

I start mine up leave it run for a few minutes and then turn off while I'm in my slip to to make sure it's good to go.

How old are your detectors ? ....... I think they are working just fine especially since you could pinpoint the source of the emissions.

Thanks for being vigilant.

He texted me this morning when he woke up - saying it's not on and that he was on shore power. Then followed by another text saying he was sorry and didn't know it was on once he finally got outside and saw it was running.

I think this was just an oversight and he doesn't do it much at all.

Felt weird going in his boat to make sure he was still breathing. Part of me was just happy he was still alive. Wonder why his monitors didn't go off and mine did. Oh well.

My monitors are ancient and will be replaced due to age very soon.

Thanks for the responses.

Too drunk to wake up or know the genny was running?
Unless this guy was a real good friend I think I would be looking to move to another slip.
Was at a transient Federal Park marina last September. Was awakened by banging and yelling on my cabin door. There was a fire on the bulkhead knee wall right where the decking ended and the sand begins about five slips away from us.
About 7 or 8 boats on that dock. One guy gets up to make a head call and sees the flames. Him and his wife call 911 and bang on all the boats to alert us.
Fire and Police come and put out the fire, whole thing goes on for about an hour.
Turns out that two guys on a boat got drunk, decided to grill some burgers, went to bed, and their portable grill set the bulkhead knee wall on fire. They were so drunk that they slept through the whole thing and were surprised by the mess when they emerged mid day.
Turned out they were really nice guys and extremely apologetic, but if it weren’t for the guy who had to pee in the middle of the night we could have had a real tragedy.
Luckily all I had to do was spend some hours scrubbing soot off my boat when we got back to our home dock at the end of the weekend.
As nice as those guys were, if I see them tied up on a dock in that place again I think I may try to pull in to a slip as far away from them as possible.

importmonkey said:

He texted me this morning when he woke up - saying it's not on and that he was on shore power. Then followed by another text saying he was sorry and didn't know it was on once he finally got outside and saw it was running.

I think this was just an oversight and he doesn't do it much at all.

Felt weird going in his boat to make sure he was still breathing. Part of me was just happy he was still alive. Wonder why his monitors didn't go off and mine did. Oh well.

My monitors are ancient and will be replaced due to age very soon.

Thanks for the responses.

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Most CO monitors have only a 5year life. UL now requires them to have end of life alarms. I have found that as they get out of calibration they false alarm, or are over sensitive. MTI confirmed to me that is the case most of the time.

As for your alarms going off but his not, presumably his vessel was set up to minimize CO in his boat, not yours. You likely were in the right position to the exhaust and any breeze to intake the exhaust and coupled with older detectors the alarm to go off.

MM

Alcohol...good stuff huh?

MonacoMike said:

Most CO monitors have only a 5year life. UL now requires them to have end of life alarms. I have found that as they get out of calibration they false alarm, or are over sensitive. MTI confirmed to me that is the case most of the time.

As for your alarms going off but his not, presumably his vessel was set up to minimize CO in his boat, not yours. You likely were in the right position to the exhaust and any breeze to intake the exhaust and coupled with older detectors the alarm to go off.

MM

Click to expand...

That's what happened with mine - started beeping mid-trip.....all the time.

Boater420 said:

Alcohol...good stuff huh?

Click to expand...

Cool. thanks guys.

3 on order.

Great write up by @hynespa in the 420DA thread #1096.

Also check the indicator when the alarm goes off.

Learned this one night, about 2 in the morning. First one, then another, etc. alarms started going off.

Moved everyone upstairs.

After some examination - some time on googling Fire Boy - I discovered the different codes.

The tones and the light indicators signal several things. Each has its own sequence.

Problem I had, I forgot to switch one of the power settings over for the house bank charger (I have 3 different chargers). The detectors were signaling me a low power situation. Once power was corrected, reset and everything is good.

It is pretty easy to find what the signal meanings are.

I believe there is an indicator for "expired" detector. Will let you reset and then comes back in a day or two. Note, in this case resetting does not shut off the detector, just the expired alarm.

Mark

Mine started beeping midtrip this past weekend as well. Apparently it only takes a minute amount to set them off.

UEi Test Instruments CO71A Carbon Monoxide Detector https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MMFAAQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_cjlIBb4W17RNF

I keep a portable detector on board that give a numerical level of CO. This allows me to confirm alarms and track the source of the CO. It has been a very handy purchase.

I keep two portable CO and Smoke detectors on board. Got them from Home Depot