We had some diesel oil in the bilge along with the usual salt water from a fuel filter change. We poured some West enzime bilge "cleaner" into the bilge. Supposed to eat oils, etc. Closed the boat up [raining] and went out to dinner. A few hours later we returned and the carbon monoxide alarm was sounding. Alarm showed an "89" reading. We vented the boat using the engine room blower and opening hatches. Shut off propane tank at the tank, just in case. [checked solinoid shutoff and it was working] No other source of fumes was known to us. [A reading of "200" over a couple of hours is dangerous.] There was sort of an oily smell in the air that none of us could identify. It was not a propane smell, which is distinctive. Reading when down to "10" after venting. We went to bed with boat closed up with one small source of fresh air open at main hatch. In morning, reading was "35." We were surprised. Reading is almost always "0" or maybe "5-10" when engine or generator is running and there is a cross wind. [No engine had run all day.] Could the bilge cleaner be the source of the "carbon monoxide" reading? What sort of gas could this be producing? Is it dangerous? We are mystified.
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LaDonna Bubak - Planet Catalina
Don't mess with CO!
A perfect example is the gentleman on the east coast a few weeks ago whose CO alarm had kept going off so he thought it was broken & took the batteries out. Tragically, his parents, two of his kids and two family friends died of CO poisoning in the middle of the night (he was working & his wife & other kid were out of town). Don't assume that whatever your meter is reading ISN'T CO cuz it's nothing to mess around with! I'd call a professional to come out & track down what the problem is - better to be safe than dead. Good luck!! LaDonna
A perfect example is the gentleman on the east coast a few weeks ago whose CO alarm had kept going off so he thought it was broken & took the batteries out. Tragically, his parents, two of his kids and two family friends died of CO poisoning in the middle of the night (he was working & his wife & other kid were out of town). Don't assume that whatever your meter is reading ISN'T CO cuz it's nothing to mess around with! I'd call a professional to come out & track down what the problem is - better to be safe than dead. Good luck!! LaDonna
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G. Richard Stidger
There is a list for false alarms
We have a 'home-type' detector made by Kidde and have never seen a reading other than '0' even when running our generator or engine and everything is closed. However, we were awakened one night by our CO detector. No engine or source of CO was known. We were on the hard doing spring commissioning work. After spending a hour checking everything and looking hard at the detector to see if it somehow failed, I finally removed the batteries and went back to sleep. The only clue that I had was a very short list of substances that I should avoid having the detector near. One of them was a hydrocarbon compound. The one thng that was different that night on my boat was that I was charging my large house batteries from my charger powered from shore power. An access panel to the charger was open in my aft cabin (where the CO detector was located) so I could observe the meter on the front of the charger. However, there exists an airway from the charger to the locker that contains the batteries. The batteries were in large Blue Sea Boxes with the tops secured. The batteries were located about 6-7 feet (as the mosquito flies) away from the CO detector. I suspected the gassing from the batteries may have triggered the detector since they give off hydrogen during charging and a hydrogen compound was on the list of stuff that would cause a false alarm. I shut off the charger before gong back to sleep. The next morning, the readings on the CO detector were normal, and the detector was operating normally. That following week, I called Kidde and was told that hydrogen and H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) would cause false alarms. In particular they said that charging batteries would cause false alarms. They faxed me a more comprehensive list of thing that cause false alarms than I had in my booklet that came with the detector. I suspect that the evaporating diesel fuel in your bilge set off the detector since it is a hydrocarbon compound. Hope this helps you. Rich
We have a 'home-type' detector made by Kidde and have never seen a reading other than '0' even when running our generator or engine and everything is closed. However, we were awakened one night by our CO detector. No engine or source of CO was known. We were on the hard doing spring commissioning work. After spending a hour checking everything and looking hard at the detector to see if it somehow failed, I finally removed the batteries and went back to sleep. The only clue that I had was a very short list of substances that I should avoid having the detector near. One of them was a hydrocarbon compound. The one thng that was different that night on my boat was that I was charging my large house batteries from my charger powered from shore power. An access panel to the charger was open in my aft cabin (where the CO detector was located) so I could observe the meter on the front of the charger. However, there exists an airway from the charger to the locker that contains the batteries. The batteries were in large Blue Sea Boxes with the tops secured. The batteries were located about 6-7 feet (as the mosquito flies) away from the CO detector. I suspected the gassing from the batteries may have triggered the detector since they give off hydrogen during charging and a hydrogen compound was on the list of stuff that would cause a false alarm. I shut off the charger before gong back to sleep. The next morning, the readings on the CO detector were normal, and the detector was operating normally. That following week, I called Kidde and was told that hydrogen and H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) would cause false alarms. In particular they said that charging batteries would cause false alarms. They faxed me a more comprehensive list of thing that cause false alarms than I had in my booklet that came with the detector. I suspect that the evaporating diesel fuel in your bilge set off the detector since it is a hydrocarbon compound. Hope this helps you. Rich
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Peggie Hall/HeadMistress
I think Richard is right...
When you dumped the "bilge bugs" into the diesel, they began breaking it down, increasing the production of a variety of hydrogen and sulphur compounds, which emit gasses. If your bilge is wet, it was already a "primordial soup" that produces the same types of gasses...the bilge treatment jump-started the bacterial activity in the "soup"...your CO detector recognized some of those gasses and went off. However, LaDonna is 100% right on with her comments...never EVER assume that a CO detector is malfunctioning. Furthermore, it's even unsafe to rely totally on a CO detector...if they can go off when there's no danger, they just as easily fail to go off when there is. Learn the early symptoms of CO poisoning--slight headache, sleepiness or fatigue, and often (but not aways) a slightly queasy stomach--and pay attention to what your body is telling you...don't just write off those symptoms to too much sun and fun.
When you dumped the "bilge bugs" into the diesel, they began breaking it down, increasing the production of a variety of hydrogen and sulphur compounds, which emit gasses. If your bilge is wet, it was already a "primordial soup" that produces the same types of gasses...the bilge treatment jump-started the bacterial activity in the "soup"...your CO detector recognized some of those gasses and went off. However, LaDonna is 100% right on with her comments...never EVER assume that a CO detector is malfunctioning. Furthermore, it's even unsafe to rely totally on a CO detector...if they can go off when there's no danger, they just as easily fail to go off when there is. Learn the early symptoms of CO poisoning--slight headache, sleepiness or fatigue, and often (but not aways) a slightly queasy stomach--and pay attention to what your body is telling you...don't just write off those symptoms to too much sun and fun.
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Justin - O'day Owner's Web
May I agree too...(the fire department perspective
I would like to echo the soundings of the list to never ignore your CO detector. I am a medic with the fire department in the community I live in. Each year, one of the surounding communities loses a household because someone ignored the CO detector. Last year, in mid-summer, my CO detector sounded. There was no source of combustion, I had not been running my car. I called for an engine company who arrived shortly, and determined that the CO level in my house was high enough to trigger tha alarm, and potentially problematic healthwise for extended exposure. We eventually traced it to nearby construction. The exhaust from the equipment was blowing into my house and collecting since the windows were open on one side and not the other. Had I written it off as a false alarm (after all it was summer, no heater running, electric appliances), I could have had a real problem. For those of you using home dectors, fire and CO. Consider replacing them marine grade equipment. More expensive, but the sensors are less likely to be degraded by exposure to salt. YMMV, Justin - O'day Owner's Web
I would like to echo the soundings of the list to never ignore your CO detector. I am a medic with the fire department in the community I live in. Each year, one of the surounding communities loses a household because someone ignored the CO detector. Last year, in mid-summer, my CO detector sounded. There was no source of combustion, I had not been running my car. I called for an engine company who arrived shortly, and determined that the CO level in my house was high enough to trigger tha alarm, and potentially problematic healthwise for extended exposure. We eventually traced it to nearby construction. The exhaust from the equipment was blowing into my house and collecting since the windows were open on one side and not the other. Had I written it off as a false alarm (after all it was summer, no heater running, electric appliances), I could have had a real problem. For those of you using home dectors, fire and CO. Consider replacing them marine grade equipment. More expensive, but the sensors are less likely to be degraded by exposure to salt. YMMV, Justin - O'day Owner's Web
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