Fire/smoke/CO2 alarms

Feb 16, 2021
438
Hunter Legend 35.5 Bellingham
Has anyone found good smoke/fire/co2 alarms to use onboard? The FirstAlert ones we have keep going off randomly, sometimes in the middle of the night. Maybe due to humidity?
 

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PNWE36

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Nov 1, 2022
54
Hunter 36e Thunderbird W. Vancouver, BC
For CO alarms our e36 had wired in alarms. The attached pic shows the replacements we found. Marine approved and work well. No issues or false alarms. One is installed in the salon near the Nav station, the other is in the aft cabin.
IMG_3812.jpg
 

colemj

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Jul 13, 2004
616
Dolphin Catamaran Dolphin 460 Mystic, CT
Do you have lead acid batteries? Or stored solvents? Are the alarms near them? Outgassing batteries and solvents will cause false CO alarms. I don't think humidity plays a part unless it is actually steam in the air.

Otherwise, I think we have the same combined units as you do, and don't get false alarms (no lead acid batteries and solvents all stored outside living space).

Mark
 
May 1, 2011
5,017
Pearson 37 Lusby MD
I installed a Fireboy-Xintex CO Alarm several years ago. No issues with false alarms like I had with a unit from a big box store.
 
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May 17, 2004
5,679
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
Do t they always go off at night? At this point I think they are engineered to have the low battery alarm only go off in the middle of the night.
There’s a reason for that - temperatures at night tend to be slightly lower than during the day. Lower temperatures bring the battery voltages down slightly. As the batteries weaken they go past the low voltage threshold in those lowered temperatures first.
 
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jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
23,143
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
That sounds all to logical.
Personally I think it is evil demons in the unit that drain the battery so that it wakes the neighbohood and usually the babies
at 0:00 Dark-Thirty. Parents get no rest and are challenged to do good while they are feeling sleep deprived. :yikes:
 
Jan 11, 2014
12,955
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
We have the Firebox/Xintrex CO detector and so far no problems with nuisance alarms. The generic Smoke Detector works well and lets us know when we're frying something on the stove.
 
Apr 8, 2010
2,118
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
Just looked up the SafeTAlert line and foudn this site.
We have the 65 Series detector. No problems with false alarms. One caveat: many (all?) of these devices have a sensor in them that is supposed to be replaced every 7 years or so. Since the insurers require these devices, it is a recurring expense for us and a revenue stream for the alarm makers. (IMHO)
It's a shame they were not designed such that a new sensor cannot be easily swapped in.
Oh... Well.... :(
 
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Feb 16, 2021
438
Hunter Legend 35.5 Bellingham
Do you have lead acid batteries? Or stored solvents? Are the alarms near them? Outgassing batteries and solvents will cause false CO alarms. I don't think humidity plays a part unless it is actually steam in the air.

Otherwise, I think we have the same combined units as you do, and don't get false alarms (no lead acid batteries and solvents all stored outside living space).

Mark
Lead acid batteries, but stored outside in the aft cockpit locker, so likely not the issue. No solvents onboard.
 

colemj

.
Jul 13, 2004
616
Dolphin Catamaran Dolphin 460 Mystic, CT
Do t they always go off at night? At this point I think they are engineered to have the low battery alarm only go off in the middle of the night.
When our batteries are low, the units chirp every so often, but not go off in alarm mode. However, that chirping does always seem to be in the middle of the night.

Mark
 
Feb 16, 2021
438
Hunter Legend 35.5 Bellingham
I finally returned them to Costco and purchased a Safe T Alert CO detector.
So far so good.
 
Dec 28, 2015
1,909
Laser, Hunter H30 Cherubini Tacoma
Low battery conditions do no create a alarm activation. The low battery indicator has to be different from the alarm so to not enabling a normalization of deviance to the actual alarm. Only (typically) commercial systems have "fire" detectors/alarms and there is no stand alone smoke detector only smoke alarms. detectors sends a message to a remote location while alarms are localized. Typical false alarms (carbon monoxide) are from hydrogen produced from charging batteries. Solvents use to be a potential also but with the elimination of halogenated solvents, this has all but been eliminated. I'm sure some really cheap alarms could have many cross sensitivities and the sky's the limit with those.