HMS Cricket

Yeah, I do take your point; when I discussed this problem with my mother, she pointed out their smoke alarm goes off whenever they cook pork chops! None the less, at least when a smoke alarm goes off, you can easily locate the problem and judge for yourself how trivial (or not) it is, but CO being invisible and odourless, it's a bit risky to make a judgment call when you don't really know.

Thank you all for your help and responses. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined just to buy a new stove for peace of mind; in fact, even more so if I'm going to sell the boat, as I'm unlikely to be able to sell it if I explain the CO problem to potential buyers, and of course I'm not going to sell it without warning knowing there's a problem... The detector is located on the other end of the boat from the stove and cooking appliances, although that's only about fifteen feet away (the boat's not very big). The only reason I suspect the detector itself may be faulty is the fact it goes off even with doors and windows open. You'd think, even if we did have a CO problem, the fresh air coming through would prevent it building up until such time as we close the windows. We don't have any air fresheners on board, and I've never noticed activation of the alarm coincide with us using deodrants! I do have those colour-changing pad detectors as well, and they never seem to change colour, but I know certain factors such as heat and humidity can make them unreliable. Anyway, I just got a response to my email to the BSC, advising me to get the stove looked at by a professional before using it again (I haven't been using it since the last scare). Considering the potential call-out fee, again, I might just invest in a new one. I'm sure the old one would make a very fetching flower pot!

No, it just goes off; it's not a very hi-tech model. See, it's interesting what you say about cracks in the stove; as I said, the stove does have cracks in it, on the top, and around the base of the chimney, which are just part of the design of the stove (the top is made up of plates which are juts rested on, and lift off in order to build the fire. Obviously, these aren't sealed as they have to come off). This is where smoke leaks out into the cabin space from when the chimney's not drawing properly because of weather conditions or whatever. By adjusting the ventilation flaps, you can stop it from visibly smoking - but of course, CO is invisible, and I can't help suspecting it's just leaking right out the stove through these cracks. Might invest in a model with a read-out as back up. See, I'd be tempted to just buy a new stove and have done with it, but we're shortly selling the boat to get a bigger one (with room enough for two ), and stoves are pretty expensive. None the less, as you can appreciate, I don't want to sell anyone a boat that's potentially lethal!

The thing's only a few months old, so I shouldn't imagine that's the problem. It seems to be working normally; the green power light flashes once a minute when all's well - IRC from the manuel (which I've stupidly misplaced), it shines continuously green when the battery is low.

Yeah, that's what the other half thinks it is, but I don't really want to just assume that's the case, considering how dangerous it could be if it were a genuine problem.

I have a query regarding a problem we appear to have with the solid fuel stove producing carbon monoxide. Several times over the past few months, our dectector has gone off. After the first time, as my boat was due its BSC anyway, I consulted a safety inspector. He passed the boat, but advised we didn't have sufficient ventilation. We have since added new vents, and cleaned and extended the chimney. From walking around the basin, I would say we now have more ventilation than most boats of comparible size. However, we still seem to have a problem. Last night, the detector went off again. We were cooking with LPG gas as well as having the fire going at the time, but the strange thing was, we had two of our big windows open. On one occasion, it even went off when we had the door open. It seems to me that if this isn't adequate ventilation, nothing is! It's not a very frequent problem; it doesn't happen every time we use the fire, but it is a bit of a concern, and to be honest, I'm running out of ideas as to what the problem is, and how to solve it. I'm wondering if perhaps the design of my stove is just inherently unsafe. We have a boatman's stove on board, which can be dismantled for cleaning and fire building from the top. This means, unlike a lot of boat stoves, the top has gaps in it, and when the chimney isn't drawing properly for whatever reason, smoke sometimes blows out these gaps and back into the cabin. Most stoves, I've noticed, don't have any gaps in the top, so regardless of how its drawing, smoke and fumes still have nowhere to go but up the chimney, unlike ours, where it can flow back into the cabin. Could this be what's causing our problem, and if so, is a new stove the only solution? I'm not really an expert either on CO, or stove design, but this is all I can think of. It seems to me bizarre however, that we could have a CO build up with doors and windows wide open. My partner suspects the detector is extremely over-sensitive, but this isn't a risk I'm prepared to take. I only bought the boat in March, so this is our first winter with it. I'd appreciate any advice or help you could give me. I can find a lot on the net about CO risks associated with LPG, but not much about solid fuel fires. I've also email the BSC organisation, asking their advice, but have yet to recieve a response. In the mean time, I'm relying on an electric heater.