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CO alarm issue


RickS

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Evening

Just a quick one hopefully. Went to the boat, put the battery charger on (it's a Mastervolt inverter / charger) and headed off to the dump to get rid of some rubbish.

Came back about an hour or so later and the CO alarm was going off. Don't understand why - no engine, diesel heater or stove working so is this a malfunction of the alarm or are the batteries giving off something that is triggering it?

Thanks

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Just now, Rick Savery said:

Evening

Just a quick one hopefully. Went to the boat, put the battery charger on (it's a Mastervolt inverter / charger) and headed off to the dump to get rid of some rubbish.

Came back about an hour or so later and the CO alarm was going off. Don't understand why - no engine, diesel heater or stove working so is this a malfunction of the alarm or are the batteries giving off something that is triggering it?

Thanks

Classic knackered battery.

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No, no smell of rotten eggs (I know what hydrogen sulphide smells like) - no smell at all in fact. The charger was charging a bank of three batteries so how do you tell if its one or more?

Also, even after waving the alarm about outdoors and opening all the doors - the alarm still carried on being alarming outside! Puzzled

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3 minutes ago, Rick Savery said:

No, no smell of rotten eggs (I know what hydrogen sulphide smells like) - no smell at all in fact. The charger was charging a bank of three batteries so how do you tell if its one or more?

Also, even after waving the alarm about outdoors and opening all the doors - the alarm still carried on being alarming outside! Puzzled

A battery with an internal short will normally feel noticeably warmer than the others and may show signs of the case distorting/expanding.

 

The latter bit suggests your alarm is possibly  knackered though.

 

 

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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3 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

A battery with an internal short will normally feel noticeably warmer than the others and may show signs of the case distorting/expanding.

 

The latter bit suggests your alarm is possibly  knackered though.

 

 

 

Mine acted like the OPs when I did a load of sanding of varnish without protecting the alarm.

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to be fair (perhaps i should have mentioned this at first - sorry) the alarm was there when i bought the boat so I have no idea how old it, or indeed the smoke alarm, are.

That said, I don't want to be complacent about the batteries, so I will have a feel when im back at the boat and see if any of them are getting warm - i don't know how old they are either, maybe i should just replace them en masse?

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5 minutes ago, Rick Savery said:

to be fair (perhaps i should have mentioned this at first - sorry) the alarm was there when i bought the boat so I have no idea how old it, or indeed the smoke alarm, are.

That said, I don't want to be complacent about the batteries, so I will have a feel when im back at the boat and see if any of them are getting warm - i don't know how old they are either, maybe i should just replace them en masse?

If the batteries have been performing OK and not getting hot wouldn't it make more sense to fit a replacement CO alarm and keep an eye on the battery situation?

  • Greenie 1
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3 minutes ago, Rick Savery said:

to be fair (perhaps i should have mentioned this at first - sorry) the alarm was there when i bought the boat so I have no idea how old it, or indeed the smoke alarm, are.

That said, I don't want to be complacent about the batteries, so I will have a feel when im back at the boat and see if any of them are getting warm - i don't know how old they are either, maybe i should just replace them en masse?

I would say yes.

 

Firstly replace the alarms. (And add another CO alarm too).

 

If you have had the boat much over a couple of years with the batteries that came with then unless they have been treated very carefully they will be due soon anyway if not now.

 

We once killed a full set of std. wet cell batteries in not much over nineteen/twenty months.

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10 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

My CO alarm went off halfway through a tunnel, which I thought a bit odd. Nothing on. Stuck it on the roof with new batteries and it went off again. Bought some at same time for the house and they're all behaving properly.

I don't think they like damp and cold much so the boat one may have deteriorated faster than the house ones

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Ive only just bought the boat so no idea how old the batteries are - I was going to get new alarms at some point anyway, but I think I will do that sooner rather than later.

I also think I will get the batteries looked at with a view to replacing them all.

Really appreciate, as always, the helpful advice from you all. Thanks

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Bought new CO alarms (Part 2 - boat compliant) to comply with the new BSS requirements.

 

Lying in bed, middle of the night and alarm goes off.

Leaps out of bed and thinks "no fire lit, no gas cooker or hob switched on, Eberspacher off, nothing CO producing at all.

 

Opened the windows wafted a tea-towel about for a bit, alarm stopped.

We decided it was a false alarm and went back to sleep. About an hour later the alarm went off again, so repeated the 'open windows and tea-towel wafting' but to no avail, alarm just kept going.

 

Decided to investigate the engine room, so removed the stairs and went into engine room, no smell but the 'air was warm' the 6x 230Ah batteries are at the front of the engines so had a look and suddenly felt a 'sensation' in my throat (no smell, no 'gas', just a 'taste'). took the covers off the battery holders and felt the batteries.

 

Fine, Fine, Ouch, fine, fine, fine,  The 'ouch' one was burning hot, literally burning hot.

 

Switched off battery charger , got spanners and disconnected the battery leads - battery too hot to lift out (they weigh 58kgs each so not easy at the best of times).

Eyes running, throat burning put the engine room bilge blowers on to clear the engine room and eventually went back to bed.

 

Next day, looked at the battery and it was extremely distorted with the ends 'blown out' it was almost like a Rugby ball.

Battery was still too hot to lift, left it disconnected and removed it (very gently, like an unexploded bomb) the following day.

 

I reckon we were minutes, if not seconds, from having a battery explode.

 

Anyway, battery had developed an internal short.

 

Replaced the battery and 3 months later another one developed an internal short but I caught it during the 'water level checks'.

 

The CO alarms can pick up battery gases (fortunately)

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The time we had this was after a long days cruising. Leaving the boat at the marina I set the combi to 'charge'. It immediately cut off and displayed a battery overheat error.

 

Tried again, same result so decided to investigate. One battery in the bank was visibly and audibly gassing and the casing distorted and hot. By a pure fluke it was the battery that the overheat sensor was attached to.

 

If the overheat sensor had been attached to one of the other batteries I may never have been aware and would have left the bank on charge, potentially for the failed battery to explode.

 

Pulled it from the bank and scrapped the whole bank as they were all the same age.

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56 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Bought new CO alarms (Part 2 - boat compliant) to comply with the new BSS requirements.

 

Lying in bed, middle of the night and alarm goes off.

Leaps out of bed and thinks "no fire lit, no gas cooker or hob switched on, Eberspacher off, nothing CO producing at all.

 

Opened the windows wafted a tea-towel about for a bit, alarm stopped.

We decided it was a false alarm and went back to sleep. About an hour later the alarm went off again, so repeated the 'open windows and tea-towel wafting' but to no avail, alarm just kept going.

 

Decided to investigate the engine room, so removed the stairs and went into engine room, no smell but the 'air was warm' the 6x 230Ah batteries are at the front of the engines so had a look and suddenly felt a 'sensation' in my throat (no smell, no 'gas', just a 'taste'). took the covers off the battery holders and felt the batteries.

 

Fine, Fine, Ouch, fine, fine, fine,  The 'ouch' one was burning hot, literally burning hot.

 

Switched off battery charger , got spanners and disconnected the battery leads - battery too hot to lift out (they weigh 58kgs each so not easy at the best of times).

Eyes running, throat burning put the engine room bilge blowers on to clear the engine room and eventually went back to bed.

 

Next day, looked at the battery and it was extremely distorted with the ends 'blown out' it was almost like a Rugby ball.

Battery was still too hot to lift, left it disconnected and removed it (very gently, like an unexploded bomb) the following day.

 

I reckon we were minutes, if not seconds, from having a battery explode.

 

Anyway, battery had developed an internal short.

 

Replaced the battery and 3 months later another one developed an internal short but I caught it during the 'water level checks'.

 

The CO alarms can pick up battery gases (fortunately)

I'd get lithiums!

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