Kidde smokers run amuk

[team karst]

We have 5 CO/smoke detectors on board. All new in 2022. Two have gone off in smoke detect mode. Inconsolable, have permanent batteries. Put them in zip locks to shut them up.
Not cooking, nothing unusual going on. Genset, both engines off. Unit one was in a berth a couple weeks ago, this last one in the saloon.
Any history with these?

[Scubaseas]

Similar issues with mine. Try blowing the sensor disc off. Seems dust on the sensor (there is a ton of road construction where my boat is) will trigger the alarm. Mine started going off for no apparent reason. No genset, no engine, no stove or heater on. No reason I can figure why they triggered. Cleaned the sensor with compressed air, haven't had a problem since until I set one off cooking. Mine were also Kidde from 2022.

[s/v Jedi]

How do you know it isn’t a CO alarm?

Farting pets can make these go off, as does use of spray cans like deodorant or hair spray or wd40 etc.

[team karst]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

How do you know it isn’t a CO alarm?



Farting pets can make these go off, as does use of spray cans like deodorant or hair spray or wd40 etc.

It was yelling FIRE. [emoji848]

The photo-optic technology was one of the purchase considerations. As opposed to the ion type.

[Scubaseas]

Familiar with the dog fart issue having 105lbs of very old one. What source would the CO come from? Nothing was on. Nobody near me on their boats in the marina. No spray cans of anything being used. Portlights were open as were the 6 dorades on the boat.

Beside that the alarm tells you by voice alarm if it's smoke or CO. Different beeps and voice message of either "fire" or "warning carbon monoxide". Mine was the CO alarm.

[thinwater]

CO sensors with alarm on many other gases, because that is how the technology works. The cross interferences are well known.


They are very sensitive to hydrogen gas, a common source of "false alarms" on boats that have been closed up.


https://sps-support.honeywell.com/s/...sitivity-to-H2


https://www.senvainc.com/catalog/doc...sitivities.pdf

[donradcliffe]

The expensive marine CO detectors start giving false alarms in 2-3 years. Your only choices for a decent night's sleep are to unplug them or replace them.

The RV types that run on 12v also alarm on low house batteries.

[maine50]

I had false alarms of smoke detectors in a vacation rental house in Maine.
I had a total of 7 detectors. One or two They would go off from dust accumulation each year.
There after I dedusted them with a shop vac with the detectors in place incl the covers. Not a problem there after. Fog can set some off too (not sure what type they were)

[wrwakefield]

We used to use those talking Kidde smoke/CO alarms in the house and on the boat. They worked well for us. We never had any false smoke triggers, but did experience the occasional false CO alarm from the usual culprits. (Hydrogen, bleach fumes, etc.)

When they aged out (a 5 year sensor life for those older ones we had; I believe most are 10 years now...) we replaced them with networkable, talking Nest Smoke/CO alarms.

The Nest detectors are stellar on a boat, and we got 2+ years out of the first set of 6-AA lithium batteries- full time use.

They network via your boat WiFi router, and will announce warnings pre-alarm over all of the networked units like a PA system [we have 5].

They also send alerts to your smart phone if your boat WiFi is online.

No more guessing which one is shreeking as they give you a heads-up before sounding the alarm. e.g., 'Heads-up; there is smoke in the [forward cabin]..." Which we hear clearly on the unit in the aft cabin where we are sleeping...

They also keep you informed during a trigger event: "Smoke [or CO] is increasing/decreasing..." "The alarm is over..." Etc.

They also provide optional motion activated nightlights of user-settable brightness (which can also be used to trigger a security system...)

This has been a great upgrade for us, but not exactly what you inquired about...

Best wishes sorting out the false alarms.

Cheers, Bill

[George_SD]

I use only marine rated and approved ones, never had one going off without a reason.

[Kd9truck]

Haveing responded to well over 1,000. CO detectors in a past career,after ruling out the obvious something burning, my gut would say, it could be because there is no ventilation, in a sealed vessel, your boat . You may have breathed enough of the air into CO that the alarm went off, but I do not know enough about the circumstances.

Did you have a headache when it started going off?
Does your detector give you a digital reading?
These are the best, With a digital readout you can use the detector as a meter you can walk the boat and find the source ( that’s what first responders do).
Cooking in un-vented areas or unvented confined spaces (the cabin of a boat) will use the available oxygen in the air and leave the spent gas( CO2).

Heaters? Things that off gas? Mold, some dirty laundry, shoes, rotting food/garbage, plants, composting toilets, black tanks, humans, pets, Seaweed in an anchor locker, politicians.

It could also be that the alarm has gone off because of “something” (dust accidental triggers) to many times.
In CO detectors is a small filter, when this filter has enough blockage it triggers
So things like dust is collected by the filter but never cleaned from the filter then the slightest amount of CO on top of last activations signature ( still on the filter) will set it off again. This is very common for the inexpensive detectors, it also sells more detectors.

I hope you find this useful
Cheers

[CaptTom]

Usually on a boat, false smoke alarms are due to Hydrogen Sulfide from battery charging. Were you plugged in at the time?

Another possibility is condensation inside the detector. We all know how condensation can form on the hull or anything metal when temperatures drop. Even if that doesn't set it off, it can cause dust to stick to the detector.

It's never good to ignore an alarm, but the fact is there are a number of causes for false alarms. The trick is being sure you know the cause.

[jeanathon]

For the record I thought the thread was Kiddie Smokers run amok

[s/v Jedi]

So, for those thinking they have false alarms:

- best case is the most unlikely: you have a defect sensor. Note that these have a lifespan after which they must be replaced.

- not so good case: lack of maintenance. Clean them using a vacuum cleaner.

- worse, most likely: you do actually have something going on. You can call it a false alarm when it triggers on propane, methane, hydrogen oxide etc. because it isn’t a detector for that according to the packaging, but all of those can go boom very badly. Charging batteries is a top scorer in this category, as are leaky propane appliances.

- worst, you do actually have a CO or smoke alarm. There are many sources in a boat that can cause this, while visual detection is much more difficult in dark boat interiors. Heating, cooking, lack of ventilation etc. can all give a smoke buildup that the detector can see.

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

- worst, you do actually have a CO or smoke alarm. There are many sources in a boat that can cause this, while visual detection is much more difficult in dark boat interiors. Heating, cooking, lack of ventilation etc. can all give a smoke buildup that the detector can see.

This happened to us this past winter. We’ve had a residential CO detector aboard for several years now, as we were somewhat worried about using our Force-10 kerosene heater. It never actually registered anything when we were running the heater, so the detector slowly got mostly forgotten above the settee.

This past January, we were out for a winter sail had the heater running all day, no issues. We anchor out, and start making dinner. Close to the end of cooking things, the alarm starts going off. Looking at it, it was showing a high CO concentration and we were realizing we were feeling a little odd.

The problem wasn’t our kerosene heater, it was the Origo unpressurized alcohol stove we were using to make dinner. And because it was below freezing outside, we had the companionway closed up. Lesson learned.

And we will now always keep a CO detector aboard.