smoke detectors

Over the last weekend a friend, liveaboard down the river a bit came by to show me what was left of a cheap electric heater.

He was on the dock and could hear the faint sound of an alarm. After a while he made the choice to see what was up.

Found the boat with the alarm but could not access the locked cabins, yet smelled the acrid smoke

Bolt cutters allowed access to the boat where he found alot of smoke and flames

With fire extinguisher in hand had it out. Vented the cabin and informed the marina. They contacted the owners on holidays.

The warning label was clear in that the heater should not be attached to an extension cord. Funny that the label survived but nothing else except a portion of the cheap extension cord.

One can go on and on about such events but. I post this only in an effort to get folk to simply be aware.

Smoke detectors are a pita on a boat but well worth the effort. IMO.

Mine is mounted in the main cabin about half way down a wall. Let's me make toast without the need to disable every time I cook.

YMMV.

Greetings,
Mr. OFB. VERY good advice. Even though most of us have diesel boats I would suggest CO detectors as well and check those batteries at least monthly please.

I've found the detectors on our boat to be in need of batteries about every 6 months as opposed to the year that is recommended. I suspect it is due to the increased cabin heat during summer storage periods causing shortened battery life.

So... any opinions on the combination CO and Smoke Detector units that are appearing in the stores? Saves one set of beeps in the middle of the night for dying batteries

John

Capt Jack said:

So... any opinions on the combination CO and Smoke Detector units that are appearing in the stores? Saves one set of beeps in the middle of the night for dying batteries

John

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You can do better than that. Buy a combination detector with a "lifetime" battery. Understand that the CO sensing unit has a fixed "lifetime" so you will have to replace it every ten year or so anyway.

I have smoke detectors in the galley/salon area and in the er. I installed these after a short in the norcold fridge wiring filled the cabin with smoke. I check the batteries each spring.


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I have smoke ad CO detectors in several areas, including the engine room.

These are tied to their boats alarm system that not only sounds a loud general alarm, it contacts me by telephone, email, and text message if smoke is detected.

We just had one of our three CO detectors start going off for no reason. Checked the date on the back and found it was from 2002. It also said to replace every five years. Bought three new ones on Amazon and replaced them today. I wonder how old our smoke alarms are?

Food for thought. The back of my electrical panel and shore power inlet are accessed through a dedicated hatch. I keep a smoke detector in there. it went off a couple of months ago when my shore power inlet melted.

I have since hard wired my shore power cord thereby eliminating six connections and not having to wory about loose prongs. I did this on my previous boats but had not gotten around to it til' after I got this reminder.

BP"I have since hard wired my shore power cord thereby eliminating six connections and not having to wory about loose prongs."

Like you say, "food for thought"

Makes me wonder about doing the same. The thing that would hold me back is the location of the shore connection. It doesn't lend itself to hanging a coiled shore cord nearby, might create a tripping hazard. But still an interesting idea.

Keep them coming.

boatpoker said:

Food for thought. The back of my electrical panel and shore power inlet are accessed through a dedicated hatch. I keep a smoke detector in there. it went off a couple of months ago when my shore power inlet melted.

I have since hard wired my shore power cord thereby eliminating six connections and not having to wory about loose prongs. I did this on my previous boats but had not gotten around to it til' after I got this reminder.

Click to expand...

I have a new smoke detector on my boat right now that is destined for that same spot, behind the panel.

I also have two temperature sensors that I'll be adhering to my shore power inlets.

All of these will tie into the boats alarm system so I will be alerted if I am on or off the boat.

I might have over done it. 11 smoke, 4 co, 2 propane. Each stateroom, and area has a smoke alarm encluding ER, and area. The boat alarm has sound sensing that text me if alarm goes off. Some of the alarms are so close its difficult to tell which one is chirping. Ok, maybe I have over done it a tad.

How did you set up this alarm system?

ksanders said:

I have a new smoke detector on my boat right now that is destined for that same spot, behind the panel.

I also have two temperature sensors that I'll be adhering to my shore power inlets.

All of these will tie into the boats alarm system so I will be alerted if I am on or off the boat.

Click to expand...

What equipment did you use to set this up?
On another note, I have had the connections to those rotary switches used to select power source or distribute power loosen behind the main panel on my 4788. Not a Bayliner problem, but just an issue with switches that use compression rather than lug type connections. Most of the compact rotary switches are set up this way. I actually had the the hot leg from my generator flopping around loose behind the panel, discovered while repairing another issue with my inverter. So a detector close to your panel is probably a good idea, how would you tie these detectors into a ships alarm that can be heard while underway?

Scary said:

What equipment did you use to set this up?
On another note, I have had the connections to those rotary switches used to select power source or distribute power loosen behind the main panel on my 4788. Not a Bayliner problem, but just an issue with switches that use compression rather than lug type connections. Most of the compact rotary switches are set up this way. I actually had the the hot leg from my generator flopping around loose behind the panel, discovered while repairing another issue with my inverter. So a detector close to your panel is probably a good idea, how would you tie these detectors into a ships alarm that can be heard while underway?

Click to expand...

Last fall I installed a Lowes Iris alarm system in parallel with my existing Sensaphone IP based alarm system to try it out. I also have a Lowes Iris installed at the house, so I've gotten some great history with the system.

The Iris system utilizes Kidde smoke and CO alarms, which will sound an alarm if one of them detects anything.

For temperature sensing I found that almost every module in the Iris portfolio has a built in temperature sensor. The smallest one is actually a door contact sensor, with a sensing module that is approx 1/2 x 1/2 x 2"
Battery life on these looks to be about a year or so, and the system reports battery and sommunication status constantly.