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Carbon Monoxide – False Alarm, Or Not ?


Alan de Enfield

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33 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

As Hydrogen is 'lighter than air' i don't forsee any problem with it collecting in the bilges - it will happily float up out of the engine room and out of the vents & windows.

Not being complacent, just cannot see a 'kaboom' happening.

Unless of course he has capsized. :P

10 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Pedant alert! Tortology.  

;)

I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, I said I'm not in the habit of repeating myself... :blush:

And just to be pedantic about it it is tautology:P

Edited by cuthound
To add the last sentance.
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1 minute ago, cuthound said:

Unless of course he has capsized. :P

I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, I said I'm not in the habit of repeating myself... :blush:

As Foghorn Leghorn might say, “Boy! I say boy!”

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SORTED

Had the batteries back on charge for 6 or 7 hours now - CO alarm goes off.

Mrs De Enfield declares she can smell a 'sulphery smell'

Into the engine room - 'choking sensation', one of the 'old' batteries is bubbling away noisily and too hot to touch.

Battery charger off

Bilge blowers on

Battery disconnected out of the bank, will be left to cool down.

Onto 'battery megastore' - closed but will no doubt be spending £200+ with them tomorrow.

(Should get £25 scrap value towards the new one)

 

Thanks for all the help.

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16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

SORTED

Had the batteries back on charge for 6 or 7 hours now - CO alarm goes off.

Mrs De Enfield declares she can smell a 'sulphery smell'

Into the engine room - 'choking sensation', one of the 'old' batteries is bubbling away noisily and too hot to touch.

Battery charger off

Bilge blowers on

Battery disconnected out of the bank, will be left to cool down.

Onto 'battery megastore' - closed but will no doubt be spending £200+ with them tomorrow.

(Should get £25 scrap value towards the new one)

 

Thanks for all the help.

Pretty well exactly what we experienced, albeit with probably somewhat smaller batteries..........

Once they start getting that hot, there is no other sensible decision IMO.

If you had two depleted of water, but currently only one is getting hot, I'd keep a wary eye on the other one.

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1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

If you had two depleted of water, but currently only one is getting hot, I'd keep a wary eye on the other one.

I wouldn’t bother. Scrap it along with its mate - it’s not long for this world so why bother trying to eke our another few weeks? It’s probably got sod all capacity left anyway. 

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14 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

(Should get £25 scrap value towards the new one)

 

 

I had no idea a dead battery was worth so much.

Edited by MartynG
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16 minutes ago, MartynG said:

I had no idea a dead battery was worth so much.

yup- £10 for 110Ah batteries and £25 for 230Ah batteries - even get £5 for small 'car batteries'

My 230Ah batteries weigh in at around 53 kgs each (not easy to lift in & out of the engine hole and battery box)

Don't even have to take them to the scrap yard - a 'little man' in a van comes to pick them up and pays cash

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On 10/13/2017 at 10:52, Alan de Enfield said:

Carbon Monoxide – False Alarm ?

Currently moored on the Trent and decided to take advantage of the electricity bollard as we hope to be here for a ‘day or three’ chilling out.

Immersion heater plugged in and on the timer

Battery charger ‘on’

Microwave plugged in

Electric kettle, toaster and ‘George Forman’ all out and ready for ‘duty’

 

2:00 am this morning we are woken to an insistent bleeping of the Carbon-Monoxide alarm (first time ever !!)

Quick check around the boat, gas cooker ‘off’, gas hob ‘off’, Eberspacher heating ‘off’, engines ‘off’

Can find no reason for the alarm.

Reset alarm, goes off again

Reset alarm, goes off again

Open windows and hatches and ‘waft’ towels about

Alarm ‘clicks’ and resets itself – silence.

Have another check around the boat but can find nothing that is likely to be a source of Carbon monoxide  (maybe it was the dog’s ‘wind’)

 

Back into bed but unable to sleep then remember that I read (on this very forum) that battery charging can / may produce a gas which fools the alarm into believing that there is CO present.

Switched off battery charger.

Quiet night and no more alarms.

 

This morning   have checked the batteries water levels – the two starboard side ones were quite ‘dry’ (levels below the plates) but the two central and two Port side were OK (Port side a little low but above the plates).

Topped up all batteries – the ‘dry ones’ took 2.5-3.0 litres between them (2 x 230Ah – big things)

 

Questions  -

Can a CO alarm be set off by battery charging gas ?

Would a ‘dry’ battery produce a gas whilst a ‘filled’ battery did not ?

Why has it never gone off before ?

 

Anyone experienced mysterious ‘false alarms’ with their CO alarm ?

Some alarms are sensitive to high 'concentrations' of inverted commas.

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On 13/10/2017 at 17:28, Alan de Enfield said:

SORTED

Had the batteries back on charge for 6 or 7 hours now - CO alarm goes off.

Mrs De Enfield declares she can smell a 'sulphery smell'

Into the engine room - 'choking sensation', one of the 'old' batteries is bubbling away noisily and too hot to touch.

Battery charger off

Bilge blowers on

Battery disconnected out of the bank, will be left to cool down.

Onto 'battery megastore' - closed but will no doubt be spending £200+ with them tomorrow.

(Should get £25 scrap value towards the new one)

 

Thanks for all the help.

Hi Alan,

You've had an eventful time.

In brief, just to wrap this up. The sensors used in CO alarms are also sensitive to hydrogen.

Overcharging batteries can gas off and produce hydrogen.

Overcharging usually happens on deep-cycling batteries, but it can happen on any battery that is losing its electrolyte and needs topping up.

It can be an early sign of warping battery plates. And the heat in the battery is another sign. If the plates touch and explosion can follow that will put shards of plastic all over the place and battery acid splattered everywhere.

The hydrogen is in the explosive limits can be ignited by mechanical or electrical sparks including static on clothing.

So it is important to react to any such signs and be cautious in what you do.

In general, do not rely on CO alarms to warn you of battery issues. Put battery checking/maintenance on the calendar as a routine activity.

We should all thank Alan for sharing and raising the issue again for others to learn from. And we can all empathise with Alan for the horrific attack on his finances - batteries are such expensive things.

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