CO detector surprise

Sven

Sven

Seglare
We picked up a couple of these CO detectors: http://tinyurl.com/yjpmfbm

They are supposed to last 5 years.

Boy were we surprised to see the ppm count when just making coffee in the AM with the sliding hatch open several inches. I placed one in the aft stateroom and one in the v-berth. The units are really sensitive and agree pretty well with each other as the CO is created and drifts around the cabin.

The alarm has not been close to triggering but the readings have been surprisingly high (up to 140 ppm) so now we crack the forward hatch as well as the sliding hatch whenever we have the stove on. Seeing the actual ppm and not just waiting for the buzzer to go off makes a big difference in the amount of respect I now have for CO production.


-Sven
 
davisr

davisr

Member III
Sven,

Two years ago you said that you installed ProTech CO detectors in your boat. Are you still using these, and if so are you pleased with them? I ask because even thought they are made for household use (or so it seems), they appear to have to have the same UL rating as marine CO detectors by Xintex and Marine Technologies, Inc. I like it that the ProTech detectors have the LCD display. The Xintex and MTI detectors don't. It appears that the LCD display has really helped you be more cautious of potential CO problems and make adjustments accordingly.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Roscoe
E25, #226
 
toddster

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
:unsure: I find the 140 ppm figure a little hard to believe. Especially from a gadget that costs less than $70. Certainly it doesn't hurt to be cautious though.
I'd guess that the unit can't distinguish between different reducing gases, so it might also be picking up propane, hydrogen, methane, etc.
Of course, I wouldn't sleep on board without one.
 
Last edited:
Sven

Sven

Seglare
davisr said:
Two years ago you said that you installed ProTech CO detectors in your boat. Are you still using these, and if so are you pleased with them? I ask because even thought they are made for household use (or so it seems), they appear to have to have the same UL rating as marine CO detectors by Xintex and Marine Technologies, Inc. I like it that the ProTech detectors have the LCD display. The Xintex and MTI detectors don't. It appears that the LCD display has really helped you be more cautious of potential CO problems and make adjustments accordingly.
Click to expand...

We definitely still use them and swear by them. They are incredibly accurate (repeatability, not absolute measurement). If one goes off typically the other will go off within a minute, at the other end below deck. They will read within a few ppm of each other. They are not showing any ppm due to battery outgassing as far as I can tell, always reading zero except when we are cooking and we have all AGM batteries which are very low emitters too. I was glad to see that there is no CO reading when running the engine, another concern.

As I posted somewhere, they also seem to compute cumulative exposure and will go off at a lower reading if it lasts a long time. Once again, the two units will have almost the same reading and will go off almost at the same time.

I'm not sure how I found them but think it was a referral from some electronics person on a sailing forum. We'd had non-marine units before and they would go off in the middle of the night for no reason whatsoever.



-Sven
 
davisr

davisr

Member III
Thanks for the update Sven. Nice to know that they've proven to be reliable. In re-reading the link provided by Loren, I noticed that E32 owner, Mike Pick, in the last posting on the thread, indicated in 2010 that he had had good luck with the ProTech detectors.

I might be mistaken, but from what I can tell from the many different postings I have read on various forums, the big difference between the two "marine" detectors - Xintex and MTI - is that the components are designed to resist corrosion in the marine environment. Quite a few owners say that their household oriented detectors, such as the Kiddie Nighthawk, have given them no problems. The same, as we see, is being said about the ProTech detector.

Also many people mention the five-year lifespan. The Xintex is in fact designed to disabled itself permanantly 5 years from the date of manufacture. The other day I stopped by the local West Marine to check out the Xintex and the MTI detector. Both packages indicated the 5 year limit. Also, the detectors within the packages indicated the date at which they were no longer servicable. The one Xintex on the rack was almost a year old, and it thus only had about 4 years of life left in it. The three MTI detectors that were on the rack were four years old. Their end of service date was 2013. I should add that I pointed this out to the associate and he removed the three MTI units from the rack. Just thought I'd pass this along to anyone who might be thinking of spending the extra money on one of these marine units. I might by one of these and use it in conjuction with a ProTech, just to have a little diversity, but I'm going to be wary about ordering one of these online, or grabbing the first one I see off the rack.

Roscoe
E25 #226
 
Sven

Sven

Seglare
davisr said:
I'm going to be wary about ordering one of these online, or grabbing the first one I see off the rack.
Click to expand...

I have a vague memory of writing the vendor to ask about the expiration date before ordering.

It is the decaying nuclear source that limits the lifetime IIRC.



-Sven
 
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