does charging batteries set off your CO alarm?

Burnham Bob

Burnham Bob

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Our CO alarm went off in the middle of the night when we were plugged into the mains in Ipswich Marina and the batteries were on charge. No cooker, no heater, no engine exhaust - nothing. In the next berth they said that theirs sometimes went off when batteries were charging. But if any gas is produced, I thought it was hydrogen. And the CO alarm is at the other end of the boat and the batteries 'breathe' into the engine compartment.

It has to have been a false CO alarm - but has anyone else had their alarm go off and no obvious cause?
 
Burnham Bob said:
Our CO alarm went off in the middle of the night when we were plugged into the mains in Ipswich Marina and the batteries were on charge. No cooker, no heater, no engine exhaust - nothing. In the next berth they said that theirs sometimes went off when batteries were charging. But if any gas is produced, I thought it was hydrogen. And the CO alarm is at the other end of the boat and the batteries 'breathe' into the engine compartment.

It has to have been a false CO alarm - but has anyone else had their alarm go off and no obvious cause?
Click to expand...

Electrical problem perhaps?
Have had one go off, when battery low, so maybe its related somehow.
 
Burnham Bob said:
Our CO alarm went off in the middle of the night when we were plugged into the mains in Ipswich Marina and the batteries were on charge. No cooker, no heater, no engine exhaust - nothing. In the next berth they said that theirs sometimes went off when batteries were charging. But if any gas is produced, I thought it was hydrogen. And the CO alarm is at the other end of the boat and the batteries 'breathe' into the engine compartment.

It has to have been a false CO alarm - but has anyone else had their alarm go off and no obvious cause?
Click to expand...

This cropped up on here a couple of weeks ago.

Electrochemical carbon monoxide sensors are cross sensitive to hydrogen so that may be the cause although a little surprising
 
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Our CO alarm went off for no apparent reason a few weeks back. Engine not running, Eber off. Can't recall if batteries were on charge, but I think they may have been on float at the very least. The alarm was showing 30 PPM. I reset it and it hasn't moaned since.
 
VicS said:
This cropped up on here a couple of weeks ago.

Electrochemical carbon monoxide sensors are cross sensitive to hydrogen so that may be the cause.
Click to expand...


IIRC someones CO alarm went off when the boat was unattended but batteries on charge and the marina staff had to go on boar d to investigate
 
Our gas detector(not CO detector) went off several times when on our Holland cruise recently, sometimes when the engine was running and sometimes not. Did not appear to have a gas or exhaust leak. I'm going to get a handheld sniffer to keep on board.
 
Yes this happened to me.
I came back to my boat having left the battery charger on for a couple of days, all other systems off, and the CO detector was making an intermittent chirp. I deduced (guessed) it was gasses from the charging batteries under the starboard aft bunk.
An engineer friend thought that maybe the charger was being a little too enthusiastic.
I now religiously make sure it is off before I leave the boat and never sleep with it on.
 
Burnham Bob said:
Our CO alarm went off in the middle of the night when we were plugged into the mains in Ipswich Marina and the batteries were on charge. No cooker, no heater, no engine exhaust - nothing. In the next berth they said that theirs sometimes went off when batteries were charging. But if any gas is produced, I thought it was hydrogen. And the CO alarm is at the other end of the boat and the batteries 'breathe' into the engine compartment.

It has to have been a false CO alarm - but has anyone else had their alarm go off and no obvious cause?
Click to expand...

I can not explain why it happens but I suggest that you check that your shorepower supply is correctly wired on the pontoon ie no reverse polarity, missing earth etc. I have found on three occasions when the battery charger is in use, on different boats, that when an alarm has gone off for no obvious reason there has been a shore power electrical supply problem. Each time, after fixing the supply the alarm problem did not reoccur. If anyone can explain why I would love an expert answer.
Fair winds to all.
 
THanks again for the advice. We are on a swinging mooring and only connect sore power when we are moored alongside the rich people in marinas! I do have a testing kit for shore power so I'll make sure that everythig is okay although there is always a circuit breaker in operation.
 
very interested to read this as same thing happened to us for the first time last week when hooked up to shore power in jersey - came back top boat and found monoxide alarm beeping and showing over 100 count - only thing on was battery charger - reset it and ran eber on air not heat and it was fine thereafter -
 
Had the same issue when i left a battery charger connected while boat was out of the water in a cradle with the only power connection being to the so-called intelligent battery charger. The next day the boat was full of noxious gas, the CO alarm was bleeping and the battery was too hot to touch. I won't borrow that charger again!
 
Interesting. I have the same problem with my CO alarm but never thought it could be hydrogen gassing from the batteries.
 
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