chuzzlewit
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking of putting a domestic smoke alarm in the engine compartment and one in the cabin of my 35ft sailing boat. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Fire on boats
- Thread starter chuzzlewit
- Start date
boatmike
Well-Known Member
Better than nothing I suppose but by the time you have smoke it will be difficult to put any fire out. It will wake you up at night but otherwise if on the boat during the day you will see the smoke anyway in the cabin. For the engine compartment I would rather see an automatic fire extinguisher. Knowing there is a fire is one thing. Putting it out is another. The last thing you want to do with an engine room fire is open up to take a look. If you are not on the boat by the time anyone reacts to the alarm it will be too late. In my opinion having a well prepared fire prevention strategy and awareness of risk, and fire fighting equipment is more valuable. Having said that though they can do no harm, especially on a bigger boat with several cabins. I would never argue against belt and braces!
Ships_Cat
Well-Known Member
Along the lines of what Boatmike says I would not waste my time putting one in the engine compartment (and in a small yacht where temperatures are high in it the battery in the alarm won't last - I know, I have left torches in engine compartments by accident /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)
However we sleep on board regularly and do have one in the main cabin. If you do so in a small yacht though, get one of the kitchen types that you can turn off else every time you cook it will be set off. We use an ordinary one which I have wired a switch into the battery positive conductor in order to turn it off.
John
However we sleep on board regularly and do have one in the main cabin. If you do so in a small yacht though, get one of the kitchen types that you can turn off else every time you cook it will be set off. We use an ordinary one which I have wired a switch into the battery positive conductor in order to turn it off.
John
Anchorite
Well-Known Member
Several years ago PBO featured a dual purpose use for a smoke detector: by extending a cable from either side of the test button down into the bilge it becomes a water level alarm (the rising water level completes the circuit and triggers the buzzer). Or something like that... it's a simple circuit. And it still acts as a smoke detector.
boatmike
Well-Known Member
Hee hee... I can just see waking up in the middle of the night and not knowing if I was going to drown or burn..... Permission to panic Mr Mannering!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Anchorite
Well-Known Member
Too late for them...
Joan of Arc
Duke of Clarence
Joan of Arc
Duke of Clarence
jackho
Well-Known Member
Give it a go - you can't do any harm - but I tried this and every time I lit the gas they would go off. Also it the gas didn't light it still went off so acted as a gas detector. What I thought was a good idea at the time proved too much of a nusiance.
Dyflin
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
Hee hee... I can just see waking up in the middle of the night and not knowing if I was going to drown or burn..... Permission to panic Mr Mannering!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
[/ QUOTE ]
Now that's funny /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Hee hee... I can just see waking up in the middle of the night and not knowing if I was going to drown or burn..... Permission to panic Mr Mannering!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
[/ QUOTE ]
Now that's funny /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
peterb
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
Give it a go - you can't do any harm - but I tried this and every time I lit the gas they would go off. Also it the gas didn't light it still went off so acted as a gas detector. What I thought was a good idea at the time proved too much of a nusiance.
[/ QUOTE ]
I doubt very much whether lighting the gas set the detector off. It was probably the match that you lit it with, although the hot plume above the gas could have carried the smoke to the detector. Gas flames don't normally give combustion aerosols in the right size range.
Neither, incidentally, do alcohol flames. As one of my sins, I once had to test the operation of smoke detectors in whisk(e)y bonds. We burnt one and a half gallons of 140 proof single malt whisky under the detector, which didn't alarm.
Give it a go - you can't do any harm - but I tried this and every time I lit the gas they would go off. Also it the gas didn't light it still went off so acted as a gas detector. What I thought was a good idea at the time proved too much of a nusiance.
[/ QUOTE ]
I doubt very much whether lighting the gas set the detector off. It was probably the match that you lit it with, although the hot plume above the gas could have carried the smoke to the detector. Gas flames don't normally give combustion aerosols in the right size range.
Neither, incidentally, do alcohol flames. As one of my sins, I once had to test the operation of smoke detectors in whisk(e)y bonds. We burnt one and a half gallons of 140 proof single malt whisky under the detector, which didn't alarm.
boatmike
Well-Known Member
You did what you Philistine!!!! BURNT one and a half GALLONS of single malt!!!!!!!!
Get off the site at once before Claymore and the others get you.......
Get off the site at once before Claymore and the others get you.......
charles_reed
Well-Known Member
It should be
Mainwaring.
Still we all knew wot he meant
Mainwaring.
Still we all knew wot he meant
peterb
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
You did what you Philistine!!!! BURNT one and a half GALLONS of single malt!!!!!!!!
Get off the site at once before Claymore and the others get you.......
[/ QUOTE ]
It was specially released from bond by Customs, who came and watched the burns on the first day (we had fires over several days). We had to sign to say that all of it had been burnt. We duly signed, but without saying that there was a small residual blue flame on the canteen's Xmas puddings that year!
Bit like RAE at Farnborough, who had a large bore air gun for projecting bird carcasses at aircraft windscreens. Shortly before Xmas they realised that they ought to look at collisions with desert vultures. Reasonably enough, the nearest equivalent in this country was a turkey. Low speed impacts broke a few bones in the carcass, so that it couldn't be used again, but didn't stop it being edible.
You did what you Philistine!!!! BURNT one and a half GALLONS of single malt!!!!!!!!
Get off the site at once before Claymore and the others get you.......
[/ QUOTE ]
It was specially released from bond by Customs, who came and watched the burns on the first day (we had fires over several days). We had to sign to say that all of it had been burnt. We duly signed, but without saying that there was a small residual blue flame on the canteen's Xmas puddings that year!
Bit like RAE at Farnborough, who had a large bore air gun for projecting bird carcasses at aircraft windscreens. Shortly before Xmas they realised that they ought to look at collisions with desert vultures. Reasonably enough, the nearest equivalent in this country was a turkey. Low speed impacts broke a few bones in the carcass, so that it couldn't be used again, but didn't stop it being edible.
Ships_Cat
Well-Known Member
I agree that the burning of the gas is unlikely to set detectors off. It certainly is not a problem that we have ever discovered.
However, what does set them off is any dirt, boiled over food, grease, etc that is on the burner or the pot supports around it that get heated to smoking or combustion by the gas flame, but in that case the solution is obvious (well I hope it, but in case not it is said that cleanliness is next to no false alarmedness /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif).
With respect to them going off due to the gas alone, that is again a problem I have not heard about. But there again detectors are supposed to be installed at a high point that any smoke will rise to - I suspect that is one is getting the heavier than air gas at that height it may be about time to evacuate before the explosion.
John
However, what does set them off is any dirt, boiled over food, grease, etc that is on the burner or the pot supports around it that get heated to smoking or combustion by the gas flame, but in that case the solution is obvious (well I hope it, but in case not it is said that cleanliness is next to no false alarmedness /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif).
With respect to them going off due to the gas alone, that is again a problem I have not heard about. But there again detectors are supposed to be installed at a high point that any smoke will rise to - I suspect that is one is getting the heavier than air gas at that height it may be about time to evacuate before the explosion.
John
