I'm Having Carbon Monoxide Problems - Any Ideas??

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sl7vk said:
theothersully said:
sl7vk said:
Where do you store your wood?

Hmmm... interesting angle. It's outside on deck. My curiosity is piqued.

Sorry, I was going off topic on you. I was just curious how you obtain and store your wood..... Takes up a lot of space even when you have solid land to store it. Sorry nothing to do with the CO.

My opinion is that your problem is draft related. You can have tons of cracks in your pipes, if that thing is drafting, there is no smoke that will leak. I would add 3-4 feet of stovepipe, and get a decent cap. I'd then make sure I didn't turn the damper down early....

If your draft is strong enough, you should be able to run the stove with the door wide open without leaking smoke.

Your run is short, and it isn't insulated, so your draft is weak.

I love your set up though, so long as none of your neighbors "borrow" from your wood pile.

We go ashore and cut/split/stack our wood. Then, we truck it to the dock and wheel it down to the boat. A lot of labor involved, but very satisfying right now at 13 degrees and I'm a T-shirt typing this. :)


Problem Solved!

To those who suggested a draft problem, you were right! :)

I added on 4 extra feet today and a better smokehead/cap with perfect results! Very excited that the CO levels have been a persistent zero on the meter all night long with howling NE winds, blowing snow, freezing fog and cold temps. Opening up to air out in this weather would have made me a grumpy guy out here.

As to neighbors "borrowing" wood... let's hope they don't. ;)

Luckily, they don't have wood heat. It's very atypical to have wood heat on a boat.

Thank you very much to everyone that posted with all the great ideas. Through process of elimination, the draft of the chimney seemed most likely. The original terminus of the chimney was about even (maybe an inch below) the highest part of the heated boat. With the extra 4 ft attached, it now towers over the entire boat. Maybe this was the important point.

Either way, no more CO.

Thanks!
 
Hey, hey, Tom Sawyer - glad to hear this news!

Now - get back to work on your job!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Shari

** PS You are going to dump that galvanized pipe for stainless in the near future, aren't you?
 
Hi sully I am a sailor also .I have a C30 I had a funny think happen on my boat with the CO . I had the BBQ going out side on deck. and had the co detector going off in side ? I closed off my companion way hatch and the co went way up ? My cowl vents where drawing the co in thru the deck vents under the floor and up into the cabin . I was moored out at the time but it would happen at the dock also. John
 
Any chance those 2 top trivets are not sealing completely and leaking out the top?
 
Good to hear sully, I suspected draft all along. It's hard to expect an 8' pipe to draw very well in spite of what the stove maker may want you to believe. You might want to add some bracing to that pipe if you're going to run all winter with it this way. It's no fun for a strong wind to knock down the stack with a fire going.
 
Here's my 2 cents... I work at a marina, we winterize and store over 600 boats - about 40
stay in the water, mostly 27' to 45' - some brand new from the factory. When the boats are
closed up in the winter the CO monitors go nuts, it happens when the resins, gelcoats, carpets,
headliners, etc. outgas. It may be happening to you also because it's being heated more in the
proximity of the stove... It happens in older boats as well - but new boats are always an issue -
we actually unplug the monitors because they are not wired thru the batt. switch (as you can
guess for safety reasons)...and only unplugged for the winter.
This could be your issue, although I would never consider a "false alarm" with a CO monitor
a trivial matter if you live on the boat.
Oh, by the way, I saw Godsmack in Manchester 2 years ago - There is no better Metal show
around - Sully kicks Butt... I don't know if that's "The other Sully" :coolgrin:

Hope this helps
Rob
 
Yup, CO and boats are a deadly mix. We (on boats) are more on the lookout than people in homes because we have several sources and not a lot of air flow in a small space.

The problem was definitely draw, as the 4' extension on my "slanty shanty" stove pipe has cured all CO issues.

BeGreen: No question about it. The stack wouldn't even stay up in the winds yesterday as I was putting it together. I have guy wires like a large radio tower would have, holding it up. This monstrosity will certainly have to come down when we leave the dock in the spring.

Rob: There can definitely be an offgassing and it seems everything sets off CO detectors. Battery charging especially (when the battery is inside the cabin). The issue did turn out to be a draw issue. We're in good shape now.
 
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