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

sl7vk said:

theothersully said:

sl7vk said:

Where do you store your wood?

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

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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.

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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!

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.