smoke detector in seadoo?

[Tacomatrx450]

Wouldn't be hard to wire in a home smoke detector in a seadoo seeing how it could detect flamable vapors and so on. Or do you think it would trip all the time?

 

[bigJake]

I'm not clear from your question if your intent is to be alerted to an actual fire onboard or alerted to the presence of flamable vapors? Personally I thought Smoke Detectors detected, well, Smoke. I am not knowledgeable at all about the capabilites of different detectors out there but I assume that maybe RFoster is. I beleive he is a fireman. So hopefully he can comment. What are your expectations? to be alerted to the presence of explosive vapors before you try to start the engine and blow yourself up? Or are you expecting to hear the beeping of the alarm over the running engine? Have you tested putting a sounding alarm in the hull with the seat on and see if you can even hear it over the sound of the engine? Or were you planning to wire an alert into the console? Just not clear on what your goal is. Personally, I pop the seat off of my skis and smell for any buildup of gas vapors each time I launch my skis.

 

[Tacomatrx450]

i was thinking this could be used in both storage, and while in use. some smoke detectors can detect combustible vapors as well as smoke. i know as engines get hot, they could burn off oil, and so on that might trip the sensor, but this could be a cheap and easy way to be alerted that maybe one of your hoses is leaking? ill play around with one tomorrow and see how easy they can be tripped. could save some one the hassle of being exploded!

 

[bigJake]

West marine has one with a gauge that mounts in your dash:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...ID=cj&srccode=cii_11138&cpncode=26-77966884-2

 

[RFoster130]

Smoke detectors don't detect gas vapors at all. A residential smoke detector would be useless. There are 2 types of smoke detectors. Most older ones are photo electric type. It basically shoots a light beam across an area. If that beam is broken up by smoke, it causes it to go off. That is why they have a lot of false alarms, they get dirty from dust. You should use compressed air to blow them out once in a while. The other type are ionization type. They use ionizing radiation to detect smoke. They contain a small amount of americium-241, which is a radioactive element. The way they work, there is a chamber with 2 metal discs, with a gap between them. The ionization of the americium creates an electrical field between those discs. When smoke enters the chamber, it attaches to the ions and the sensor notices the voltage drop and sends it into alarm. They are the most common now.

Sooooo, they would both be totally useless to detect anything remotely considered to be a volatile atmosphere on a watercraft. The device jake inked to would work best.