Houseboat generator exhaust thoughts
 

When a friend of mine runs his gas generator on his houseboat, the fumes sometimes are somewhat overwhelming. It exhaust on the side at the rear. I was wondering if it is possible to connect a 20'-30' hose at the exit point, stretch it out along the water surface with floats, and anchor the end away from the HB, but on the surface.
Will this work? Or will the horizontal running hose length be too much? How about the ability of the gen to push the exhaust and cooling water thru the hose?

Opinions?
Thanks

I think that he should contact the mfr of the generator and the houseboat and tell them that he is concerned about the presence of CO on his boat. They might be willing to solve the problem for him. I'm thinking vertical stack up the side.

Convert it to diesel. That's the only surefire fix.

Rental houseboats on Lake Cumberland are installing a new style of CO scrubber on the exhausts of their gensets. I took my own CO detector and I can vouch that we never showed over a "4" on the detector (previous years I have seen numbers as high as "60" from the rear porch area.

Tall stacks are indeed another option that is gaining a following. CO falls, however, so the exhaust gases should be hot to make them rise and disperse harmlessly. This means that you should NOT use a water separator after a waterlift or other water injected muffler cause the exhaust gas will be too cool to rise properly. You'll have to go with a true dry stack for it to work right (but you can use a stainless automotive muffler for silencing which works nicely). You'll just need to make sure you don't use rubber hose joints on a dry exhaust cause thry'll burn out and then you've got the CO problem again.

I would also suggesting contacting the manufacturer. This is a big topic right now and I believe there is a big lawsuit about this going on right now. Just sitting on a swim platform could kill you. It has almost happened at LOTO. A guy was sitting on a swim platform of a cruiser and passed out and fell in the lake. Thankfully, someone was right there to pull the guy out. I think the manufacturer would be more than happy to talk with you about it.

CO poisoning on houseboats is nothing to be taken lightly. There have been several deaths associated with it in the past few years, and warnings have gone out about letting children play in the area around the swim platform when the genset is running. Some close friends of mine had a brush with CO poisoning a few years ago on their houseboat. They had just finished dinner, and several members of their party became ill. Their first thought was CO, but they had just installed a new CO detector, and it was not sounding an alarm. They figured it was food poisoning, until one of the party whom had not eaten began feeling ill. They took another look at the CO detector, and realized that they had not removed a protective tape across the front of it. When they pulled this off it began sounding! They spent the night at the local emergency room. Scary stuff!

It makes you wonder how many people have gone to bed thinking their headache was from too much sun and partying, never to wake up. My advice would be to have your houseboat checked out by a pro to make sure it is in compliance, and then install SEVERAL CO detectors if you frequently run your genset. This is nothing to fool around with.

Link to an article in the local paper a few years ago: http://www.courier-journal.com/local...01211boat.html

Mcollinstn, what difference would diesel make? Don't they generate CO as well?

At the place where I hang a bit the people who have gensets installed on the boat run what looks to be a pool vacume hose from the exhaust and extend it to the front of the boat away from where they are sitting. Seems to work OK.

Are you sure the fumes are from the exhaust outside the boat? If it's a Kohler, it may be a more dangerous issue than you thing. Article below refers to 4 deaths at LOTO a few years ago.

Kohler replacing select marine generator exhausts

KOHLER, Wis. – In an effort to provide maximum boating safety, Kohler Co. will replace, at no charge, the black iron wet exhaust pipe assembly with a stainless steel exhaust tube on specified Kohler marine generator sets manufactured from 1950 to 1989, according to the July issue of NAMS (National Association of Marine Surveyors) News. In March, it was reported that a St. Louis Circuit Court jury issued a $25-million punitive damage verdict against generator manufacturer Kohler Co. over the deaths of four people in 1999 from carbon monoxide poisoning aboard a boat. It was reportedly determined that the deaths were due to a leak in the generator's exhaust tube. (See Boating Industry Online article Kohler to pay $25 million in punitive damages.)The affected marine generator sets, equipped with L600 or L654 gasoline engines, were built under the following model numbers: 2R, 2A, 2.5R, 2.5A, 3.5R, 3.5A, 4R, 4A, 5R, 5A, 6.5R, 6.5A, 7.5R, 7.5A, the association newsletter reported. Carbon monoxide poisoning may result from failure of the black iron wet exhaust pipe used on these identified generator sets.Kohler Co. is working with its distributors and dealers, and others involved in the marine service industry to locate these marine generator set models, according to NAMS. The specified marine generators were used in a variety of boat applications.Boat owners who believe they have one of the affected generator models should contact an authorized Kohler distributor or dealer or should contact Kohler toll-free in the U.S. at 866-866-4933, or outside the U.S. at 920-803-4986, the association reported******rmation also is available at the Kohler Power Systems Web site: www.kohlerpowersystems.com.

The best bet is to never run it when sleeping. Otherwise the hose out the back may work as long as it is not too long as it will have trouble pushing the gas and water out which will overheat the unit. A dry stack is OK but is ugly and can get very hot which may burn someone thinking it is a grab handle or melt the area around it. Your best, best bet is propane as it is not toxic. In most cases you can convert a gas motor to propane (we did this with a van in 1978 when gas was going up) and it worked fine.

A good topic to bring up on boatered too.