Matt,

Have you thought about this scenario? You accidentally leave the propane on
when you leave the boat, or someone else turns it on after you leave. There
is a really small leak, but in three weeks a fair amount of propane collects
down in the bilge.

You come back and open the boat up just like always, and reach down and turn
on your sniffer. The small spark from the switch closing ignites the propane
(BOOM).

The only way I can see to avoid this scenario is to have explosion proof switches,
(But then your bilge pump auto switch might set it off), or to have an always on
bilge vent system that runs from solar power. An alternative would be to have a
bilge vent system with the fan mounted really high vaccuming out a tube that goes
down to the bilge. The switch for the fan would also be mounted _really_ high so
that it would be above any potentially explosive fumes from the bilge. Of course,
your bilge pump auto-switch might still set it off while you are gone.

I'd prefer that my boat not blow up at all, but if it does, I'd really like to not
be standing in it at the time ;-)

YMMV,

Don W.

wrote:
Ari

Glad to hear all ended well.

My advice would be to get it out of the bilge. These things do no
tlike getting wet.

On my boat, the sniffer is just above the cabin sole in the face of one
fo the settees. It is wired to bypass the master switch but is not
always on. It has its own switch right next to the master switch.
Procedure is to turn on the sniffer first. It will beep while it warms
up (10 - 20 seconds) and then go silent once its warmed up and no gas
is detected. I like this setup as it tests the sniffer every time you
get on the boat. I spent the first season with this boat diligently
turning on the sniffer and being happy at "silence" every time. Next
spring I found out that the sniffer had been disconnected the whole
previous season.

Matt