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When it comes to safety when using an Atomic 4, I always think of the blower first. I run the blower for about 1 minute and I'm also careful to make sure the hatch is wide open in the companionway. I hope 1 minute is enough, I always worry about battery drain. I have heard not running the blower, the engine could ignite, although I've never known this to happen to anyone I'm aquainted with.
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I always run the blower and sniff the output for fumes.
The most likely engine-related thing to torpedo my boat would be
an explosion/fire from gas fumes. It hasn't happened for quite a
while but I've been through periods of having the needle valve
in the carb. stick in the open position and would wake up in
the night with fumes in the cabin. Perhaps the switch to ethanol
has caused this to no longer happen.
-jonathan -
Mr. DMann:
The minimum recommended time for blower operation prior to starting is 5 minutes. This will present no appreciable strain to the battery and may save your life if any fumes are standing down in the bilge. I run it for a few minutes after the engine is running and sometimes until the sails are up and we're under way.
One minute is not enough!
DaveComment
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1 minute is not enough - even with the hatches open
its the recommend of a minimum of 5 minutes.
(sail boaters)
motor boaters i know run the blower 5 or more minutes & its a good idea to have batt chargers handy in case your batt is low or old.
in my opinion if the blower running 5 minutes drains a fully charged battery down too low to star the boat - its probably too old or too small or you need
another batt - but thats only my opinion. I'm not a real inboard guy as I've never owned my own.
I've had several outboard boats but only help others with their inboard boats & all ran the blower.
& yes I know 2 different people that didn't run the blower & it caught fire & both burned.
1 replaced the motor & interior [rebuilt] the other guy bought a new boat.
BOTH -
Never forget to run the blower!Comment
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Run the blower
Always running the blower before starting is a good safely procedure, but the safest procedure has to be to stick your nose in the engine compartment. If gas fumes are present, you'll notice immediately and you will want to resolve the source of the fumes before even considering starting the engine. If you have a gas leak, even running the blower for 5 minutes may not be enough, and even if it is, gas fumes may collect again while the engine is running with a predictable result........kaboom!! I also had a stuck needle valve with resulting pints of gasoline in the bilge, luckily my nose caught it before starting the engine, even 10 minutes of blowing would not have cleared this volume of gasoline. Another idea is to install a gas detector in the engine compartment and maybe even a heat activated halon fire extinguisher (normal engine heat won't activate it).
BobComment
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