Saturday, August 15, 2009

GasAlert MaxXT

GasAlert MaxXT is an easy to use and compact gas detector/monitor. BW Technologies by Honeywell manufactured this model. It costs SGD 1,315.

This detector is an important safety tool to measure the air composition before entering confined space.

GasAlert MaxXT comes with a few accessories namely the charger, long & short hose, operator's manual, screwdriver, particulate filters, moisture filters and and comprehensive manual in a CD.

The unit is powered with a lithium polymer battery and can be easily charged. It is just like charging a mobile phone. The battery should be fully charged by 6 hours.

The unit comes with a high quality screw to open up its casing for maintenance purpose. The particulate and moisture filters need to be replace after operating for sometime as the filters will be choked with dirt, dust and etc.

The unit comes with 2 type of hose, a long and a short one. This is particularly useful to sample the enclose space content before entry as some of gases or vapors are heavier than air and will settle at the bottom of the confine space. Also, some gases are lighter than air and will be found around the top of the confined space. With the hoses, it is possible to test all areas (top, middle, bottom) of a confined spaces

The device is quite compact that it fits perfectly in my palm. The one-button simplicity eliminates the complex operation and everyone can use it without having to undergo any training. GasAlert MaxXT is also water proof and has a built in concussion proof boot.

The unit has a built in pump which make life so much easier compare to those days where gas detectors were bulky. It is very portable and can be carried around even when moving around the confined spaces such as tanks and hence continuous monitoring of the air

It will conduct a few series of self test when activated. Initially, it will prompt the user to block the pump inlet to test its pump.

Readings can be obtained rather fast using the GasAlert MaxXT. It is capable to measure a few gases namely the oxygen (%), carbon monoxide (ppm), hydrogen sulfide (ppm) and combustible gases (%LEL). The readings you see here was obtained under normal condition where the oxygen level is at the steady 20.9%

An audio and visible alarm will be activated (at the same time the integrated pump will also stop) when the reading is below or exceed the safety limit (for example if the oxygen level is below 19.5%, it will gives out an alarm)

I kind of like their tag line "Wear yellow. Work Safe". This is one quality safety equipment which I wish I could had earlier

1 comment:

Ben said...

Good to hear another brand of gas detector :) I used to wear a portable gas detector whenever I work in oil, gas & petrochemical plants. Well it need to be periodically calibrated with an external span gas. Otherwise it might give false sense of safety :D Never just rely on the so called built in self testing :P Another feature I bet your gas detector should has is the intrinsically safe (IS) mark :D It is one of the mandatory feature for any gadget to be use in explosive environment including confine space ... I remember this IS used to be the buzz words as there is saying go ... No IS, breed Spark aka no CD breed Child :D Happy Detecting!