Propane alarm

[Stalking Light]

in my 2014 Eagle the propane alarm occasionally goes off when my batteries are charging either on shore power of by solar. This happens when they are close to fully charged and the camper is shut up (no windows or vents open). Is this just a matter of not enough ventilation or do I have a battery going bad? I have one battery I got with the camper and an older Optima I added later.

Thanks.

 

[PaulT]

Mine has gone off when I had my gasoline powered weed eater and a gasoline container in the camper. On arrival at the location where I was to use the weed eater, I heard the alarm going off. Opening up everything and running the fantastic fan cleared the alarm quickly. There was very minor smell of gasoline on opening the camper but apparently that was enough for the detector.

For propane, it detects 21 ppm Couldn't find detection limit for other combustible gases.
Paul

 

[Stalking Light]

I don't have any gasoline or aerosol in the camper and the propane is off. The only odor I can detect is the "new camper smell" from being closed up.

It only happens when the batteries are charging and full or close to it. I cracked open the sliding front window to see if that helps, the alarm clears quickly with a little ventilation.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Those alarms have a mind of their own and some seem to go off or no reason ! Mine used to go off when the batteries ran down on about day three of camping and me not running the truck (always in the middle of the niight -sort of a required ritual of owning a pop-up/camper-me thinks)! Sometimes when the hot water heaters' pilot went/blew out I also got the buzzer and lights.(See my thread from last year here about my last experience with that sort of thing when the 3way leaked(when things almost went boom-19 may, 2015- Don't member how to move it here from the old threads ) and see why I got rid of it and bought a compression frig, another battery and solar panel! I'm happy now just have to check my alarms yearly to make sure that the batteries are still good !

Smoke

 

[lqhikers]

have you tried disconnecting your propane bottle? still go off? maybe a bad detector.

also might be the time to soap test all your fittings and valves (propane hooked up and turned on.)

had mine go off once and it turned out to be a small stand by disposable propane bottle that we used with a one burner stove to

cook fish outside with

other than that i got nothing!

les,lqhikers

 

[Stalking Light]

I don't think it's propane setting it off but something else. No problems when I cook or run the furnace and I have a compressor fridge. Pretty sure it's the batteries but don't know if that means I have a bad one or just need to vent when charging.

 

[PaulT]

One other possibility is to check the electrical connections to the detector or at the distribution panel. If they are loose or any crimp-on connectors are not 100%, the alarm may get triggered because the voltage is not correct. You could also pull the fuse ,if any, and reinsert it.

Paul

 

[camper101]

If you can be certain there's NO WAY it's propane (you're parked 100 yards upwind of any source...) then I wonder if the alarm is bad. I had one (Safe-T-Alert) go haywire last year and saw lots of comments from other customers that the thing didn't last as long as it was supposed to. I got an Atwood alarm to replace, hoping for the best...

 

[Stalking Light]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm certain that it's not propane and it only happens when the battery is at or near full charge. I have read other places where people got false positives when charging batteries in enclosed spaces. My prime suspect right now is charging the batteries without any ventilation. I'm going to test charging with a window open a little bit, which is probably a good idea anyway since the battery compartment doesn't seem to be vented to the outside.

 

[PaulT]

Charlie,

You can create a little natural ventilation flow by cracking open one of the ceiling vents and opening up one of the doors to the turnbuckles. That way you don't have to leave a window open on an unattended camper.

Paul

 

[Stalking Light]

Good idea. Maybe I'll try two turnbuckle doors in case of rain.

 

[camper101]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm certain that it's not propane and it only happens when the battery is at or near full charge. I have read other places where people got false positives when charging batteries in enclosed spaces. My prime suspect right now is charging the batteries without any ventilation. I'm going to test charging with a window open a little bit, which is probably a good idea anyway since the battery compartment doesn't seem to be vented to the outside.

Now that you mention it only happens near full charge... mine started malfunctioning after I mounted a permanent solar panel on top. Before that I probably almost never had a full charge. The new alarm has been fine.