Carbon Monoxide alarm

[Eric Stamm]

I have my carbon monoxide alarm going off and I'm pretty sure it began when I put the unit in storage (battery went dead). As soon as I plugged it in the alarm went off again. The gas is shut off and the windows are open. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is it a dealer test and repair item? Thanks, Eric

[TucsonJim]

Hi Eric - Welcome to Grand Design's Technical Forum.

The carbon monoxide alarms are typically located in the ceiling of the bedroom and powered by either a 9V or a few AA batteries. There is also an LP gas alarm which is mounted near the floor of your rig and it is powered by the 12V RV battery. On most units, when you put the RV into storage, the LP gas alarm will continue to draw power from the 12V battery, even if the battery disconnect switch is turned off. This will cause the LP alarm to sound off when the battery voltage gets too low. And over time, the 12V battery will drain down to zero volts and may be permanently damaged.

So there are a couple of questions I have to help you trouble-shoot the issue, and hopefully prevent it in the future.

1. Is the alarm that is sounding off mounted near the floor or on the ceiling?
2. Do you have a volt meter, and can you measure the voltage on your 12V battery? Need reading while disconnected from shore power, and connected to shore power.
3. Are you currently plugged into shore power?

Jim

[Eric Stamm]

Hi Jim,
It is the LP gas alarm that is going off. I'm plugged into shore power right now and it's still beeping. I removed the 12v battery to charge it. Right now the charge is slow and is still showing less than 25% charge.

[TucsonJim]

Yeah, that battery might be toast. I'd let it charge for 24 hours to see how it does. The LP gas detector will likely continue to beep until you have a battery hooked up. I'd suggest you shut off the breaker for the converter if you don't have the battery installed.

Jim

[Eric Stamm]

Hi Jim,
I checked the battery out of the trailer and it shows 13 volts. When hooked up to the trailer it shows 3 volts. I removed the censor and it has green lights and red lights. On the label it shows if there are two red lights followed by two green lights (what mine is showing), it means the censor is faulty. So at this point I think I'll have to get it replaced probably at the dealer, since the unit is not a plug in, but hard wired in the trailer. Any further thoughts. Eric

[TucsonJim]

Eric - If the battery is dropping to 3 volts under load, it's shot. Before replacing the LP sensor, I'd take the battery to a place like Walmart or Autozone and have them test it. I wouldn't trust the error codes on the LP alarm until I knew I had a good battery installed. If the sensor is still showing an error code with a fully charged and properly operating battery, then I'd replace it. They are very easy to replace and typically sold on Amazon. All you'd have to do is cut the supply wires (with all power disconnected) and then splice in the new LP alarm.

Jim