Lesson learned, about winterizing using blow-out method

[willald]

Well, temperatures here have started dipping down to freezing, so Saturday I had to officially end the camping season, and winterize the RV.

Anyway, I went through the usual procedure I use for winterizing - Remove water filter, run some antifreeze through/into the water pump, run air compressor to blow out all water lines, pour antifreeze down all traps/drains, etc. Have always used compressor blow-out method, and it works great for us.

Well, I'm finishing up pouring antifreeze in the bathroom shower and sink, when CO detector goes off. Cannot get it to quit alarming, sensing presense of CO in the RV. I open several windows, turn on bathroom fan, it finally quits. Turn off bathroom fan, a few minutes later it (CO detector) starts squealing AGAIN. I turn fan back on, let the fan run (with several windows open) for a good 20 minutes, CO detector then turns off, and everything is good.

At first I thought that this was a bad CO detector. Have had that happen before. However, the fact that after ventilating the RV for a while it cleared out....Well, seems there must have been CO present inside.

Oh, and no, the generator was NOT running, there was no gasoline engine running anywhere close by, no indication whatsoever of CO (and all gas appliances were turned off, gas bottles closed, shut off).

Soooo, apparently in the process of winterizing the RV, SOMEHOW, enough CO gas got in the RV to trip the detector. After thinking a bit, I realized what must have happened:

Air compressor was sitting in the garage when I was running it, when blowing out the lines. I run a long 100' air hose from compressor in the garage out to the RV when inflating the tires or winterizing. Compressor has always stayed in the garage.

I can only guess that there must have been some CO gas lingering around in the garage from when one of the cars pulled in earlier, and the compressor sucked it into its tank when running. Have been using compressor blow-out method for winterizing for years, and never had this happen before. But, makes sense how it could happen, when compressor's air intake is just a foot or so off the ground and inside the garage where the cars are.

Anyway, lesson learned from this: I think from now on when winterizing, I'm going to first purge the compressor tank of all air in it, roll it outside away from the garage, before turning it on. Hopefully that'll prevent any CO gas from getting sucked into the air compressor, and blown through the pipes and into the RV.

Has anyone that uses compressor blow-out method, ever had something like this happen? Any other ideas/theories on what may have caused the CO detector to go off in this case?

[tvchen]

willald wrote:

tvchen wrote:
Is your CO detector a combo CO and Propane detector? The propane detector is really a flammable vapour detector so any combustible hydrocarbons will set it off. Since you said that you poured antifreeze into the drains and if the detector is near the floor and anywhere near the drain it will set it off. The pink antifreeze that is safe for metal pipes will more likely set off the alarm more than the antifreeze for plastic pipes only as they contain a higher concentration of volatile hydrocarbons Once the volatiles dissipate then you should be good for the rest of the winter.

the detector is a combo, detects both CO and Propane.

..Now that I'm thinking about this...This is only 2nd time winterizing the RV we have now, as we bought it in March 2012. Last year when winterizing, the CO detector was disconnected, as it had gone bad a few weeks before and was going off non-stop. I got it fixed a few weeks after that.

Soo, this is first time winterizing this RV (Motorhome), with the CO detector hooked up and working as it should. And, indeed, it (detector) is at floor level, just a few feet away from the shower stall, where I poured a good bit of antifreeze down to protect the traps.

OK, so this may well have been vapor from the pink stuff, and not actual CO pulled in from the garage. That being the case, though, seems there's not really much I can do about it, except to just live with it when winterizing, or relocate the detector (not worth it).

Still, I would have thought if RV antifreeze could cause this, we'd have seen a LOT more posts from other folks having the same issue when they winterize.

I have a double wammy, my detector is located near the floor just outside the washroom and across from the shower. So I'm getting fumes from 3 sources. It also depends on what the temperature inside your RV was when you poured the antifreeze. The higher the temperature the faster the volatiles dissipate. I know when I winterized a 2 weeks ago it was warm enough for the fumes to get out but cold enough for it to linger around for at least 24hrs. Had to put a fan next to the sensor to pull air away from it to not set it off.

[willald]

tvchen wrote:
Is your CO detector a combo CO and Propane detector? The propane detector is really a flammable vapour detector so any combustible hydrocarbons will set it off. Since you said that you poured antifreeze into the drains and if the detector is near the floor and anywhere near the drain it will set it off. The pink antifreeze that is safe for metal pipes will more likely set off the alarm more than the antifreeze for plastic pipes only as they contain a higher concentration of volatile hydrocarbons Once the volatiles dissipate then you should be good for the rest of the winter.

the detector is a combo, detects both CO and Propane.

..Now that I'm thinking about this...This is only 2nd time winterizing the RV we have now, as we bought it in March 2012. Last year when winterizing, the CO detector was disconnected, as it had gone bad a few weeks before and was going off non-stop. I got it fixed a few weeks after that.

Soo, this is first time winterizing this RV (Motorhome), with the CO detector hooked up and working as it should. And, indeed, it (detector) is at floor level, just a few feet away from the shower stall, where I poured a good bit of antifreeze down to protect the traps.

OK, so this may well have been vapor from the pink stuff, and not actual CO pulled in from the garage. That being the case, though, seems there's not really much I can do about it, except to just live with it when winterizing, or relocate the detector (not worth it).

Still, I would have thought if RV antifreeze could cause this, we'd have seen a LOT more posts from other folks having the same issue when they winterize.

[tvchen]

Is your CO detector a combo CO and Propane detector? The propane detector is really a flammable vapour detector so any combustible hydrocarbons will set it off. Since you said that you poured antifreeze into the drains and if the detector is near the floor and anywhere near the drain it will set it off. The pink antifreeze that is safe for metal pipes will more likely set off the alarm more than the antifreeze for plastic pipes only as they contain a higher concentration of volatile hydrocarbons Once the volatiles dissipate then you should be good for the rest of the winter.

[allen8106]

Just because I winterize the RV doesn't mean my camping season is over. We camp year round. Winterizing after each trip takes 20 minutes ans$6 in anti-freeze.:B

[Gau_8]

WyoTraveler wrote:
Guess it could have sucked CO2 into compressor tank. Good to know. I have a huge floor mounted air compressor in shop. Never gave it much thought before.

It is not CO2. It is CO. Huge diff!

[Turbo_Diesel_Du]

Just moved back to Florida after 14 years in N. Carolina and will just blow my lines out with air although I don't believe it will get that cold here for any length of time in Ocala. More concerned with getting back into fishing with my "new" boat, a 1980 17 ft McKee Craft with a 140 horse Evinrude.

[kaydeejay]

Not buying the compressor sucking in CO from car exhausts I'm afraid.
Modern cars do produce hardly any CO, to the extent that the hosepipe thru the car window from the exhaust in a closed garage is no longer a successful way of committing suicide.
I'm leaning to Glycol fumes myself, but have never had it happen either.

[Fish__n___Grits]

I was standing by to move a construction barge one day, watching the divers working on the pilings under the pier. There were four divers on one compressor, which was on the pier. The Porta - Pottie guy came to pump out the toilets,and the discharge from his vacuum pump was right by the compressor intake. All four divers popped up at once and started yelling. I thought it was kind of funny, but they didn't. I guess it could have been bad if they were deep and had to come up slowly!

[willald]

ecoast wrote:
I'd say it's the mist from the glycol, prolly not co2

..RV antifreeze could trigger it? Hadn't ever heard that, either. If that was the case, I'd have thought this would be a common issue that would happen all the time with winterizing, and folks would be talking about it more on forums like this. This is first time its ever happened for us, and I've been doing the winterizing thing myself for over 10 years.

Think I might do a search or two..

Will

[ecoast]

I'd say it's the mist from the glycol, prolly not co2

[powderman426]

Get a CO alarm with a digital readout then you will know how many parts per million of concentration you have and whether its a reason to be concerned.

[willald]

mlts22 wrote:
One of my old habits with air compressors is to pull the ring so the tank blows itself out when done. This comes from the expensive Iwata compressors that are used in airbrush makeup work. Very precise machinery, but they do need to have the tanks emptied after a work session so there is no chance of water getting in the tank (there are water traps, but even then, any water going out the end severely screws up an airbrush job.)

Yes, every now and then, I pull the ring and drain out the compressor tank of all its air (mostly I do it 'cause the loud hissing noise it makes is a fun way to scare the cr*p out of some stray cats that hang around our house, haha!!)

Apparently, I need to pull that ring and purge the tank out more often.

Will

[willald]

Homer wrote:
in 40 years never had this happen. I agree with your deduction, unless your dog was in the coach with you. I will say one thing about your CO detector, it must be ultra sensitive. Again the dog could set it off, I have heard of lots of people finding that to be their problem.

Wow, a dog tripping the CO detector?? Never heard of that one.

No, we don't have a dog, I was only one in the RV when this happened. Can't blame this one on a dog. 🙂

We had a CO detector go bad about a year ago. It just started going off all the time, for no reason (and of COURSE, it started doing it at 3am when we were out camping, haha!). Had it replaced under warranty (very glad it was under warranty, them things ain't cheap!!) Ever since then, when that thing goes off, I immediately suspect the detector itself is faulty. That weren't the case this time, the detector was doing exactly what its supposed to do (and I'm glad it did).

Will

[mlts22]

One of my old habits with air compressors is to pull the ring so the tank blows itself out when done. This comes from the expensive Iwata compressors that are used in airbrush makeup work. Very precise machinery, but they do need to have the tanks emptied after a work session so there is no chance of water getting in the tank (there are water traps, but even then, any water going out the end severely screws up an airbrush job.)

I can easily see that happening though. It can be easy to position an air compressor near a generator's exhaust.

[old_guy]

this happened tome the other day, only mine is more confusing then yours. my compressor sits in a storage room not the garage and I also ran 100 ft of hose and was sitting in the chair trying to think of what next to do and the alarm went off. got it off and a few minutes later it went off again. it finally settled down and I have no idea why it went off.