Problem with CO/LP Detector

[edatlanta]

I full time and have a Saf-T-Alert 35-742 detector. It is almost two years old (manufacture date) and I have never had a problem until night before last. It goes off at 3:15am with a LP alert. I turned off my propane at the tank while leaving the outside door open. The unit reset and I went back to bed leaving the LP off at the tank. I am hosting at a state park and don't use the LP at all other than the stove which I had not used in several days.

The next morning, yesterday, I looked at the stove and noticed one of the burner knobs was not quite in the off position. It was just barely pushed in and turned just enough that it didn't fall back into the out detente. I assumed this was the problem as I had put several grocery sacks on the stove top 8 hours before and figured one of the sacks had bumped the burner knob. I turned the LP back on at the tank at this point.

No more problem for 18 hours. At midnight last night (why is it always in the middle of the night) the alarm goes off again. Again I turned off the LP at the tank and the detector resets. 3 hours later it goes off again, the LP is still off at the tank, I did not turn it back on. This time the detector would not reset. After a few minutes in the mute mode with the LP light still blinking, the alarm goes off again. At this point I removed the detector from the wall and cut a power wire.

This morning, about six hours later, I powered the detector back up and put it back in the wall. So far so good. My LP is still turned off at the tank, but I'm going to turn it back on when I go outside.

I am wondering if there really is a LP leak or is the detector going south on me. I have never smelled any LP inside and I still haven't used the stove since this issue came up night before last.

Does anyone have any experience with this model detector failing early and in this manner? I'm thinking about buying a new one and see what happens. I don' think I have a LP leak, but.......

Thanks.

[beemerphile1]

The detector may be bad but when was the last time the LPG system had a leak down test? A leak down test is the preferred way to test for an LPG leak. If you read your RV manual you may find a thorough LPG system test recommended every year.

[ken07734]

Here's a suggestion for those of you that have this occur again. Try getting a off the shelf detector and put it side by side with the built in one. let them run over night and see fi they BOTH go off or if it's just the built in one. This would at least tell you if the detector was really the issue or you DO have something floating around the home away from home....

[westend]

What is your measured battery voltage?

[edatlanta]

I purchased an LP leak detector since this morning and no leaks were found with the detector either so I'm leaning toward a bad monitor. My black tank is almost empty and was not emptied around the time this happened, I don't have a dog and my voltage is right where it should be since I'm on shore power and not using the furnace.

I think I'm going to replace the monitor as bad as I hate to due to the price. I do have another CO only monitor that is still working so I will just turn the LP off at night until the new monitor arrives.

[Old-Biscuit]

How's your battery voltage?

Are you running furnace in evenings?

Low battery voltage will cause them to chirp

[1492]

Moved from Technology Corner

[Go_Dogs]

There are other things that can trigger the alarm. Black tank gas, Cleaning chemicals, (not likely that you were cleaning in the middle of the night!). Believe it or not, other sources of methane, such as, the dog's butt. Someone posted here, that their dog was asleep, business end towards the LP detector and it went off. Just another possible reason for the middle of the night problem.

[linnemj]

We ended up replacing our propane detector at 26 months due to false alarms. Be care if you are buying a new one off the shelf - check the manufacturer date - they have some really old on the shelf. Our CO2 detector failed this trip at 28 months. The beep pattern says to replace it. It was supposed to be good for another 5 years.

[jcpainter]

This is such a common problem. We had almost the exact same experience . . . even down to the knob on the stove as the suspect cause.


After about 4 days of resetting it, we cleaned the front thoroughly and it hasn't gone off again.

Of all the similar problems I've read about . . . I've never seen anyone say that their detector went off during the day time. It's ALWAYS in the middle of the night.

Go figure :h