CO Monitor false alerts

We purchased a Forest River Cherokee Gray Wolf 25RL in the spring. We camped the weekend we picked it up, then spent a week at a local NC State Park in May with no problems. We're planning on camping most of September.

Our problem is that our CO monitor, Safe-T-Alert Model 25-741, is constantly alerting to CO. The alert is 4 beeps, 5 seconds off, repeat.

Our dealer had warned us that when parked at home, if the battery got low we would hear a warning. That happened once and I plugged it in. All was well for quite a few weeks. Then the alert started, I plug the trailer in, still beeps. Hit reset on monitor, still beeps, hit mute on monitor still beeps. The only way I can stop it is to unhook the battery and house line.

I called the dealer this morning and the service guys were all busy but the parts lady said she might be able to help me. She suggested trickle charging the battery for a few days. I told her that it still alerted when I had the trailer plugged into house current and she said it could still be the battery. Doesn't make sense to me since house current powers all the systems. In any case, I unplugged the battery, kept the trailer on house current. I checked fluid levels of battery, fine and put it on my trickle charger. BTW, the alert kept sounding on house current, sans battery.

My feeling is that we have a dud CO monitor. And yes, I have read the manual. Our dealer is two hours away so I am not keen on taking it to the shop if it is a component I can change out myself.

Thanks for any suggestions or help.

How old is the RV and the detector?  The reason I ask is that your owners manual says to replace it in 5 years.

We bought it new in February of this year.

Why do you assume it is a false alert?  4 or 5 beeps is a typical "CO present" warning, so not something to toy with. A Low Voltage alert is typically different sound.  And you are right - the voltage shouldn't be low when on shore power. A voltmeter reading at the connector to the CO unit would answer that quickly.

I'll grant that it could be a contaminated sensor giving a false reading, but it could also be the real thing. CO is odorless and colorless, plus small quantities may not cause very noticeable effects on the body of there is plenty of fresh air around.

Do you have a manual for the alarm? It should have info on what to expect from low battery vs CO and other warning. If the dealer didn't provide that manual, get on his case about that too. meanwhile, you can probably download a copy if youserach using the detector brand/model plus the word 'manual'.

Can you get an independent check of the CO level in your rig?  Your local fire or health dept may do free CO detection check-ups, or possibly a friendly furnace repair service.  Or maybe buy another detector and give it a try? You can probably return it after.

Good points. However when this started the first thing I did was open the door and some windows. After a few minutes I put on the supervent. Also, LP gas tanks are both turned off, heater off, water heater off. No fuel, no combustion should equal no CO. Also I spent about 30 minutes in it watching TV and no headache.

Also went over the vent on monitor with a dustbuster.

I had let my batteries drain due to a bit of a health issue.
I plugged the Dancer in to 20 A shore power and left it charging.
The CO alarm went off a couple of times, and I had to reset it.
A several hours later, Son came in and said that there was an alarm in the RV. I went out, and sure enough, the CO alarm was making a racket.
Reset, and a few minutes later, it went off again.
Rinse and repeat a number of times. Finally the batteries showed a full charge, and after one more reset, the alarm stopped tripping.

Maybe it is what you're seeing, maybe not.
Just thought I'd share

LarsMac said:

Maybe it is what you're seeing, maybe not.
Just thought I'd share

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I'm trickle charging the battery now and we'll see how it goes. Seems odd that it still acts up on shore power without battery.

Gotta get it sorted it out before we leave in September or I'll be taking the wire snips to it.

In case you don't have one:

http://www.dyersonline.com/downloadfile/download/aitfile/aitfile_id/2717/

I have had a few alarms on my home system so I went out and bought a stand alone battery CO detector that has a display showing the CO level (actually I have a few). Hard to find one that simply shows the level even if below that needed to set of an alert but they do exist.

I use it as a check on the wired system.