RVJeeper18
Member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2018
- Posts
- 12
Spent the long holiday weekend camping and had issues with both our AC and the LPG/CO2 Alarm. Hoping someone has seen similar and might have simple solutions or Ideas. Motor Home is a 2017 32' Class C Leprechaun with single roof mount AC and "Domestic" brand Thermostat. We have owned the rig for 18 months and taken many trips with out these issues.
AC - Had the following problem only at night: AC working fine, blowing cold, cycling fine during the day (although it was hot during the day so it ran a lot but did cycle occasionally). At night around 1-2 am we would wake up and it would be hot and the AC was cycled off. I would get up and drop the set temp on the thermostat and go back to bed, but it would not cycle back on. If I turned everything off for a few minutes it would work fine when I turned it back on, but a couple hours later same thing - wake up and hot in the RV and AC cycled off. Rinse repeat.
Seems like a thermostat issue - is that a good guess? Any way to test a thermostat to see if it is not reading ambient temp correctly or not signaling AC to cycle? Looks like it reads initial ambient temp correctly and cycles AC on and off for a few hours, but at some point cycles off and will not cycle back on when it hits set temp? How hard to replace a thermostat - that is one home repair I have never messed with? Any difference between a RV thermostat and regular home setup?
LPG/CO2 Alarm - Again problem almost exclusively at night: Around 1-2 am (yes we lost a little sleep that night..) the LPG Alarm went off (different tone and blinking light for C02 vs LPG alarm) - I could Mute it but it still showed LPG detected and would go off again every 8 Minutes. The sites are full hookups so we (nor any other campers) were not running generator or using LPG. Had to open windows and vents to get alarm to stop. I checked and our LPG system was closed off at the tank - no smell of gas at all. Aired everything out good (and messed with AC while waiting), closed everything back up and went back to bed. Hour later it all happened again same procedure & result. This time i went searching for any other source of gas and found that we had several of the little green disposable 16.4 oz. propane cylinders stored in outside compartment across hall and directly below alarm. They were new, unused, with little plastic caps still in place but I pulled them out anyway and put them 50'+ away and down wind. I also had one of the cylinders installed on a small grill about 20' away so removed it and put with the others. By this time we were exhausted so just left the windows/vents open and cranked the AC all the way down and went back to bed. No more issues over the rest of the night. During the next day we had all the windows/vents closed back up, little cylinders still stored away and down wind, and had 2 more instances where the LPG alarm went off. Both times I could get it to reset without venting. Following night no problems.
I know the alarms are set to go off on very low concentrations, I assume lower than you can smell gas? Could the little cylinders be the culprit? Could the valve on the LPG tank not be closing completely and I have a leak somewhere in the system? The LPG tank itself is located under the motor home as far forward and away from "house" and alarm as possible - guess it is possible the relief valve could be leaking slightly or venting (although tank was only 3/4 full and I would expect any pressure venting to happen during the heat of the day)? Could the alarm be bad?
I am guessing it was the little cylinders - just curious if anyone else has had similar issues and found other solutions?
Any chance the 2 issues are related since they happened the same night?
Any info/advice appreciated. Would really like to be able to remedy these situations and make repairs myself rather than dealing with the HORRIBLE RV dealer service departments.
AC - Had the following problem only at night: AC working fine, blowing cold, cycling fine during the day (although it was hot during the day so it ran a lot but did cycle occasionally). At night around 1-2 am we would wake up and it would be hot and the AC was cycled off. I would get up and drop the set temp on the thermostat and go back to bed, but it would not cycle back on. If I turned everything off for a few minutes it would work fine when I turned it back on, but a couple hours later same thing - wake up and hot in the RV and AC cycled off. Rinse repeat.
Seems like a thermostat issue - is that a good guess? Any way to test a thermostat to see if it is not reading ambient temp correctly or not signaling AC to cycle? Looks like it reads initial ambient temp correctly and cycles AC on and off for a few hours, but at some point cycles off and will not cycle back on when it hits set temp? How hard to replace a thermostat - that is one home repair I have never messed with? Any difference between a RV thermostat and regular home setup?
LPG/CO2 Alarm - Again problem almost exclusively at night: Around 1-2 am (yes we lost a little sleep that night..) the LPG Alarm went off (different tone and blinking light for C02 vs LPG alarm) - I could Mute it but it still showed LPG detected and would go off again every 8 Minutes. The sites are full hookups so we (nor any other campers) were not running generator or using LPG. Had to open windows and vents to get alarm to stop. I checked and our LPG system was closed off at the tank - no smell of gas at all. Aired everything out good (and messed with AC while waiting), closed everything back up and went back to bed. Hour later it all happened again same procedure & result. This time i went searching for any other source of gas and found that we had several of the little green disposable 16.4 oz. propane cylinders stored in outside compartment across hall and directly below alarm. They were new, unused, with little plastic caps still in place but I pulled them out anyway and put them 50'+ away and down wind. I also had one of the cylinders installed on a small grill about 20' away so removed it and put with the others. By this time we were exhausted so just left the windows/vents open and cranked the AC all the way down and went back to bed. No more issues over the rest of the night. During the next day we had all the windows/vents closed back up, little cylinders still stored away and down wind, and had 2 more instances where the LPG alarm went off. Both times I could get it to reset without venting. Following night no problems.
I know the alarms are set to go off on very low concentrations, I assume lower than you can smell gas? Could the little cylinders be the culprit? Could the valve on the LPG tank not be closing completely and I have a leak somewhere in the system? The LPG tank itself is located under the motor home as far forward and away from "house" and alarm as possible - guess it is possible the relief valve could be leaking slightly or venting (although tank was only 3/4 full and I would expect any pressure venting to happen during the heat of the day)? Could the alarm be bad?
I am guessing it was the little cylinders - just curious if anyone else has had similar issues and found other solutions?
Any chance the 2 issues are related since they happened the same night?
Any info/advice appreciated. Would really like to be able to remedy these situations and make repairs myself rather than dealing with the HORRIBLE RV dealer service departments.