CO Alarm Bad????

[Toothpick]

My CO alarm keeps going off. I can almost time it to the 2 hour mark after a power reset and it goes off.

Nothing on. No heater, HW or fridge.

Shore power or battery.

AC on or off.

It will go off at almost exactly 2 hours after a power reset. ( I pull the fuse and let it sit 19-15 minutes.

I'm stumped.....

[OntarioFireFighter]

It's either a bad alarm, or its doing its job.

Depending on the CO level, they are designed to take a certain amount of time. The higher the level, the faster they sound.

Do you have a residential CO plug in detector you can throw into the trailer to test?

Also, depending on where you store it, some gases (acetylene for instance) also can trigger CO detectors.

Edit - we've (the fire department) seen deep cycle batteries on float trigger CO detectors; presumably from hydrogen production... Also an option to consider.

[Toothpick]

Thanks.

The batteries are outside on the tongue.

Yes I'm going to get a battery operated one and see what it does.

Mel

[Toothpick]

I wonder if "gas" from the black water tank would cause this unit to go off?

[TGR]

My CO/LP detector started alarming when my trailer was only a few months old. It would alarm about 15 minutes after power was turned on. After a few power resets, it suddenly started working again. It lasted a while but began alarming again when the trailer was about 9 months old.


I removed the alarm and ran it in the outside fresh air with a simple lash-up to a battery and it continued to alarm a few minutes after power up. I had it replaced under warranty and the new one works just fine.


I would try the alarm in the great outdoors or use another working detector as suggested by OntarioFireFighter. If still bad, replace it. Just don't assume the detector is bad and take any chances before you install a new one.

[Toothpick]

Bought a battery CO alarm and mounted right next to the RV one. Has not gone off yet.
Pulled the RV unit and am going to call the company that makes it on Monday. It's obviously faulty.

[Terier]

Originally Posted by mele

Bought a battery CO alarm and mounted right next to the RV one. Has not gone off yet.
Pulled the RV unit and am going to call the company that makes it on Monday. It's obviously faulty.

Do you have an update on what the company said about the faulty alarm?

[Major]

Just a FYI, but ALL CO alarms have a finite life span, usually 5 years. They all "die" over time and many will chirp continuously when the life has expired. Check the "replace by" date on the unit. I should be on there somewhere.

[riverrat958]

Originally Posted by Major

Just a FYI, but ALL CO alarms have a finite life span, usually 5 years. They all "die" over time and many will chirp continuously when the life has expired. Check the "replace by" date on the unit. I should be on there somewhere.

x2
also bad/low battery will trigger

[riverrat958]

have actually replaced new ones in brand new units

[Major]

Originally Posted by riverrat958

have actually replaced new ones in brand new units

I'm sure it happens. The problem with a lot of the CO alarm manufacturers is they do not provide a means to activate the sensor after purchase, so it is activated at the factory.

CO sensor activation happens when the electro/chemical sensing element is exposed to the atmosphere. If it sits on a shelf for years, or in a RV sitting on the lot and is active, the "timer" is already counting down.

Always check the "replace by" date before you buy one or buy the type that can be field activated (usually pulling an activation tab).

[Toothpick]

I emailed the mfg company and never got a reply.
Alarm has a mfg date of 7/15.
Even went off with shore power.
No problems with battery unit that replaced it.

[OntarioFireFighter]

Originally Posted by Major

Just a FYI, but ALL CO alarms have a finite life span, usually 5 years. They all "die" over time and many will chirp continuously when the life has expired. Check the "replace by" date on the unit. I should be on there somewhere.

7 years for CO or CO/Smoke combo units, 10 years for smoke; per NFPA standard...

[f5moab]

Just replaced mine. The old one was three years old and on the last trip of 2015, it chirped like crazy. As someone else did, I disconnected it, took it outside and connected it to my truck battery, placed it on the ground and within minutes it started to chirp. There was NO replace date on the unit, but per the manufacturer MTI, there is a production date and the unit should last five years. Mine didn't; they didn't seem to care.

Due to the size, I ordered another one from Amazon. It had a large red stamped date of AUG XX 2015 on the back. So we'll see if it lasts till 2020.

[updhaul]

I missed that you have 2016 rv unit, duh-moment. Your dealer should fix or replace.this. Try digital battery unit to confirm malfunction if they don't.