Carbon monoxide alarm wont stop - help!

[EJdubc]

Camping at Bald Eagle SP in PA and when i turn on HW heater the alarm keeps going off. Any ideas?!

[GalsofEscape]

if the CO alarm is only sounding off with the water heater on - it sounds like you may have an issue with the water heater leaking carbon monoxide. If your water heater does not have an electric heat option, I would turn off the water heater altogether until you can get it looked at or fixed. You can heat water on the stove - so the lack of the water heater should not ruin your trip. But CO leaking into your camper will.

[Scrapper]

The water heater is a closed gas burner with intake and exhaust to the outside only. The only way you can have a leak to the inside of the RV is if your heater is old and the burner tube is burned through. Check all of the gas line connectors with soapy water to see if it is leaking gas. The CO detector is also a LP leak detector.

Pet dander, dog farts, hair spray and cleaning chemicals can cause the CO detector to sound.

Being that your in a state park campground. Do you have AC power or are you boondocking? If you are on AC power and have electric/LP water heater then you can switch to electric to heat the water. If you are boondocking then your battery could be getting below 12 volts. 50% charge on a 12v battery is as low as 11.9 volts. You don't say what the make and model of your water heater there is only guesses as to what the problem is.

[Flybob]

Please provide some additional information.

Assume /confirm you are using propane and not elect mode on WH?

Is wind blowing from the WH side of the RV?

[EJdubc]

Bingo! It is real windy and heater is on the windard side; had the window open above where alarm is so after i had it off for a while i shut the window started up and no alarm! Thanks all for the troubleshooting tips. Only my 3rd time out eith camper so learning by doing!

[k9jkfham]

We have been smelling lp for the last month. Could not find the source. I sprayed everything I could find. I went to local dealer yesterday and after about 30 minutes we found a very small leak on the bottom of regulator. The smell would set off the alarm inside the coach from time to time. Can't confirm for positive but think it only squirted the lp smell when something in RV started. You might check regulator and make sure you spray up from bottom also. The bottle of leak find didn't work but spray bottle of water did.

[jeffnick]

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by jeffnick

I hope to God someone told her she had a CO leak.

[dmchapman]

When I first fired up the water heater this spring the DSI appeared to function properly; That is,I could hear the flame and the dsi trouble light was not lit. But the CO detector was sounding so I opened the WH cover to have a look. The flame looked a little weak and had a lot of orange to it. Blowing out the combustion tube with compressed air made no difference. When I looked at the gas orifice I could just make out a little bit of something; either dirt or corrosion on the opening. I gave it a quick light wipe with a cotton swab and then (against most published advice) a light probe with a very fine wire. Now it has a perfect blue flame again and no alarm sounding.

[DARCYPA]

Originally Posted by EJdubc

Camping at Bald Eagle SP in PA and when i turn on HW heater the alarm keeps going off. Any ideas?!

Sounds like the CO Detector is doing what it should be doing - keeping you alive.

Don't use your heating appliances until they are inspected and tested.

Darcy

[campfire joe]

i set ours off one year just putting Coolant in my water system to winterize it.