Propane/Carbon Monoxide Detector

[snerdwack]

We've gone through two of the atwood detectors. Both would go off even when the propane was turned off. Not fun at 2 - 4 am.

We bought a hand held propane detector and went through the trailer at all gas points. Nothing.
We purchased a mobile plug in at Lowes and it has worked fine. You can make it stationary if you want.

[Marine71-76]

Since we had a generator installed and the pipe is right by the bedroom window, it was highly recommended that we get a second one for the bedroom. Purchased at Lowe's & had installed in less than 10 minutes.

[Jimmyd]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

Like norty1 said... "Easy Swap"

----------------
From another post..
If you pull out the unit, there is a date stamped on the back of the unit. Mine was stamped JUL 27 2015. I just put in the replacement unit in this morning and it had a date of something and 2023 on it. As you can see I put the year on the cover of the unit, as this is not the first to be replaced. I did not bring the label maker so I used tape for displaying the date.

When I called the company earlier this week they said that it should be replaced every 5 years. It has a 1 year warranty. Well as you can see I made it 4+ years. I ordered a new one from Amazon and it arrived in 2 days.

The new one is up and running.... so far. It has a nice green light working. I also installed a switch next to it, to disable the unit, should I need to... like in 4+ years from now I hope.

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

Hello Mustang 65 (Don) can you post a diagram of how you wired in the toggle switch. When we get into California I may add this in. We are presently in Kingman, Az. I’m hoping that a Camping World will have a match to our alarm. If not we will get one on order while we are out here. Thanks in advance, Jimmyd

[Duke4857]

Good information to know. Thank you all.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by Jimmyd

Hello Mustang 65 (Don) can you post a diagram of how you wired in the toggle switch. When we get into California I may add this in. We are presently in Kingman, Az. I’m hoping that a Camping World will have a match to our alarm. If not we will get one on order while we are out here. Thanks in advance, Jimmyd

Jimmyd,
There are 2 ways of wiring the switch to control the CO detector. One way that I would recommend, is to wire in a SPDT mini-switch. With this switch, when you flip it one way it will give power to the CO detector. Flip the switch the other way, it will disconnect power to the CO detector and send power to the LED (red), which will let you know that the CO detector has been turned off.

The second way is to wire the CO detector to a SPST switch which will only disconnect the detector without having a warning LED.

Either way, I would order a mini-SPDT switch and if initially you do not install a LED, you will have the option in the future.

PARTS:
SPST = Single Pole Single Throw (ON/OFF) (Amazon or AutoParts store)
or
SPDT = Single Pole Double Throw (ON/OFF/ON) (Amazon and possibly AutoParts store)

LED (Light Emitting Diode) Amazon and possibly AutoParts store)
330 ohm Resistor (Amazon, ebay?)

Good Luck,

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Camper_bob]

So, my CO detector started on the fritz just last night. Rig was plugged in to shore power, but the detector was screaming like it does when the battery gets too low. Not alarming like it is supposed to when it detects CO or LP.

I was in a hurry, and we're not currently using it (it's parked in the driveway after our last trip), so I punched the button on the front of the unit just because it was there, and it alarmed as it is supposed to, punched the button again and it quit alarming, but the constant high pitched low volume beep was still there. I cycled the 12V master switch, but it was still chirping after. That cycle of the 12V tripped the thermostat to reset the temp to 72, which caused the A/C to run continuously until I got back to it later last evening. Either I couldn't hear it because the AC was running, or it stopped chirping; either way, it started again after I adjusted the thermostat and the AC cycled off. I stepped back in to grab something late last night, and the beep had stopped, but I'm pretty sure it was beeping again this morning; I didn't open the door, but I could hear it when I walked by and paused with my ear to the door on my way to work.

I don't have any other 12V systems on the fritz that I know of, but I'm wondering if it could be a bad ground? Last time I was under my coach, I discovered there are what seem like 10 million common ground points attached to the frame, and some don't look all that great... These are on my "short-list" to address BTW.

What do you guys think? Should I just replace it? I've owned the coach for 14 months, and I know the battery has been killed AT LEAST once. But what gets me is that it was plugged in to shore power, so it should have had enough 12V from the converter...?

I haven't had a chance to look at anything yet or get my meter out, but I will try tonight if I get a chance. More likely it's going back to storage for a week and I'll have to worry about it next week...

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

So, my CO detector started on the fritz just last night. Rig was plugged in to shore power, but the detector was screaming like it does when the battery gets too low. Not alarming like it is supposed to when it detects CO or LP.

I was in a hurry, and we're not currently using it (it's parked in the driveway after our last trip), so I punched the button on the front of the unit just because it was there, and it alarmed as it is supposed to, punched the button again and it quit alarming, but the constant high pitched low volume beep was still there. I cycled the 12V master switch, but it was still chirping after. That cycle of the 12V tripped the thermostat to reset the temp to 72, which caused the A/C to run continuously until I got back to it later last evening. Either I couldn't hear it because the AC was running, or it stopped chirping; either way, it started again after I adjusted the thermostat and the AC cycled off. I stepped back in to grab something late last night, and the beep had stopped, but I'm pretty sure it was beeping again this morning; I didn't open the door, but I could hear it when I walked by and paused with my ear to the door on my way to work.

I don't have any other 12V systems on the fritz that I know of, but I'm wondering if it could be a bad ground? Last time I was under my coach, I discovered there are what seem like 10 million common ground points attached to the frame, and some don't look all that great... These are on my "short-list" to address BTW.

What do you guys think? Should I just replace it? I've owned the coach for 14 months, and I know the battery has been killed AT LEAST once. But what gets me is that it was plugged in to shore power, so it should have had enough 12V from the converter...?

I haven't had a chance to look at anything yet or get my meter out, but I will try tonight if I get a chance. More likely it's going back to storage for a week and I'll have to worry about it next week...

Never mind, my detector is connected to the chassis battery. I just didn't think that battery was that bad, even though I know it's been drawn pretty darn low a few times too. Looks like I'm going to be replacing a few batteries this year on top of installing a trik-l-start and a solar panel...

[av8or]

sorry to somewhat necropost but had a question, just bought a 16 greyhawk 31fs and come ot find out they'd chopped the power to the co/lp detector because it had faulted and was beeping. it's the atwood 31011, i see in this thread that there is a 31012, are there other 'newer' replacement models since these things have a limited shelf life i don't want to get a 31011 from ebay 'new' and have it die in a little while because it's manuf date was long ago.

[av8or]

anyone? what are my options, we're new to MH's and not super comfortable with not having the co/lp detector, nor on getting the direct replacement if it's already old and will time out soon anyways

[RetiredOne]

I'm only seeing one on the Atwood web site, so I'll assume this is the latest model. It's the 36681.

https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/pro...-alarm-_-19500

[CAG]

There really is a wide selection available and Ebay would be my last choice for purchase.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=LP%2FCO+A...f=nb_sb_noss_2

[JFlightRisk]

Your model is available here, and shows a 7 year life span. If I'm correct, the clock starts after you power it up, not from the manufacture date on the back. Our TT takes one from MTI Industries, and we keep a spare at home when we find a good deal on it.

[av8or]

thanks but i was hoping for a direct replacement for the cut out in the cabinets where the stock one is installed, but i agree, i'm leery of getting one from ebay

[ttavasc]

Originally Posted by av8or

thanks but i was hoping for a direct replacement for the cut out in the cabinets where the stock one is installed, but i agree, i'm leery of getting one from ebay

Like you I wanted an exact replacement. This is the same LP/CO monitor in my 195RB and I replaced it earlier this year before we traded it in. This is where I got mine:

Atwood 31011

I purchased mine in March 2019 and the manufacture date on the unit I received was August 2018 which I didn't consider to be too bad.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by av8or

thanks but i was hoping for a direct replacement for the cut out in the cabinets where the stock one is installed, but i agree, i'm leery of getting one from ebay

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Dual-...-p/66-8742.htm


New model 36681, Has the same size cutout.

[SloPoke]

on our 2015 Seneca... we were in a campground for a night... and ours went off - we thought it went out and were almost sure that it went into failure mode.

WRONG - WRONG - WRONG -

It would stop the alarm for a few minutes,, then go off again. It is now thought to be the next campers water heater.. blowing the exhaust into the open windows of our Seneca. The same detector is working just fine.

don't underestimate the sensitivity, or the other factors that it is working against.

[Marcomarco]

My Atwood 36636 CO/Propane detector went off upon return from a recent camping trip. First thought it was going off from possible truck exhaust after driving for a while. However after many many resets, open windows, airing it out, we determined that it was roughly 7 years old and likely in old age lock out mode. I disconnected in to stop it, but did not record or take a picture of which trailer wire (one gray and one white) was the hot (connected to red wires) and which was the ground (connected to the black wire). I bought a replacement and installed it, but wasn't sure which trailer wire was hot and which was ground. Can anybody help me out here? Since it's DC, it may not matter, but then maybe it does. Thanks!

[Joey55]

FYI, my unit is an Entegra Odyssey 30Z and my CO2 detector started going off for no reason even in the middle of the night. Found out from Jayco that they had received a bad batch of these detectors. So, it might help to check if yours is a 2019 or 2020 model.


Mine was replaced for this reason under warranty.

[JimD]

Is your new unit carbon monoxide only or does it include propane? That could be the reason for the big price difference. It is probably a good idea to have propane monitoring in an RV.