Safety and Carbon Monoxide Alarm

[tedward1555]

Hi All;
I was awakened early this morning with the alarm of my CO detector going off. I pushed the red light once and it stopped for about 5 minutes. Then it started back and I could not get it to stop at all. Being a newbie I was of course scared to death.... also sleepy and cold. For some reason I made an executive decision that it was faulty and cut the wire to stop power getting to it, and removed the battery. I then opened a few windows slightly and tried to turn on "electric heat" thinking it was the gas furnaces if something was wrong. I then find out that fleetwood has some kind of override in the heat system that overrides your decision of "electric heat" and switches back to furnace. Anyway that's another issue. We are still alive and well this morning and I'm not sure what to do next. I assume after reading a few threads about the issue I should replace the alarm as it is probably faulty... but if not, what are the different causes of CO in a motorhome and what experiences/fixes have you all had?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Also, which brand detector is best? I want one with a read out so I can see if it is a false alarm or not.
THanks
Ed

P.S. Mark it is an 08 Fleetwood, first titled 7/16/08 so it probably is time to replace it... I'm going to get one today with an actual readout on it so I can see if in fact there is Carbon Monoxide in the RV.

[HD4Mark]

How old is it Ed? They have replacement dates stuck on them somewhere.

We had a similar scare with an LP gas detector. Started going off, we freak out of course. We don't smell gas but naturally go through the whole open all of the windows routine. Wait a while close everything up and plug in the LP detector and it starts again. Finally after going nuts trying to figure out where the leak is decide the detector is having a problem. It was direct wired to the rig so it was not a battery problem. After leaving it unplugged for a long time it got over whatever was bothering it.

While I was putting things away in the new MH one of the alarms starts chirping. Turns out to be the carbon monoxide alrarm. No big deal I go get a new battery. Still chirps. The MH is in storage in next to the garage for 19 more days (not that we are counting) and it is freezing here as usual. I brought the detector in the house and it quit so I am guessing the battery or detector does not like the cold.

They are quirky sometimes but the battery operated ones are cheap enough so I figure if it acts up when we get ready to go I am just replacing it.

[tedward1555]

Mark, it's an 08 Fleetwood just about 1.5 years old.
and thanks for the info.

[Norm4015]

CO is odorless and this is something you don't want to play with. What if the odds are only 10% that you have a CO problem? That's a 10% chance you're going to die. Call the local fire department and ask them to come to your motorhome and run a CO test. They will be happy to do that.

[Gary RVRoamer]

You should not need to replace a CO detector after 1.5 years. Should last 5 years easily and many last 10.

CO is not something to gamble on - it is the colorless, odorless killer and you won't even know you are dying.

A faulty LP furnace can leak CO into the interior, though it may take sometime to accumulate enough to set the alarm off.

If your thermostat is set 5 or more degrees above the actual interior temperature, the furnace will come on in addition to the heat pump. Turn the t-stat down a bit if you want electric only.

[tedward1555]

Thanks everyone, just got back from Home Depot with a Kidde CO Alarm. This one plugs into an outlet with a battery backup and the current level reading is 0. So I assume it was a faulty alarm. I like this one so I can actually get a read out on the CO ppm. Anything less than 30ppm on this one registers a 0. So I assume that's pretty sensitive. Been plugged in about an hour with the gas furnaces running and not a problem. Thanks for everyone's concern and knowledge. I don't want CO to interfere with the fun we are having in our lives now that we are living the rv lifestyle. Great to have this forum to lean on.
Ed