Alarm Keeps Sounding

[akotha]

We have a 2011 Roadtrek Adventurous that we purchased last year. We have had an issue with an alarm sounding, since we first purchased it. It was very intermittent at first.. but seems to be more consistent now. Maybe it is more consistent bc we haven't been using it much - getting ready to leave on our big annual trip.

The alarm sounds when the battery is turned on. We cannot figure out where the alarm is coming from - it sounds like it is moving from front to back.
We've called tech support, who tell us that it could be a house battery or it could be a low propane leak inside the cabin. They think that if it was propane, however, we would smell it.
We have only smelled the 'rotten egg' smell one time - a couple months ago - after it had been sitting for a couple of months. We assumed it was an issue w/sitting water.. as we had not used it for so long.
We haven't smelled that smell since. We have only driven it a couple of times on small trips.

Anyhow.. the alarm will eventually turn off. Just wondering if anyone knows what this could be? We are leaving on a trip this Saturday and the dealer in our area cannot get us in to pressure-test to check the propane leak idea before we leave.

As we are basically newbies with this RV, maybe it is just something very obvious that we are overlooking?

Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have.

[mowog]

You have a smoke alarm high upon the front wall above the passenger seat, a propane alarm down low in wheel well box, alarms in the charger/inverter under driver seat. You should be able to locate the source of the alarm, then we can better suggest what is going on.

Does the alarm go off if you kill your battery power with the switch over the sliding door?

Bob

[Trekker]

You need to locate the source of the alarm before anyone can help you.

BTW, info on the various alarms is in the owners manual. If you haven't read it, you should. :professor:

[BobLLL]

One of the alarms in my 2011 Roadtrek SS Agile often beeps a two or three times when the power is first turned on, especially if the power has been off for several days or longer. If yours is beeping more than it used to, maybe one of the alarms is going bad. The smoke alarm uses a 9v battery and is not powered by the 12v system, so it is probably not the problem. The propane and CO alarms have separate 12v fuses. You could pull the fuses one at a time, before switching on the battery power, to see which alarm is sounding. You can get a little tool that makes it easier to pull the fuses, from an auto supply store.

In my rig, the fuse list is on the back of a black cover panel, behind a little cabinet door that covers the fuse distribution box. The propane and CO alarms are fuse numbers 3 and 4, one amp each. Quite possibly RT used the same fuse box in all models, but you should check yours carefully to see what you have.

[BobLLL]

I notice the manual for my propane detector says, "When you connect power to your new detector it goes through a start-up cycle. The green LED (marked "Power") comes on. The red LED (marked "Alarm") and horn will pulse for approximately 5 seconds until the sensor is warmed up." Well, it has never sounded for 5 seconds as of yet. Five seconds is a pretty long time to suffer a loud high pitched alarm. But I guess we have to accept anything up to 5 seconds of beeping after the power is turned on as potentially normal.

The CO detector manual says “BEEP” EVERY 30 SECONDS, ALTERNATING RED/GREEN means an "alarm malfunction." Again, your rig might have different equipment, so don't take this as gospel. And of course you will be checking all this with the engine and generator off and the propane shut off at the main valve outside so we know you don't really have bad gases in the van.