Carbon Monoxide alarm going off
I searched high and low on the internet for help with an issue with our carbon monoxide alarm going off with no clear help available.
There is a similar discussion on the Club Together site, but that has become a bit cluttered with opinions, etc. Hopefully our own story may help someone. . .
We recently received a phone call from a site warden advising that the alarm in our caravan was going off.
On returning to the site we discovered it was the carbon monoxide alarm. I replaced the batteries which stopped the alarm.
With the benefit of hindsight I realised as we had been out all day we had opened the door and windows which of course ventilated the caravan.
At 3 in the morning the alarm sounded again. This was getting increasingly worrying.
I opened doors and windows, and removed the gas cylinder from the locker.
The next morning I decided to replace the alarm with a new one. Although more expensive I chose one with a digital readout.
We had another distrurbed night - the alarm sounded and indicated a reading of 54 (parts per million). Opening doors and windows reduced this to zero, but when the door and most windows were closed, this rose again to 30.
I could find nothing on the internet to indicate where we might find a reason for this situation, and we were struggling to find an engineer to help us out at short notice. Others on the site were aware of the issue, and suggested things we had already tried or considered. There were no nearby source of vehicle fumes, or apparent fumes from any other combustible source.
Almost as a last resort before finding a hotel until we could get an engineer, I removed the external ventilation panels of the fridge to check for dust or fluff. It was clean.
Then I decided to disconnect the electric hook up, to ensure no 240 volt appliance, or the cable itself, might be causing an issue.
I found the problem! Opening the battery compartment there was a strong smell, and the leisure battery itself was very hot.
The battery condition indicator showed it needed replacing. This we did immediately - problem solved. But not without some concern during and after.
Not only from a carbon monoxide risk, but also from the potential of the battery catching fire!
If you have a carbon monoxide alarm sounding like we did, check the battery - it may not be your issue - but don't ignore the alarm.
Comments
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I've hard a few reports of leisure vatteries overheating and boiling their contents, releasing fumes. Definitely something to check as soon as you've ventilated the van and turned everyhting else off.
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Good post Mikey. Good to know for future reference. Hopefully others with a similar problem will take the same action as you did.
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great feedback regarding CO alarms keep going off. My van was on the drive just on charge after being in lock up for some time during this Covid issue. Since its been on the drive at home the CO alarm ha been going off constantly but I couldn't work out why, as the gas wasn't on????
read some of these posts and it was because the leisure battery had failed, I was charging it, it was getting warm and when I went to the van in the morning I could smell rotten eggs. more research and a new CO alarm etc etc etc,
I will now be replacing my leisure battery straight away. many thanks for the info social media. a great help. This could have turned out so different.
Great job
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We experienced the same problem. The carbon monoxide sensor in our caravan went off. The cooker and warm air heating systems were both off so I turned the gas off at the cylinder, but still the CO level registered about 30. The next day I noticed that the battery was hot and bubbling, also it wouldn't power our motor mover. I replaced the battery and the problem was solved.
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