LP sensor question

[breid]

I turned off the master battery switch and turned the propane off to park the TH for the week. The next afternoon when I returned from work my LP sensor was emitting a steady tone. I turned the master switch back on and it went off. My batteries also showed fully charged.

Is there a separate power source (9V battery) for these like the smoke detectors in a house? What am I missing? Thanks

 

[breid]

Any ideas? I brought this up to the dealer and they said it was a bad sensor. Why is there still power to the sensor with the battery disconnect off?

 

[jbeletti]

Don't know how the unit could have been powered. You are saying you cut the battery power. Are you also saying you had no shore power connected during this period? By chance, do you have a solar panel connected to the system.

My detector is 12 volt DC powered and has no backup battery in it that I am aware of.

Consider calling the company that makes the detector. The brand/model should be on the back and maybe even the phone number. Let us all know what you find out.

Regardless of how it is being powered, a constant alarm usually indicates a real leak detected, dust etc. in the detector or just plain bad. Last I checked, these were warranted by the Mfr. for 2 years or so.

Jim

 

[breid]

Jim

Correct, battery switched off and on shore power. I do have a solar panel installed. Would that indicate the panel is bad? I put more details in another post before I found this older one. Apparently the panel is only producing 4V.

Brett

 

[boatto5er]

Could be that the detector is only getting the 4 volts from the solar panel and is sensing a "voltage low" situation which could cause the device to emit the tone (this similar to what happens when the smoke detectors in my house atart sensing a low voltage situation). Try disconnecting the solar panel when you are on shore power and see if this changes anything. Also, if I'm reading your posts correctly, there's no need to disconnect the battery when you're on shore power. The shore power will keep the battery charged. If the objective is to use the solar panel to charge the battery, then I would think the shore powere should be turned off. No guarantees of anything absolutely correct here - just some initial thoughts.

Gus

 

[breid]

Thanks for the input. I was not connected to shore power and was disconnecting the batteries to park the trailer for a few weeks when this occured. I haven't checked to see if I can use shore power with the disconnect off, I've always left it on to charge the batteries.

Which on a side note, my batteries will be replaced with 2 6v's once I get all the gremmlins figuured out.