propane sensor?

[Hollybee]

Had the same freakin problem w that pesky alarm on the Casita..vacuuming didn't help much. It wd go off at odd times, even tho no propane was on and no dogs were passing gas and nobody was cooking or putting on sun screen or perfime. We finally had to pull the dang fuse to get some sleep . The trailer was onlt 14 months old..just "out of warantee" of course. I passed the info on to the new owner last week. He didn't seem concerned and aparently his brother is an electrician and they were thinking of changing to a different sensor. I wished them luck.

[fudge_brownie]

Leon
I replaced my five year old flooded batteries with AGM's this year. They also passed hydrometer tests but were not holding a charge. Also had issues getting them fully charged. At any rate the AGM's solved the alarm problem, at least the alarm does not go off when charging. It may still sound at inopportune times for what ever reason, but it has not after some heavy solar charging.

I never liked the kill switch, mine had a light indicating it was on. There was too much chance of forgetting to turn it back on. At any rate, I removed the switch but after reassembling it I tucked it out of the way in the seat box. I was left with a hole but moved a switch for the inverter into the opening.

[Bill and Earline]

Paul,
What brand of AGM's and where did you buy them.

We're bound to be close, after nearly 5 years.

Bill

[fudge_brownie]

In purchasing replacement AGM batteries I encountered two constraints. The first is shipping. Unless you purchase locally and pick them up the cost for shipping two batteries is usually $100. A second criteria was the number of cycles with the battery discharging to 50%

I started my search by calling local battery distributors to find what brand and model they carry. I was looking for the GC size, a pair of six volt that are used for golf carts or better yet, industrial equipment. It seems floor sweepers are a common piece of equipment using such batteries. Ignore the term deep cycle, it has has no meaning. I did not trust the distributor to provide the information on number of cycles, but using their information on make and model searched for the information on the web.

Most AGM batteries are rated at 300 cycles to 50% DOD. Translated this means you can take the battery to a 50% discharge rate 300 times. However the scale is linear, my approximation would be you could take it to 60% 360 times and 70% 420 times etc... I was uncomfortable with a rating of 300 cycles. I tend to work my batteries very hard, with my new AGM's it is not unusual to take them to 75% in one day.

A search for batteries meeting the higher 1,000 cycles to 50% DOD gave some surprising results. I could not find models from Interstate or Trojan that fit the criteria. Names like Deka, Concorde, Lifeline were some I found that fit the 1,000 cycle mark. The last two are premium priced batteries

With help of PerryB I found a source for Crown batteries that fit the criteria. Since their warehouse was in Chicago they would also do free delivery. 6CRV220 was the model at a cost of $231 each. Perry had some personal experience with Crown that gave him much confidence in the company. These are made in Ohio. Crown does some big batteries, their website features a photo of a locomotive.

After two weeks of very heavy use while boondocking I was quite pleased. I did invest in a larger portable panel due to limited sunlite. By the way, the propane detector has stopped alarming during solar recharging.

[Fox hunt]

I'm still struggling with the same issue thinking i should switch to AGMs too. but i don't know much about batteries and my batteries are pretty new. I cant stop the detector from going off. Maybe i will replace it first I'm not handy at such things so I've been dreading it.

[LeonW]

I guess new AGM batteries are in my future..... I may still look at putting in another propane detector, perhaps under the bed or across the aisle.