Steve Savage submitted this article to RVtravel.com when he was a Master Certified RV Technician with Mobility RV Service.
The propane won’t flow in your motorhome and you can’t figure out why not? Sometimes the fix is really simple, and this is one of those times. Believe me, I get this question a lot. The question, usually from folks who have just purchased a used motorhome, is this: How do I get the propane to flow into my RV? The oven, furnace, water heater and refrigerator will not work on propane. The key here, of course, is nothing works on propane, but everything works fine otherwise.
Several motorhome manufacturers installed propane detectors wired to a valve at the propane tank. When the propane detector alerts to a leak or is simply shut off, the valve closes. It also closes if the coach loses 12-volt power. Nowadays, many of these detectors are getting long in the tooth and starting to fail, leaving owners searching for an alternative.
What you will discover is the original detector is no longer available – and the detector is the part that normally fails. The replacement is a Safe-T-Alert alarm. You’ll most likely need to modify the mounting hole and pull a new wire from the detector to the valve. Pulling the wire is the hardest part of the job. The valve must be installed along with the detector. The new detector is sensitive to both propane and carbon monoxide.
Editor’s Note: The Safe-T-Alert alarms are available at Amazon.
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Our original (1996) CCI LP gas detector was original, and had been taking a very long time to come online when activated. It however never failed to operate. After quite a bit of research we found the exact Figaro sensor, which loose its ability to detect LP gas over years of use.
It took some DIY skills, and a soldering iron to desolder the old sensor and solder in the new sensor. Our LP detector now activates quickly, and detects my hand held propane torch within seconds to deactivate the original inline LP solenoid.
Propane Detectors are usually only good for 5 years and need to be checked frequently when the RV is in use!
The Dealer or Seller of the motorhome should also check this, during the PDI. Unfortunately, not many do!