Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Do you have a combo smoke detector in your coach? (Read 350 times) previous topic - next topic

Do you have a combo smoke detector in your coach?

While at the Mid South Rally a week ago or so. Ron (not sure he is on here, I know they are on facebook) talked to the group about being woken up in the middle of the night with the dogs barking.  When they awoke the coach was full of smoke.  Ron had to almost drag his wife out since she was wanting to pack up everything before leaving the coach.  Cause of the smoke was their cord reel dropped the neutral, which caused high voltage on one leg in coach, which then caused all of the surge arrestors at microwave, TV, & ??? to burn up and letting the smoke out.  What really bothered them was their smoke detector did not go off. 

There are two different ways of detecting smoke, Ionization and photoelectric, they both go about detecting smoke differently.  Here is link for NFPA about the differences.  Ionization vs photoelectric

After this Ron went out and bought the dual detector that has both type of sensors in it.  One type is Kidde 21007385-N  What do you have in your coach?

Later that Morning, I approached Ron and asked him if he had changed out his transfer switch to one of the new smart ones.  He had not.  The smart transfer switches check the quality of power coming in and then decide to either allow the relay to activate and let the power thru to the coach or not.  The one that Foretravel installed in my IH45 checks the voltage between the legs, neutral, and ground. It also checks to make sure there is continuity between the ground and neutral.  There have been times when my Progressive that I plug in at the pole will say go, but the coach's transfer switch does more checks and if it sees a problem it will be a NO GO.  In Ron's case since the transfer switch is past the cord reel it would have sensed the neutral was missing and shut off the power to the coach.


 

Re: Do you have a combo smoke detector in your coach?

Reply #1 –
For a few $$ more, you can have a photo type detector with included CO detector. I would recommend having two of these. They have 10 year batteries and a wireless interconnect to the second (or third, fourth) detector. You can also have them send a notification to your smart phone. The Home Depot Logo  So, if one goes off, they both do. You can also have strobes, etc flash.

I like having one behind me while driving and the other in the bedroom. Mount a few inches below the ceiling.

CO is actually very slightly lighter than air. With normal air movement, it will detect CO at any location in the coach, in motion or parked for the night.

Pierce