MTI Industries Propane/CO alarm.

[Biggles607]

Last night at 0300 I was woken abruptly from a peaceful sleep by a high pitched siren.

I had the bedroom light on and was in fight or flight mode in milliseconds, my heart rate in the 150 range, every sense on high alert.

The earsplitting sound was coming from a 3" x 5" flush mounted box about five inches above the floor next to the bathroom door.

The offending article is an 'Intertek' 25-742 Propane/Carbon Monoxide sensor complete with flashing LED's from MTI Industries of Volo IL.

My first response (I'm quite good in extremely stressful situations) was to open both doors to ventilate our travel trailer and expose our neighbors to the god awful din, then to evacuate my wife and the pooch.

As I'm hustling them out the door I hit the re-set button which thankfully silenced the alarm, and noted a solid lit red LED announcing it had detected a high propane level.

Outside I'm trying to rationalize this piece of information and watching to see if the lights have come on in the adjacent RV's.

We're at a campsite in Florida, the ambient temperature is in the high 70's, the furnace is off, both propane tanks are shut off at their valves.

Hmmmm, I beginning to doubt it's a propane leak.

OK, so maybe it detected Carbon Monoxide (CO) and I misread the LED signals. But then what would cause a CO build up, there's nothing burning any fuel, what am I missing here.

After five minutes, the alarm started again. I hit the reset button again to silence it.

Convinced there was no immediate danger from Propane or CO, but now eager to get away from the vampire mosquito's that apparently enjoyed the siren, everyone retreated to their previous repose, except yours truly.

I rummaged through all the paperwork we filed away since purchasing 'Harvey' and there it was, the original installation and user guide for the offending electrical device.

I managed to read through it thoroughly in the five minutes before it went off again. It's clearly defective, so this time a Phillips screw driver and a pair of wire cutters were deployed to finally silence it after I'd ascertained it only uses a 12 volt supply. The coach is plugged into shore power and our WFCO power control center is delivering 12 volts to every other circuit so low voltage is not an issue. (the only other possibility for an erroneous alarm apparently)

According to the blurb supplied by MTI, they recommend changing the unit out after five years, the inference presumably being, they expect it to offer protection for at least that amount of time.

We're about 18 months into it's 60 month lifespan according to the manufacturers date stamp on the back of the unit.

After calling their Customer Service department and inquiring about a replacement, perhaps at a pro rated cost, I came away with the all too familiar feeling. The RV industry and it's OEM suppliers don't give a hoot about customer service. I was assured "The unit has performed exactly as designed, it is outside it's 1 year warranty and we are under no obligation to replace it, thank you for calling MTI, is there anything else I can help you with today?".

Can anyone recommend a replacement that fits in a similar size hole, that perhaps might last a little longer and doesn't come from those kind and considerate people at MTI?

I'm sure I read somewhere that "Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless"

[travelin texans]

First thing, this will ALWAYS only occur in the middle of the night, that's a proven fact with mine, ALWAYS at 2-3am.
Second there are 3 things that cause it to go off;
LP, which can be hairspray, air fresheners, believe it or not dog farts if Fido is laying nearby & propane;
CO, which at 3am your not cooking or at 70 degrees not running the furnace & on shore power so water heater & fridge on electric I assume;
low battery, either loose connections or just a bad battery, mine was bad batteries even while on shore power & was only about 4 years old.Low/bad batteries have been the cause of most detector alarms that I read about on various other forums. Don't recall any alarming due to LP/CO.
I'd contact your selling dealer, if thats where you bought & tell them to warranty it, they cost about $100.

[Biggles607]

Thanks for your reply Danny.

I'm just venting, not unlike my dog apparently.......Hee hee.

When I bought a piece of equipment from 'etrailer' last year, and it seemed to be sub-par, working but emitting a quiet 'hum' they immediately sent out a replacement. No fuss, no attempt at laying blame or liability avoidance, just top quality customer service.

I wish THIS was the norm.

Guess where I'll buy my replacement Propane/CO alarm from..........(I hope they sell them)

[Evereddie]

There has been LOTS of talk about the Saf-T Alert by MTI industries. I tried to get them to replace one I had that went bad and even though it was in the warranty period I could not get any help. Didn't return calls, said they would get back to me and didn't, etc. I bought a new one and now it's gone bad. Junk,junk,junk. Let's look for another brand.

[Cosmo]

It's really sad the industry operates this way.
If andwhen you find a dealer/supplier/company that will work with you, is honest, helpful and respects your intelligence
Stay with them and share them with others.

[SJSS Slingshot]

Mine went bad right around its 5 year life span, see an earlier post. Easy to replace, mine had 2wires, to it, and new one worked perfect. We had a 2012 Slingshot, and last year it went out. Perfect timing.