Here's What To Do When the Propane Alarm Goes Off

Don't go kaboom in your RV!

This is the paid follow-up to This Is One Alarm You Should Never Ignore in Your RV. If you don’t have a paid subscription, don’t worry. The last post was free, and the next one will be too! This post is for the people who help me pay for grad school and adventures with paid subscriptions—and those who have appeared in my blog posts and videos over the years. Thank you!

---

The propane alarm is one of the most jarring sounds you’ll ever hear in your RV. The only thing that is as loud or louder is the smoke alarm. Shadow freaks out every time it goes off and will immediately go into hiding. Consequently, I always turn it off first and then investigate.

I’m not recommending you do this. It might be good for neighbors to hear the alarm in your case. Still, I’ll tell you why I turn it off. If I need to get my cat out, and he’s terrified, I’ll have to defend myself against those razors he has attached to those cute little toe beans. His instinct will be to stay inside (where he thinks it’s safe) at all costs.

Consequently, this is a debatable approach. You need to consider what your pets are like and their ability to disappear into tight spaces when you need to grab them in an emergency. Maybe it’s not a rambunctious Houdini cat. Perhaps you have an autistic child with a hypersensitivity to loud noises. Plan accordingly.

Now, here is some non-debatable advice about what you should do when your propane alarm goes off—and trust me, unless it’s not working, it will at some point during your RV journey!

1. Open all the windows and doors.

Your propane alarm hollers when it detects a dangerous imbalance in the air quality in your RV. The exact reason will depend on the type of monitoring system you have.

My RV has an LP gas detector built in. If it senses too much LP in the air, it goes off. I also have a carbon monoxide detector with my SimpliSafe alarm that will go off if it detects an unsafe level of carbon monoxide, regardless of the cause.

The fastest way to equalize this is to ventilate the space and let fresh air inside. However, be careful when opening the door or windows quickly. You don’t want to trigger a spark and go BOOM!