(or the dog fart switch)
Casita propane alarms are known for sleep jarring middle of the night falses positives. As the manual says, “Methane, propane, iso-butane, ethylene, ethanol, alcohol, carbon monoxide, iso-propylene, benzene, toluene, ethyl acetate, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxides” can set it off. While some owners report just disconnecting the fuse, and the mute button works for a short time, I wanted a solution to power it off, but not forever.
With some searching, I found a Tork commercial switch that has both normally-open (NO) and normally-closed (NC) contacts. (While the Amazon description focuses on turning something on for a short duration, the switch can work either way.) I purchased the switch in the fall of 2024 but did not have the necessry roundtoit. Owners often report dogs setting it off, so our adoption of Opie spurred me to action.
I chose not to install the faceplate and it would have required more holes in the fiberglass and would add visual clutter to the cabin. I’d previously replaced the factory Scotchlok connectors with WAGOs, so adding the switch was just a matter of unclipping the power from the trailer positive bus and running it through the switch.
How does it work? Like a magic talisman, putting the work in resulted in no alarms since the installation. It seemed a bit loud during testing — it’s a mechanical switch, but it’s going to be under the bed and it’s definitely quieter than the alarm or the air-conditioner. (Flare Audio earplugs are awesome!)