I agree that the .01% is likely a low-ball estimate of the risk of fire. I believe that Dometic has every incentive to minimize the extent of the problem.
When I called the dealer to whom Dometic referred me for the recall work, I’m not sure whether the service manager was aware of the specific recall. But he was clearly aware of the problem! I got the impression that he had seen several units that had caught fire due to the Dometic refrigerator.
I’m not sure how big this dealer is but they are in a small town in the mountains of WV so I figure they are a modest-sized dealer at best. If this dealer has seen several instances of this problem, I figure it has to be a more common occurrence than Dometic publicly admits.
But let’s assume that the .01% incidence of fire that Dometic claims is a true number and that the risk of fire is very small. I suspect that the incidence of premature failure of the refrigerator due to their faulty design is much higher. Of course, since a leaky refrigerator is not a safety issue if it doesn’t catch fire as a result, we will never know the rate of premature failure.
I can prevent a fire by using ice chests instead of the refrigerator for this camping season, but I’m not happy about it. (Running it on electricity as Dometic suggests is not an option where we camp; we’re driving from 15 to 40 miles over Forest Service roads just to get to the campground.)
I’m even more unhappy about the likelihood that I’ll have to spend big bucks to repair/replace the refrigerator that fails prematurely due to a design flaw. If there is a way to correct this problem, even at my own expense, before it results in a premature failure of this expensive appliance, I want to do it.
And I’m very grateful for the information others have shared here. Thanks!
Wayne
