Norcold Fire Repair Time

[tstryk]

Those of you that have had fires from a Norcold fridge - how long did the response/repair time take? We are approaching the one month mark since our fire. There was minimal damage, it seems. Mostly to the outside of the coach, and smoke damage to the inside - so it seems like this should not take so long. The insurance company is trying to get a Norcold inspector out to test the unit to find the exact cause. Does any of this sound familiar to those of you having fires?

[John___Angela]

One of the neighbours down south waited a couple of weeks but I don't know if they had to wait for a Norcold Rep. It seems to me the insurance adjuster just told them to go ahead and get it fixed. Pricey though, fiberglass work etc.

After our Norcold "Incident" we just repaired the charred wood ourselves and put in a Residential. We had no fiberglass damage though. All the heat shield was toast though. Could have been worse.

[tstryk]

filadelfia wrote:
tstryk, I have to ask the obvious question. Does your Norcold refrigerator have a working Norcold recall box installed? As you probably know this devise is supposed to prevent a fire.

Good Luck with the repair Don

I had the recall work done on it, yes. Contacted the insurance company and one of the investigators again this morning. Squeaky wheel, right?

[Executive45]

dougrainer wrote:
You will notice, not ONE person yet has responded that has had a Fire caused by a Norcold refer. /snip/ Doug

Doug, while I respect your opinions most of the time, I have to disagree with you on this. I know of two folks personally who have had fires from the Norcold models. Why they haven't posted is their wives are now so afraid of fires that they've sold their coaches and are OUT of RVing completely! A fire is a scary event and one in an RV is even worse. The OP was fortunate, for sure.

As I stated before, it's time for the insurance company to step up and fix the OP's rig.....Dennis

[filadelfia]

tstryk, I have to ask the obvious question. Does your Norcold refrigerator have a working Norcold recall box installed? As you probably know this devise is supposed to prevent a fire.

Good Luck with the repair Don

[bshpilot]

What model Norcold ?

Never mind - i recall running my 841 thru the Norcold S/N & Model Number Checker & being in the clear.
Just the same (a few weeks ago) I installed an ARP RV 'fridge Controller which should help

[dougrainer]

tstryk wrote:
The fire was definitely from the back of the fridge. A man working at the neighbor's house came knocking on my door frantically telling me he heard an explosion and saw the fire. The fire origin investigator said there are so many of these that Norcold has a half dozen people that do nothing but travel the country investigating these fires. I don't mind waiting a reasonable amount of time if it helps the insurance company get some money back, but I feel that a month is MORE than reasonable!

Sorry, but that is nonsense. There are NOT enough of these type fires that would keep 1 person busy. As I stated, they are dragging out your claim. From my experience, I would bet you have either Geico or Progressive, as they are the most difficult when dealing with ANY type RV insurance claim. Doug

[tstryk]

The fire was definitely from the back of the fridge. A man working at the neighbor's house came knocking on my door frantically telling me he heard an explosion and saw the fire. The fire origin investigator said there are so many of these that Norcold has a half dozen people that do nothing but travel the country investigating these fires. I don't mind waiting a reasonable amount of time if it helps the insurance company get some money back, but I feel that a month is MORE than reasonable!

[ScottG]

JumboJet wrote:
I have a friend that had smoke and fire damage on the outside of his 5th wheel RV from his water heater. The large paper wasp nest caught on fire when his water heater ignited.

I don't think that was a problem for Atwood.

Was the Norcold refer problem some external debris that should have been cleaned before using?

The original recall issue was tubes cracking which would spew flammable liquid onto the burner area.

[JumboJet]

I have a friend that had smoke and fire damage on the outside of his 5th wheel RV from his water heater. The large paper wasp nest caught on fire when his water heater ignited.

I don't think that was a problem for Atwood.

Was the Norcold refer problem some external debris that should have been cleaned before using?

[dougrainer]

You will notice, not ONE person yet has responded that has had a Fire caused by a Norcold refer. The reason is, it is SO RARE. Also, there may be other reasons the fire happened in the refer area NOT caused by Norcolds part. Just because it happened at the refer area, does NOT mean it was Norcolds fault. Lets see how many respond that ACTUALLY had a fire caused by the Norcold and NOT someone that had a friend/relative, but the actual RV'er. AS to the OP's question, Their insurance company is dragging it out. "Most" reputable Insurance companies get their claimant handled, THEN go after a 2nd or 3rd party if they believe they are responsible. Doug

[Flanz]

tstryk wrote:
Those of you that have had fires from a Norcold fridge - how long did the response/repair time take? We are approaching the one month mark since our fire. There was minimal damage, it seems. Mostly to the outside of the coach, and smoke damage to the inside - so it seems like this should not take so long. The insurance company is trying to get a Norcold inspector out to test the unit to find the exact cause. Does any of this sound familiar to those of you having fires?

This is one reason why we're going to a residential refer.

Good luck with your insurance co. and Norcold. Hope your on the road soon.

-paul

[larry_cad]

Executive wrote:
If I understand this correctly, your insurance company is trying to get a Norcold rep out there to ADMIT the fire was caused by a flawed design by NORCOLD so they can recoup their loss from Norcold...:S....ain't gonna happen...time to tell your insurance company you don't care whose fault it is, your coach is damaged, you pay your premiums to the insurance company and their obligation is to fix your rig before you miss too much of the camping season......Dennis

x2

Norcold hasn't admitted it yet. I doubt they will ever!

[Executive45]

If I understand this correctly, your insurance company is trying to get a Norcold rep out there to ADMIT the fire was caused by a flawed design by NORCOLD so they can recoup their loss from Norcold...:S....ain't gonna happen...time to tell your insurance company you don't care whose fault it is, your coach is damaged, you pay your premiums to the insurance company and their obligation is to fix your rig before you miss too much of the camping season......Dennis

[prstlk]

time to break out the lawyer threat.
It's broken
I didn't break it
your design is was flawed
make me whole (fix it now)
Or I will sue you from here to hell and back
ie when my pain and suffering comes into play....I will be driving your car and living in your house
xoxo