Dometic Refer Recall - Possible Fire Hazard -Update 2/13/07

[MELM]

Click here to go directly to Updates.
Update Number 1 Nov 23, 2006
Update Number 2 Dec 5, 2006
Update Number 3 Jan 10, 2007
Update Number 4 Jan 19, 2007 - Recall Instructions - click here: Dometic Recall You need your model and serial numbers.
Update Number 5 Feb 13, 2007 - Added links to new info on the NHTSA website including the info/form for claiming reimbursement for a failure. These are at the end of the post below where all the updates are posted.

Also, edited the below Recall to include the change made prior to the Dec 5 update showing the proposed remedy.

Below is information from the NHTSA website on a recall of certain Dometic refrigerators. This recall is in its very early stages, and there is no resolution in place as of Nov 1, 2006.

From the NHTSA website:

Dometic Recall NHTSA Campaign ID 06E076000

Make / Models : Model/Build Years:
DOMETIC / NDR1062 9999
DOMETIC / RM2652 9999
DOMETIC / RM2662 9999
DOMETIC / RM2663 9999
DOMETIC / RM2852 9999
DOMETIC / RM2862 9999
DOMETIC / RM3662 9999
DOMETIC / RM3663 9999
DOMETIC / RM3862 9999
DOMETIC / RM3863 9999

Manufacturer : DOMETIC CORPORATION

NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number : 06E076000 Mfg's Report Date : AUG 28, 2006

Component: EQUIPMENT: RECREATIONAL VEHICLE

Potential Number Of Units Affected : 926877

Summary:
CERTAIN DOMETIC TWO-DOOR REFRIGERATORS MANUFACTURED BETWEEN APRIL 1997 AND MAY 2003: SERIAL NOS.
713XXXXX THROUGH 752XXXXX;
801XXXXX THROUGH 852XXXXX;
901XXXXX THROUGH 952XXXXX;
001XXXXX THROUGH 052XXXXX;
101XXXXX THROUGH 152XXXXX;
201XXXXX THROUGH 252XXXXX;
301XXXXX THROUGH 319XXXXX,
INSTALLED IN CERTAIN RECREATIONAL VEHICLES AS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT AND SOLD AS AFTERMARKET EQUIPMENT. A FATIGUE CRACK MAY DEVELOP IN THE BOILER TUBE WHICH MAY RELEASE A SUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF PRESSURIZED COOLANT SOLUTION INTO AN AREA WHERE AN IGNITION SOURCE (GAS FLAME) IS PRESENT.

Consequence:
THE RELEASE OF COOLANT UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS COULD IGNITE AND RESULT IN A FIRE.

Remedy:
THE VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS WILL NOTIFY OWNERS OF RECREATIONAL VEHICLES THAT HAD THE REFRIGERATORS INSTALLED AS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT AND DOMETIC WILL NOTIFY OWNERS OF THE AFTERMARKET REFRIGERATORS. DOMETIC WILL INSTALL A SECONDARY BURNER HOUSING FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN BETWEEN APRIL AND JUNE 2007. OWNERS MAY CONTACT DOMETIC AT 888-446-5157.

Notes:
CUSTOMERS MAY CONTACT THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION'S VEHICLE SAFETY HOTLINE AT 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153); OR GO TO HTTP://WWW.SAFERCAR.GOV.

The following is extracted from the notice provided by Dometic to the NHTSA dated 8/26/06:

The potential defect is associated with cooling unit at the back of the refrigeration cabinet.

A fractional percentage of the potentially affected refrigerators have experienced a fatigue crack that may develop in the boiler tube in the area of the weld between the boiler tube and the heater pocket. A fatigue crack may release a sufficient amount of pressurized coolant solution into an area where an ignition source (gas flame) is present. Dometic's investigation has shown that a simulated release of cooling solution (refrigerant) in the area of the boiler, under certain conditions, could be ignited by the presence of an open flame. A boiler fatigue crack with the loss of cooling solution without ignition would result in a non-operational refrigerator that is not a safety issue. Under certain conditions, the released coolant could ignite and result in a fire. In order to have a fire, at a minimum, all of the following conditions must exist:

1. The refrigerator must be on and normally operating and gas burner must be lit;
2. 'There must be an oversized heating element in the refrigerator;
3. The boiler tube must develop a throughway fatigue crack of a
specific size;
4. There must be a release of the cooling solution at a rate which will
allow the accumulation of the cooling solution at a concentration within its range of flammability; and
5. There must be ignition source (gas flame) present.

If any of these conditions are not present, a release of the cooling solution will not result in a fire.

In April of 1997 Dometic modified the design of the affected refrigerators by increasing the wattage of the heating element from 325 watts to 354 watts. All production of the affected units from April 1997 through May of 2003 utilized the 354 watt heating element. In May of 2003, in order to improve the operating life of the refrigerators, Dometic returned to the use of the 325 watt heating element which it continues to use today. It is now believed that the use of the higher wattage heater contributed to abnormal fatigue in the boiler tube.

The products in question are all refrigerators used in the original manufacture of recreation vehicles or as replacement equipment for recreation vehicles. The total population of refrigerators potentially containing the defect is 926,877. Dometic estimates a potential maximum incident rate of 0.01% related to boiler fatigue cracks that leak and may result in a fire. There have been no incidents of injury or death related to the affected population of Dometic refrigerators.

Dometic became aware of the occurrence of fires which may have involved their products and retained an independent engineering testing laboratory to fully evaluate and investigate any potential defect in their refrigerators which might result in a fire. A number of returned units were analyzed and microscopic fatigue cracks which could release coolant into the area of the burner were identified in the boiler tube metal in the area of the weld between the heater pocket and boiler tube. Tests simulating the cracks were conducted the week of August 18, 2006 and confirmed a possible cause of fire in the refrigerators under certain conditions. These test results prompted the preparation of this notice.

Dometic continues to gather information on the potential defect and will forward additional relevant information as it becomes available.

Dometic has not yet identified a proposed remedy for the potential defect. Dometic will continue a testing program designed to identify and evaluate possible remedies. This evaluation will take place both in the United States and in Sweden. Once a remedy has been identified, Dometic will initiate or participate in a remedy campaign initiated by the original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers who have purchased, sold, and distributed these products. A list of original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers to whom Dometic has sold the potentially defective refrigerators is being prepared and will be provided to the NHTSA upon its
completion.

The following is extracted from the NHTSA response on 9/18/06:

Please provide the following additional information and be reminded of the following requirements:

Dometic must provide an estimated dealer notification date as well as an owner notification date including the day, month, and year. You are required to submit a draft owner notification letter to this office no less than five days prior to mailing it to the customers. Also, copies of all notices, bulletins, dealer notifications, and other communications that relate to this recall, including a copy of the final owner notification letter and any subsequent owner follow-up notification letter(s), are required to be submitted to this office no later than 5 days after they are originally sent (if they are sent to more than one manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or purchaser/owner).

Dometic must file a sample of the envelope which you intend to use to mail the recall notice to owners. The words "SAFETY", "RECALL", "NOTICE" in any order must be printed on the envelope in larger font than the customers name and address.

[GlennH]

GlennH wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:

GlennH wrote:
Got mine fixed today. The folks who did it indicated that due to the positioning of it from the coach manufacturer that they had to pull the fridge to complete the recall. The fridge pull was not paid for by Dometic as part of the recall (manufacturer issue due to installation, I guess...).

Anyone else have this happen and have any luck talking Dometic into covering that. In my case it was $242.50

They should have called Dometic- who will reimburse them for unusual installs (though $242.50 sounds outrageous to R&R a refrigerator).
So far I've done about 10, and the most I had to do was remove the burner on one- though there is one part of the recall which is a pain (reinstalling the burner shield).
30 minutes has pretty much been tops for me- maybe a few minutes more to finish filling out the reimbursement card.

I really could not care less about seeing the paperwork from Dometic- as long as the model and serial number match, I do the recall- even if the owner has nothing from Dometic (a couple have been from me seeing the refrigerator, and the owners knew nothing about the recall).

I called Dometic this morning and asked them and they told me that they would cover it.

Called my shop back and he said that things must have changed, because the paperwork he has doesn't make any sort of accommodations for anything other than the base repair, which he indicated he gets $40 for. He was going to call Dometic and follow up with them. I feel reasonably good about this shop that I had the work done, so I'm sure I'll get my money back one way or the other.

I'll post an update if I find out otherwise.

The service place I took it to has refunded my money. The contacted Dometic and got approval for it, updated paperwork or whatever. Final was no cost to me! 🙂

[Chris_Bryant]

bigdodgeram wrote:
I was wondering, I do not use propane to run my refer, electric only (most of the time) is it really necessary to have the recall completed?

I would- Tim posted some pictures of units operating on electric which overheated pretty severely after leaking. The recall would prevent this from happening.

[timsrv]

It's all been covered here already. Page one of this thread expains how to tell if yours is affected. Or, you can go to www.dometicusa.com and follow the links about the recall. Tim

[GARYMAC20002000]

NEW TO ALL OF THIS. JUST BOUGHT A 2001 ALFA GOLD THAT HAS A DOMETRIC REF. WHAT AM I SUPPOSE TO LOOK FOR OR HOW WOULD I KNOW IF I HAVE ONE THAT NEEDS FIXED??? WHO DO I CALL OR WHERE DO I GET THE INFO.????

2001 ALFA GOLD - 35FT.
2001 FORD F-450 TEXAS LOMG HORN EDITION 7.3 LTR
GVWR ON 5VER 13000 MT 18000 FULL TRUCK--GVWR 15000

[bigdodgeram]

I was wondering, I do not use propane to run my refer, electric only (most of the time) is it really necessary to have the recall completed?

[Skeet25]

Just picked up my 5er from CW with a new Dometic Fridge. The old unit that failed was a Model 2852. The failure was a cracked boiler tube. Dometic not only replaced it at no charge, they gave me the newer Model 2862. My 5er is a 2001. Thats pretty good customer service for a 6 year old fridge.
Thanks for all the good post on this problem. If I had not had the good info that I received here I would probably have just purchased a new unit and gone on about my business.

Thanks To All
Emery

[Chris_Bryant]

A FWIW- just got a letter from Dometic pointing out that any shop which charges the consumer to install the recall kit faces a $5,000 fine (up to a max of $16,500,000).This fine is from the NHSTA (the Feds), and applies to all recalls in all markets. They say if a shop does not want to do the recall, no problem- don't do it, but never, ever charge the customer a dime.

I've had one that was a pain (the refrigerator was mounted below the door, meaning I had to pull it out to install it. I called Dometic, gave the reason, and the fee was doubled, no problem.

[grouchrc]

Been running mine Since Friday on Gas and Elec. Set at #3. It seems to be holding at 34-35 dg with no touuble.
It gets fully loaded Fri-Sat and big trip Sunday-1500 mi. then it stays on for the summer.
If all esle fails I have a Dinosauer board to install. The guy that did the recall said that he uses them a lot with good results.

[MitchF150]

Thanks for the additional info on the element! I would have thought that they would have replaced the thing that was causing the issue in the first place! Silly me!! 😉

At this point, I'm more inclined to just purchase a 325w element and replace, then have some 'tin' placed in there to redirect the leaking stuff when the higher watt element burns out the weld over time....

I just got my 'official' letter for the recall yesterday. Since I've heard about the recall here, I've only run LP on the fridge so I don't use that 'over watt' element anymore... Humm....

Thanks again,

Mitch

[timsrv]

Yeah, that's all they do. They are not interested in making your refer last longer, they just don't want the kind of lawsuits that result from trailers burning down and people dying. This recall is only to limit their liability by containing a fire should one occur. Tim

[Community Alumni]

MitchF150 wrote:
So, in addition to the extra sheet metal we see on the 'fix', do they also replace the 354w heating element with the 325w element?

No they do not change it. There's also an issue of getting a true 325W element since they are apparently stamped 325W but may not necessarily be that; you need to test it.

[grouchrc]

No indicatiion that they replaced anything. Just installed a limit switch and heat shields.

[MitchF150]

So, in addition to the extra sheet metal we see on the 'fix', do they also replace the 354w heating element with the 325w element?

Thus, preventing the possiblity of the 'crack' from developing on it's own? I wonder if I just replace the element with the 325w one, will that alone resolve the issue??

Mitch

[grouchrc]

Overnite the unit went to 24degrees in the refer box, not the freezer when set on 5.
At 3 it stayed at 35. So far so good. Will see what happens next week when we go to Idaho.

[grouchrc]

Had mine done yesterday. It is home now and after some addons it is on and cooling. Wilol see how it works.
I remounted a cooling fan thathad to be relocated. A little extra airflow doesn't hurt.
I also installed a board at the top of the access opening to reduce the gap to the coile from 1 1/2" to about 3/8". This should force the cooling airflow thru the coils more.