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.

[timsrv]

Yeah, I keep wondering if they're going to expand the recall to cover a wider range of manufacture dates. I see these things with cracked boilers all the time. I saw 2 of them just last week (RM 2852 & RM 2662) both had the green dripping down around the burner, but both were outside the recall dates (one before and one after). Not sure how they determined the dates of affected units. I still don't believe it was caused by a 29 watt hotter element. Maybe someone at Dometic rolled the dice while choosing the manufacture date cut-offs?:?

[wepampercampers]

as always keep all your paperwork........on this recall things have changed and people have gotten money back after the fact...so keep those receipts.......
good luck
Don

[Nolan]

Our Dometic cooling tower failed. 4 months out of warranty. Not included in the recall. I did call and ask if they would make an exception and take care of ours. Nope. Your own your own, I was told.

[timsrv]

IMO, it's not likely there is even enough hydrogen in the refer to do much more than blow the access door and roof vent off the coach. Even if there was, the area where the gas would collect is relatively small, well ventilated, and fairly well separated from the interior of the coach. An explosion like that would have vented outward toward the exterior anyhow. It's entirely possible a refer explosion could result in a fire, but I seriously doubt the explosion itself would hurt anybody inside the coach. I agree with the other guy that said it was most likely an LP leak. And it would have had to be a MAJOR LP leak to blow the place up. Fire investigators should have been able to determine the source of such an explosion. Tim

[cvrvr]

When the refer starts to leak, what is leaking is ammonia and hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas is explosive and the ammonia is toxic.
Sounds like a proplem to me.

George

[MRad71]

Yes the fire started in the kitchen. We had numerous engineers looking at the wreckage but since all of the valves were pretty much detroyed in the fire it was not possible to tell which part was defective. The oddest thing was that the propane detector never sounded. So if the fridge valve went and set off the gas attached to the fridge then it would make sense that the detector never sounded because there never was a build up of gas. Does that make sense to any of you?

I will be the first to admit that I know almost nothing about RVs but it just seems logical to me that a new travel trailer would not blow up unless something went wrong. Also I have been told that it is important to note that this trailer was not used for camping and had only been moved once since it was purchased.

Thanks again for any input anyone has.

[kerryedwards]

Refrigerator runs on both LP and Gas so a fire that started with the frig could I suppose release LP gas. Do you have any idea where the fire started?

[Chris_Bryant]

There have been some fires (around 1,000), but an explosion had to be caused by an LP leak. I don't believe there's anything else in an RV that can cause an explosion- certainly not the refrigerator.

[MRad71]

Hi everyone.

I am new to this whole thing and have an IMPORTANT question. My mother was severly injured when her Rockwood trailer exploded in 2003. We have never been able to prove what caused the explosion so imagine our surprise when we recieved this recall notice in the mail today.

So my question is have any of you heard of any other fires/explosions?

Thank you very much for any help.

[TennesseeT]

I got here really late to this party, but unfortunately after checking the serial and model #s at recall
we are a match. We have had no problems with the frige, but will be getting this taken care of right away. This will teach me to come over here more often and read! Thanks to those who posted all the info.

[stolley]

Our NDR1062 model fridge got the leak in Nov 2005, out of warranty of course. CW said to replace it, as repairing would cost almost the same and we'd get a new warranty, so we did.
Recently I read of the Dometic recall (our model was listed), and especially noted the "prenotification reimbursement" clause. It said I may be reimbursed for costs related to this type of failure before the recall, so I filled out all the paperwork and TAH-DAH... $1,700 check just arrived!!! They even covered the labor and tax! Thank You Dometic for standing behind your product!!!
They rejected it the first time I submitted, for needing more detail. I got the installing CW to update the old work order with more facts, and that did it... pays to be tenacious.

[Cubey]

I have an ancient, mechanical 2 way (120/LP) Dometic RM-660. I should be pretty immune to this recall thankfully.

[RichZ]

On 2/23/06, my cooling unit failed and was replaced. I contacted Dometic and requested the pre-recall paper work. Sent it in and Dometic paid the bill. On 8/29/07 I had the recall done and the next day the cooling unit failed. While attending the Escapade in Goshen, IN, I talked to the RV Master Tech. He said that several people have the same problem - do the recall and the cooling unit failing (which were on national back-order). Again, had the cooling unit replaced on 9/19/07. All of this on a refrigerator that has no moving parts.:R Hope they get it right one of these days.

[timsrv]

Yes, unfortunately it sounds like the boiler broke. You'll need to contact Dometic or an autorized service center and deal with them on their terms (if you want it fixed at no charge). Not sure how much they will do, but if you have time and patience, it's worth a try. I've had 2 customers so far that contacted Dometic, but weren't happy with the terms, so they just paid me to do the job. At least you have an extra refer, hopefully that one won't bite it while you wait. Good luck. Please let us know what they do about it and how long it takes. Tim

[rebeattie]

A month ago I wrote on this site that we had the recall done and all went well. Today a yellow stream of liquid is leaking from the back of refer down the side of the rig. I guess I can assume this is caused by the fatigue crack in the tube. Am I right? It sounds like one of the symptoms for the recall.

We are full time RVers and from what I read here this repair isn't going to be quick. So we have turned the refer off. We have left the second one running. Hope this is OK. Our refer is 3.5 years - 6 months out of Domectic warranty. Does anyone know if they are still fixing the out of warranty no charge.?

We are spending the winter in Vegas and think this would be the best time to have this fixed. We'll be there in Oct. Hopefully the other refer keeps running.

Any feed back is appreciated.

Scrappy - 2004 Alfa Ideal 5th wheel (so low to ground it scrapes going in and out of parks)

Big Bert - 2005 F450 - great guy - just love him

DW of RS Chief