Warning on Norcold and Dometic refrigerators

[funpilot]

Got this in an email this morning from the editor of RVReviews:

WARNING: Norcold and Dometic Refrigerator Units

Ordinarily our weekly articles focus on the fun aspect of RVs and camping but today we have to pause to bring up a very serious ongoing issue with Norcold refrigeration units currently in use in many RVs. The problem has been going on for years and was initially introduced as a "limited recall". That recall has continued to expand and now covers many of their previously manufactured units.

How serious is this issue? Extremely. Apparently to date there have been over 2,000 RV fires due to this problem, with many RVs totally destroyed, and some deaths. The recall letter states "The nature of the defect is a fatigue failure in the section of the cooling unit which contains the refrigerant. This fatigue failure could allow the liquid solution to slowly leak from the cooling unit. If a leak occurs and the refrigerator continues to be operated after solution circulation has ceased the heat source could generate very high temperatures. At such high temperatures the steel material of the cooling unit could soften and rupture. If refrigerant gas is still in place when the rupture occurs hydrogen gas may be expelled and could be ignited by the high temperature, possibly causing a fire." Models included in the recall (that we are familiar with) are 4-door model numbers 1200 and 1201. However, many other models, including single door models, are now also being included.

If you have a Dometic refrigerator, you need to be aware that they have had similar recalls for similar reasons. Recall information can be found at your manufacturer's website, or just Google "norcold recall" or "dometic recall."

The Norcold factory link follows here: http://www.norcoldrecall.com/. The factory link includes detailed information on determining if your refrigerator is at risk and how to proceed with recall repair. We are purposely not including affected years because we have watched the window of defective dates expand considerably over time.

Most of the the issues we deal with here at RVReviews.net are minor (non life-threatening) but this is a major problem and should be addressed as soon as possible. We apologize for the serious tone today but many of our readers are active RVers and need to be made aware of the urgency of this situation.

As always we'd like to hear from anyone affected by this recall and their satisfaction with the fix. Next week we'll be back to your regularly scheduled articles.

Happy Travels,

John Toffler

Editor

RVReviews.net

[Redtail Cruiser]

Thanks for the info, Funpilot.

I would say anyone with a TM that was built in 1998 - 2000 should check their frig's serial # and if need be, have it checked out.

[ShrimpBurrito]

Thanks for the heads up. I just went to Dometic's website, and the only recall info I could find was for 2-door models. I believe all fridges in the folding TMs are one door (as mine is, model RM2300), so it would seem we're in the clear, unless that website isn't up to date.

https://www.dometic.com/enus/America...l-Information/
http://67.238.126.140/recall.php

Dave

Here is a letter from 2007 that describes some of the serial numbers involved in that recall.

http://www.desertsurvey.com/02.26.07...nformation.pdf

[Padgett]

If you scroll down the page in the first post, near the bottom you will find the N300s. Serial number lower than 740,000 is affected. Since my N300R's s/n is in the 11 millions I doubt that it is one of them.

OTOH the s/n page in the later post says s/n 10,1xx,xxx through 15,2xx,xxx

And on the gripping hand the letter says NOT model # or NOT s/n then is NOT covered. Which logic excapes me so guess I better call.

[Riwright]

My frig (which burned) is still not included in the recall. N300 serial number over one million.

Be interesting to see if it gets added.