Dometic Refrigerator Fire In Our Motorhome --- Pretty Scary!!!

Keep looking at the bright side it could have been much worse. Good luck to you sir hopefully you can get back to retirement soon.

Hope you don't think I am being nosy but inquiring minds want to know how did this turn out.

Hope you don't think I am being nosy but inquiring minds want to know how did this turn out.

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I decided to get Dometic involved in deciding which electrical wires may have caused the refrigerator fire, so I sent them an e-mail early this morning asking them to answer a bunch of questions concerning the fire.  I had previously sent them pictures of the fire from which they surprisingly proclaimed that the refrigerator hadn't caused the fire.  I also sent a copy of this e-mail to my Progressive claims representative.  My goal was to get Dometic to confirm my belief that only one electrical wire arced against the cooling system of the refrigerator causing the fire and that the damage to the other wires or wire bundles was caused by the fire.  I thought that if I could get Dometic to isolate the cause of the fire to one wire or even one bundle of wires, that I would agree to pay for the rewiring of that wire or wire bundle.

So I called my Progressive claims representative at 8:00 AM sharp this morning and let her know how disappointed I was that I couldn't reach her yesterday at around 5:00 PM to discuss the Repair Order billing.  She had some excuse for not being in her office so I then reiterated my position that I didn't think I should be responsible for all of the rewiring since only one electrical wire caused the fire.  I then told her about the e-mail to Dometic and asked her if she got her copy of the e-mail.  She said she got the copy but hadn't had a chance to read it yet.  She again gave me Progressive's position that the wiring was assumed to be all together in one bundle which I would be responsible for.  I offered to send her my pictures showing the many wire bundles that ran in back of the refrigerator.  She said she was going to check with RV Renovations about the wire bundles and get back to me.

While I was attempting to send the pictures to her, she called back and said she had agreed that there were indeed 4 bundles of wires in back of the refrigerator and that only one bundle had likely caused the fire, so Progressive would agree to pay for 3/4 of the cost of the rewiring.  This meant that I would only be responsible for 1/4 of the $1502.49 or $375.62 plus my deductible of $188.  I immediately agreed to this, paid the bill and was out of there within about an hour.

After unhooking the shore power cord from our motorhome, the new refrigerator immediately switched to propane, as it should.  But it wasn't much later that we heard a buzzing noise coming from the refrigerator.  We called a RV Renovations tech over who erroneously stated that the buzzing sound was the ammonia moving around the cooling system caused by the propane which was much hotter than the electrical mode.  He stated that this was common on new refrigerators and that it would go away after a few days.  I maintained that it was the two muffin fans running in back of the refrigerator that were buzzing.  But he's the expert, I had never even seen or heard a refrigerator with two muffin fans in back of it before, so I accepted his explanation.

We then drove the motorhome back to The Resort in Mesa, and after setting up we noticed the buzzing sound again when hooked up to electricity and the refrigerator running off of AC.  So I called Dometic and talked with a customer support representative.  She stated that the muffin fans were designed to come on at a temperature of 150 degrees F and to shut off at 120 degrees F.  So that's what we were hearing.  But why they are so loud we still don't know.

So Progressive came through for me once again.  We have our fridge back and my wife's happy.  And I'm happy.  And the new TracVision works good.  The reason they couldn't get it to work after they installed it was because our main DirecTV receiver got fried in the fire along with the TracVision cables.  I happened to have another DirecTV receiver along for backup and as a last resort we decided to try that after nothing else seemed to get the new satellite dish to work.  So Progressive owes me for a new receiver too.  But which one to get, I have no idea.

Anyway, here's a picture of our new fridge.  I've got a couple of other things concerning the fridge fire and repair that I want to talk about but will try to cover that later in another post.

Rolf - what an ordeal!  Thanks for taking the time to document your experiences!

Well done, VERY well done in dealing with Progressive and getting the repairs covered that were owed to you.  I had a similar experience with my Progressive claims... some inconsistencies and delays during the repair, but once I demonstrated I wasn't interested in laying down and paying too much they came through and were actually quite polite in doing it.  Once I got where I was talking to people at the management level, they genuinely seemed interested in keeping me as a customer and making sure I was pleased with the process.  Not sure if you ever got THAT far or not. 

At least your new fridge is under warranty, in case that fan noise ends up being an actual problem.  I assume those fans just help circulate the cold air more efficiently, similar to how people here have wired in 12v cooling fans after-the-fact in their RV fridges?

Glad you were able to get satisfaction from Progressive.  It is just too bad they make their customers go through all that.  Thanks for the update.

At least your new fridge is under warranty, in case that fan noise ends up being an actual problem.  I assume those fans just help circulate the cold air more efficiently, similar to how people here have wired in 12v cooling fans after-the-fact in their RV fridges?

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No, these muffin fans are on the outside back of the fridge.  See the attached picture.  They push the hot air in the back of the fridge up and out the top vent on the roof of the motorhome.  These fans come on at 150? F and shut off at 120? F.  I'm quite sure they are 12V fans as well.  The worst part is that you can't get at them or see them thru the outside panel.  I can just forsee the need to pull the fridge out to fix or replace one or both of these fans.  That's not going to be fun at all.

On most home-refrigerators there is a fan drawing heat/air from the condenser. On my home unit, easily moved on casters, I found that over the years the fan blades had accumulated grime and the air flow was severely impeded. I spent a while to clean the blades with Q-tips and rags and the difference in air flow afterward was extremely noticeable. Just a thought.

  Think of an airplane propeller with dirt on it. It won't work.

  I suppose the same thing can happen to yours after some time in the RV, may take a long time for the problem to show up compared to a kitchen fridge.

  carson FL



carson FL

Rolf,

I'm glad you got things resolved and got back on the road.  It could have been so much worse!  The important thing is the repairs are made and life is back to normal or at least close to it.  What more would we want?  Yes, maybe a little less hassle, but even that could have been significantly worse....  Thanks for keeping us up-to-date and documenting it here.

ArdraF

I'm glad you got things resolved and got back on the road.  It could have been so much worse!

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That reminds me, I forgot to disclose how much it cost Progressive for this claim.  I haven't submitted our living expenses for the 10 days while the repairs were being done and I need to submit the cost of a new DirecTV receiver yet so the grand total will go higher than the $9,196.24 total that it is now at.  Of that total, $5,907.70 was for parts and $2,815.50 was for labor.

So this isn't going to look good on my insurance record.  It'll take many years of premiums for Progressive to get that back.  Do you suppose they'll raise my rates or is that a given?  I have two cars insured with Progressive too, but that may not matter.

Should not raise your rates since the damage was not the result of an accident.  Would be interesting to know how they look at it.

Rolf,
Glad to here that thanks to your perseverance everything worked out in your favor. Hopefully this will help someone with a similar problem not to let the insurance company or the repair facility railroad you. Ask questions and get answers no mater what.
Thank you so much for sharing with all of us. You gave us a lot of valuable information.
Steve,

Glad you got it all taken care of. See, there is a reason why we keep paying those insurance premiums And I wouldn't think they'd raise your premiums since it was an "accidental" not an "on purpose". They actually should be grateful to you for putting out the fire and not standing back and watching the whole coach burn.

Enjoy the rest of your Arizona stay.

Wendy
Pismo Beach SB

Rolf, FWIW ...

We had some bodywork repaired on our coach a few months ago. I called our State Farm agent several times to understand what would happen to my premiums if I turned the bill in to them. I'm rated on only one vehicle, which happens to be my car, and that's the only vehicle on which he premium will be affected. Chris is rated on a different car, and she wasn't the one who caused the body damage, so her premium isn't affected. The coach and our Suburban are merely "additional vehicles" that don't have anyone rated on them.

It didn't make sense to me, but I kept asking my agent and even talked with someone else at his office. The answer was always the same. My agent was even able to tell me what the increased premium on my car will be. Since the premium on my car, even with the increase, is far less than the premium for the coach, I decided to let State Farm pay for the repair to the coach.

Of course, if the various vehicles were insured with different companies, then all bets would be off.

Rolf,

Thank you for all the effort you put into keeping all of us up to date on this situation and answering our questions.
Great job, and I know I speak for many when I say "Thank you".

Sincerely,
Doug & Vicki Smith

I'm rated on only one vehicle, which happens to be my car, and that's the only vehicle on which he premium will be affected.

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Let me try to understand this.  You damaged the coach somehow while you were the driver and State Farm paid for the damages.  But because you're not a rated driver on the coach, they didn't raise the premium on the coach but on the car for which you are the rated driver.  So what would they have done if you weren't a rated driver on any of your insured vehicles?

So what would they have done if you weren't a rated driver on any of your insured vehicles?

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Rolf, maybe I didn't explain this very well. We have all our vehicles insured with State Farm, but they "rate" (their term) each driver on only one vehicle. Chris and I are rated on our respective cars. The Suburban and the coach came along later, and were merely "additional vehicles" as far as SF is concerned, i.e. they have no rated or primary driver. Therefore, when I had the minor accident in the coach, they could only increase the premium on the vehicle on which I'm rated. Because I had no accidents for many years, the increase in premium on the car is not very significant.

As I said, I didn't understand this either, and it was only after several phone calls asking them to explain it over and over that I accepted it. I'll let you know when the coach policy renewal comes due.

Tom,

In Minnesota, if I'm not mistaken, we have to list the primary and secondary household drivers on each vehicle that we insure.  It's hard for me to imagine why State Farm wouldn't require you to do the same.  Maybe it's a state thing, and we all know how California always does things different! 

Should not raise your rates since the damage was not the result of an accident.  Would be interesting to know how they look at it.

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But it was an accident Ron, a freak accident.  It just wasn't a traffic accident.  I hope that makes a difference.

Thank you so much for sharing with all of us. You gave us a lot of valuable information.

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Well, I don't know about that, but I know I learned a few things from the experience and from the advice given here by other members.

And I wouldn't think they'd raise your premiums since it was an "accidental" not an "on purpose".

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You mean they shouldn't raise our premiums because it wasn't an arson fire?  Thanks for the vote of confidence, Wendy! 

Thank you for all the effort you put into keeping all of us up to date on this situation and answering our questions.
Great job, and I know I speak for many when I say "Thank you".

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Hey, thanks to everyone for following the story.  I'm glad I could finally contribute something to the Forum instead of always receiving.  And thanks to everyone who offered advice and asked questions.  That's the way we learn new things and get through some of our problems.

rsalhus said:

But it was an accident Ron, a freak accident.  It just wasn't a traffic accident.  I hope that makes a difference.

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It does.  Insurance payouts are rated two ways.  "At fault" which would include a traffic crash that was determined to be YOUR fault, or negligence of some kind that resulted in damage.  That's what Collision insurance is for.  "Non fault / no fault" refers to so-called acts of God including weather damage, fires not caused by you, road hazard damage, etc. covered by Comprehensive coverage... or someone else crashing into you or causing damage to your property, which would be covered by your policy in a hit-and-run situation or if the other driver did not have legally required Liability coverage.

In any event, yours clearly fits in the no-fault category.  It was an equipment malfunction over which you had no direct control.  I've had a Pontiac Bonneville totaled out due to fire, because of a documented malfunctioning Fuel Pressure Regulator in the engine compartment that leaked fuel.  I was paid via my Comprehensive coverage, and a couple months later I even got my deductible refunded when the insurance company recovered their losses from GM.  My rates did not increase, and when I moved to another insurance company that incident was not a black mark on my record.

Similarly, Progressive paid for a new awning and new windshield last year on my MH because of wind damage and rock damage respectively.  Both were paid via the Comprehensive coverage, and my rates did not increase this year.

The majority or insurance claims are paid by Collision or Liability policies, depending on who crashed into whom.  Comprehensive is one of those areas where insurance companies plan to take a loss and can't really blame the customer.