If you do a quick web search, you will no longer be able to say such. Several hits like this one.I haven't seen many reports of Dometic fires.
That particular thread, "Yet another refrigerator fire", was indeed a scare tactic. No one was there when the RV caught fire and completely burned. There is no way to tell whether it was a fridge fire or something else. I, too, dislike that type of product "endorsement".Paul is passionate about the need and his solution. Is it scare tactics if it's true?
I don't he's overstating his case.
Generally it can be installed in place, but it depends somewhat on how the RV builder installed the fridge in the RV. You need to get your hand (or at least a couple fingers) around the boiler tube to install the heat sensor. This is the same area where you would install a replacment heater element, but some RVs make it terribly awkward to get at.So can this all be installed on the backside through the access panel, or do you need to pull out the fridge?
I agree with you. Paul is awesome. I wrote him an email before I even ordered mine - yesterday. I got a near instant reply. Not once did he urge me to buy his product. I’m working on getting in touch with the attorney who was mentioned in the Forbes article. Turns out this atty is a neighbor and is very involved in this whole mess. I’m awaiting his reply.Paul is passionate about the need and his solution. Is it scare tactics if it's true?
I don't he's overstating his case.
While I use the Fridge Defend on my RV refrigerator and would not be without it, I doubt that it is going to help with that problem. I have known Paul Umack for close to 10 years now and he is very dedicated to both his product and to RVing. The problem that you have sound like the cooling unit in your refrigerator is failing. It is a very typical symptom for a unit that has lost some of it's refrigerant and needs to be replaced. The RV refrigerator design is such that the refrigerant goes to the freezer first, then any remaing continues downward through the chill box area. The freezer is alway first to cool and last to fail.I get a very cold freezer also, say in the teens rather that at 0°. But cold food compartment is killing my lettuce and souring my milk at 48-55 - it’s fluctuating.
Just a quick off topic comment. A coworker told me her brother died at a rural grade crossing. When the arms came down he hit the brakes and was killed by a bowling ball that was in the back of his station wagon.They also happen with compressor refrigerators. Does anybody here worry about the compressor refrigerator in their homes catching fire, or worse yet, exploding? They can kill people also.
See here.
"The reason fridge explosions happen is usually due to the fridge's compressor. "
So perhaps our RV refrigerators are safer than what we have in our homes.
And I do have the fridge-defend installed in my Y2K RV, which proves I am not biased against it. But just about anything that has any type of energy, electricity, propane can be dangerous, but the odds of any of it happening to any of us is very, very low. But still does happen once in a great while.
Somehow this reminds me of a motorcycle accident in San Francisco. A motorcycle hit head on into a car. The car driver was killed. The motorcycle rider only had minor injuries. Very rare but happens. What happened in this case is the motorcycle rider went flying through the car's windshield and hit the car driver with his helmet right in the head and killed him. The leather, gloves and helmet protected the motorcycle rider from the glass, and he only had very minor injuries.
So strange things do happen. But in this forum, most of us have probably seen a total of thousands of RVs in all the RV parks and such we have been in. Has ANYBODY here saw such a fire with their own eyes? Anybody know of a house fire caused by a compressor refrigerator?
-Don- Reno, NV
I posted two comments on the topic. The first was to applaud this forum for such great content. I came here with one problem and in the process of searching for it, discovered the ARPrv product. Which I purchased. After speaking to Paul via email. Had I not done that we’d be sitting here unprotected.You may want to start a new thread about your problem since this is an old one about a different issue, but I'll try and respond here.
While I use the Fridge Defend on my RV refrigerator and would not be without it, I doubt that it is going to help with that problem. I have known Paul Umack for close to 10 years now and he is very dedicated to both his product and to RVing. The problem that you have sound like the cooling unit in your refrigerator is failing. It is a very typical symptom for a unit that has lost some of it's refrigerant and needs to be replaced. The RV refrigerator design is such that the refrigerant goes to the freezer first, then any remaing continues downward through the chill box area. The freezer is alway first to cool and last to fail.
I remember a few (maybe several) years ago reading a similar thread. I couldn't find it but,RV fridge fires are indeed not all that common, but horrific if they do occur. Your insurance isn't much consolation if you or a loved one is dead. Is that fear-mongering or good sense? LP gas and smoke and CO detectors are mandated for similarly infrequent occurrences, but fridge boiler risk isn't as tightly managed.
Both Dometic & Norcold have added some boiler overheat monitoring to their standard package but it falls well short of what modern technology can do inexpensively. Basically they shut the fridge boiler down right at the point where an explosive boiler failure is imminent. IMO the same sort of active monitoring that ARP Fridge Defend does could be built in for just a dollar or tow more than the rather ineffective measure now included. Further, the fridge could protect from the loss of food in the fridge by automatically restarting after a temporarily hot boiler. Fridge Defend does that.
It is a common misconception that RV fridge fires only occur in LP gas mode, i.e. that electric mode (AC or DC) is safe. That is false. Boiler overheating has nothing at all to do with the type of heat source.