Typical Britain

If the problem we're having in getting our refrigerator inspected and modified had happened in the USA, a service engineer would be knocking my door like lightning, as the companies over there know the hassle of million dollar law suits.
Here in the UK you have to dig up the dead bodies and go through the courts and then wait for a group of judges to have a think on it ten years later for anyone to get anything done!

We have been chasing up Dometic UK for six days now to get someone to visit our RV to carry out a safety check and to do the modification to our refrigerator to make it safe....what a joke this has become. The local service engineer can't do it because he's not trained on our model...The service engineer that Dometic Technical gave us can't come cause it's not his area and it's too far away. In the meantime we could have been burned to death in our sleep.

To make our unit safer, I have turned off the gas supply to the fridge. OK we are still using it on electric so there is less likelihood of a fire, but this means that when we travel the fridge is now turned off. Hopefully the food won't spoil by the time we get to our next location before we get it back onto electric.

There is a big debate on the RV forums about this problem and it seems we're not the only ones being given the run around.
After the posting of the fire was first raised on the RVOC forum more RV owners have become aware of the danger these units can be unless they are inspected and modified.

For anyone in a similar situation I have put photos of the procedure on how to manually turn off the gas supply to these units below.
It may not totally stop a fire but it will cut down the risk of one until the unit is inspected and modified.

To access the rear of the refrigerator remove this panel below by turning the two black plastic clips on the bottom left and right of the photo from vertical to horizontal.

Rear Panel

The inside of the panel looks like the photo below. If there is yellow staining or a smell of ammonia it means the cooling fluid is leaking. Turn off the refrigerator immediately and do not use it then call out a service engineer ASAP. (That's if you can get one!!!)

Inside the panel

If no leak is present but you want to sleep better at night, or you feel safer with the fridge turned off when travelling. You can turn off the gas supply manually by turning the small screw indicated by the yellow arrow below.
It only takes half a turn, the slot will be in the horizontal position when its turned on and you will need to turn it clockwise to the vertical as shown in the photo to turn it off.

Gas shut off valve

The procedure above is from the guidance given in my owners manual, the photos are supplied to give you a help in locating the parts, but also refer to your own models manual just in case there are slight differences.

If this helps save one life its been worth it.


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