Dometic Warranty Issue - HELP

[Sierra86]

I have a Fleetwood E3 with the Dometic 3-way fridge. I bought the trailer new in June 2007. I have a 6 year extended warranty. The fridge has never cooled on LP since it was new. I took it in to an authorized repair facility. They checked it out, said it cooled to 37 degrees at night on AC but during the day it rose to 60 degrees. It never cooled on LP. They called Dometic and Dometic had them email pics of the back of the fridge. They wanted to make sure it was installed correctly, it was. Now Doemtic is saying to temporarily install a fan on the back of the unit to circulate air and see if that works and IT IS NOT COVERED UNDER WARRANTY!! WTF! The whole point of a fridge running on LP is to not need electricity. The fan isn't even gaurenteed to solve the problem. So I buy a trailer, the fridge never works and now I have to pay more money to add a fan which is going to kill my battery!!! I am extremely upset with Dometic right now. These Dometic fridges are JUNK!! Very bad customer service.

Both Dometic and Fleetwood are conveniently closed right now being they are on the east coast. Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Thanks, Darren

[wavery]

I have a Fleetwood E3 with the Dometic 3-way fridge. I bought the trailer new in June 2007. I have a 6 year extended warranty. The fridge has never cooled on LP since it was new. I took it in to an authorized repair facility. They checked it out, said it cooled to 37 degrees at night on AC but during the day it rose to 60 degrees. It never cooled on LP. They called Dometic and Dometic had them email pics of the back of the fridge. They wanted to make sure it was installed correctly, it was. Now Doemtic is saying to temporarily install a fan on the back of the unit to circulate air and see if that works and IT IS NOT COVERED UNDER WARRANTY!! WTF! The whole point of a fridge running on LP is to not need electricity. The fan isn't even gaurenteed to solve the problem. So I buy a trailer, the fridge never works and now I have to pay more money to add a fan which is going to kill my battery!!! I am extremely upset with Dometic right now. These Dometic fridges are JUNK!! Very bad customer service.

Both Dometic and Fleetwood are conveniently closed right now being they are on the east coast. Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Thanks, Darren

Contact Dometic directly and insist on a meeting with a Dometic rep at the dealership.

You are absolutely right. The fridge should perform as advertised. If it must be altered to work properly, it should be between Dometic and Fleetwood as to who should pay for it. If it's not getting enough air flow, that is Fleetwoods design problem. You shouldn't have to pay for that. That's outrageous that they even suggested such a thing.

In the first place, unless the fridge is not installed properly, the fridge should cool to 40 degrees on a 90 degree day, with no problem. Mine does and I don't have a fan installed. It makes no difference if the heat source is 110v electric or propane. The cooling unit should work the same. If it is working properly on electric but not propane, there is a problem with the propane burner. That's not rocket science.

[austinado16]

Wavery's absolutely right and you have alot of leverage here.  Either the camper manufacturer is going to eat (or fix) that fridge, or Dometic is.

The Dometic fridges are actually top of the line, you've just got one that's not been built right.

A couple suggestions:
1) Calmer minds prevail so even though you're smoking hot, but the guy who's cool, calm and collected.  You'll get faster service that way.....plus, you can always blow a fuse and get in their face, so save that as your trump card.

2) Use the phrase, "I'm confused" or "Help me understand."  It's a lot more fun then coming right out and saying, "This is bullsh!t. I want my fridge replaced under warranty."  As in, "Help me understand how I've paid $10,000 for a brand new camper and paid extra for the extended warranty, and the fridge has never worked, and you still haven't replaced it under warranty.  Seems like I'm being treated like a guy who bought a 15 year old camper for a grand."

3) Don't let them do patches.  The patches won't last........they're just a band-aid, and when the thing quits working completely, you'll be out of warranty and they'll have the last laugh.

4) As soon as you hear the phrase, "We (or I) won't be doing such-n-such under warranty, stop the conversation and immediately ask for that person's supervisor.  If you get the same BS, ask for the district rep, and/or go to corporate.  Make sure you purposefully ask for each person's name that you talk to.  As in, "So you're not going to take care of me as a new customer under warranty?  Fine, what's your name?  Thanks Bob......now put me through to your supervisor since you aren't able to handle this situation."

5) Climb the ladder until you get to someone who understands the the phrase, if this is what Dometic calls customer service, then I'll be happy to return this camper under the lemon laws (if your state has that...and if they pertain to campers like they do cars/trucks.....ie, the dealer gets 3 attempts to fix the same problem and then must buy the vehicle back from you as req'd by law).

6) And of course, you can park the camper out on the street in front of the dealership with a huge cardboard sign for all to see, showing your opinion of the service you've been given.

Have fun.

[mike4947]

Unfortunately Dometic is correct that this is not their warranty issue. It's an issue of incorrect installation so the dealer/trailer manufacturer should cover reinstalling the fridge to Dometic Standards per their installation manual.

[austinado16]

I believe he said Dometic asked for photos of the install, and have stated the fridge is installed correctly.

[tlhdoc]

I agree with austinado16, it sounds as though the refrigerator is faulty.  I think it should be replaced by Dometic.  You should not need a fan for it to work properly.  Good luck with getting it replaced.  You can also let them know that the internet world spreads bad news quickly.  I would not want to buy a Dometic refrigerator if this is how they handle a non-working refrigerator.

[austinado16]

What's ridiculous about this whole thing is that these fridges sell for under $500 retail. That means wholesale is probably less than $275 and that means Dometic's actual cost on them is maybe $100.  

So bottom line is, we're talking about a $100 part that takes, what, 30min to replace?  So Dometic could have a happy customer bragging about how well they were treated for under $200.  Sounds like cheap advertising to me.

Or, they can piss the customer off, screw around installing a computer fan (whether or not the customer pays for it) discover it doesn't help, and is certainly not the long term proper repair, and then have to do the job right the second time.  :eyecrazy:

[Sierra86]

What's ridiculous about this whole thing is that these fridges sell for under $500 retail. That means wholesale is probably less than $275 and that means Dometic's actual cost on them is maybe $100.  

So bottom line is, we're talking about a $100 part that takes, what, 30min to replace?  So Dometic could have a happy customer bragging about how well they were treated for under $200.  Sounds like cheap advertising to me.

Or, they can piss the customer off, screw around installing a computer fan (whether or not the customer pays for it) discover it doesn't help, and is certainly not the long term proper repair, and then have to do the job right the second time.  :eyecrazy:

Yes, I wonder the same thing.  We'll see on Monday what Dometic has to say.  I am going to call them.  Until now the repair shop has been contacting them and have been given the run around.  I'm wondering why I need a fan when all of the other PUP's being sold do not come with them. I could see if the brand new ones had them but they don't and the fridge works.  I'll post back on Monday and let you all know the outcome of the conversations with Dometic and Fleetwood.  

Thanks for the replies,
Darren

[austinado16]

The fan is actually a viable mod and Dometic has a full group of spec/installation details and drawings on how it's to be done.  Last Summer I called them when I was doing testing on my 1987 fridge and trying to make it perform better in the heat.  The were very good about sharing tech info and emailed me alot of PDF info on how the want their fridges installed, how they want baffling installed which forces rising air to go passed only the fins and tubes, and how/where to install the fan.

Basically, in pop-ups the issue is that the cabinet space that the fridge sets in isn't tall enough to promote really good convective air flow upward from the louvers on the lower fridge door passed tubes/fins and out the top louvers.  It's because of this inefficiency that these small fridges have such a hard time (or can have such a hard time) in higher outside air temps.  Dometic's solutions are modding the baffling so the air can only go passed the tubes/fins, and if that doesn't work, install a fan.

However, as you've heard from others, and would hear the same from more folks, these fridges generally do just fine and people have to keep the t-stats dialed down or they get frozen food.

Obviously, yours isn't working right, and it's either a problem in the propane burner or chimney, or it's in how the fridge's tubes are laid out.  It's so easy to swap in a new fridge, I don't know why the dealer hasn't just done it.  Either that, or go grab another camper with the same fridge, park 'em side-by-side, and test both fridges.  If they both were to perform the same, then you could say they're both fine.  But if the other camper maintains cold, while yours won't, you pretty much know the answer.

I have a feeling you're going get good results from Dometic.  Between now and then, do some reading about amonia vapor fridges and how they work so you can talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk when you're on the phone.

Here's a version of the fan that people install:
http://www.rvpartscenter.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=31053&SID=11&DID=13&CID=151

Here's how your fridge works:
http://rvmobile.com/Tech/Trouble/cooldoc.htm

One more thing;  For these fridges to work correctly, and not damage themselves internally by building up crystals which block the flow of amonia, they have to be absolutely level when operated.  Doesn't matter whether they're being run on 12v, 110v or propane they have to be level. The only exception is when towing down the road, and that's because the sloshing action of the camper "bouncing" down the road helps keep the amonia moving (you should still have things set up so that when hooked to the tow vehicle the camper is level or just slightly nose down.  Also, having food in them makes them more efficient.  I tried testing mine without food (because I didn't know this) and my temps were all over the place during the day.  Putting in food which acts as a cold "sink" helped stabilze.  Learned that from the knowledgable folks here.

[campnagle]

Dometic has good customer service and them wanting to see install seems right. Fans should be added for any fridge to make it cool down faster and just run better. Baffles are very inportant also, Do the fan thing and I am sure it will cool fine.

[wavery]

The fan is a reasonable and often used modification IF you camp in very hot climates. HOWEVER......if it is not getting down to 40 degrees in 80 degree weather, something is definitely wrong. If it takes a fan to make it cool in warm weather, there is nothing that you can do during hot weather.

The fan modification is NOT an acceptable substitution for a fridge that operates correctly. :banghead:

[Sierra86]

Well I called Dometic on Monday.  They were in contact with the repair shop.  Dometic was under the impression that the fridge cooled fine, down to 37 degrees on AC and propane and heated up during the day.  They claimed that a fan and baffle would solve the problem. True...if that was the case.  

BUT it's not.  I had the repair shop leave the fridge on last night running on propane.  This morning the internal temp was 60 degrees, same as the ambient temp.  The fridge is clearly not operating at all on propane.  No magic fan and baffle is going to make it work.  I tried calling Dometic but they conveniently close at 4:45 pm ET and I'm in SoCal.  I'll call again tomorrow and report back.  The battle continues...........

Darren

[austinado16]

I have a feeling you'll be getting a new fridge once Dometic receives accurate information on what the fridge is actually doing, and when.

[PatB]

Who provided the extended warranty? Seems like it was useless because the reason people buy these warranties is to not have any hassles when something doesn't work. At this point they're not providing what you paid for.

I had a problem with Gateway not providing service for my computer after I paid for thier extended service plan. Not only did I not pay for the late repair, but I also got my money back that I paid for the useless plan.

I found it's easiest to file a small claims case against the dealer when I start to get jerked around. That's all that some dealers need to finally provide what was paid for. The longer they take, the closer the court date comes. It's a simple in and out with a new frig and they should have done that by now- especially with the holiday weekend coming up.

I bought some replacement parts for my Dometic frig. Among others things, the small gas orifice that's stamped out of tin cost over $15. I spent over $80 for a few parts. Even their rep said their parts are outrageously high priced. I'm not impressed with Dometic at all. My pilot light never stays on while driving and it's a common problem that we all hear about. Basically a poorly designed product.