Okay, this thread is hopelessly long, so I figured few would read it all. Kudos to you for your patience. As for which element to run, I think moving the hot spot away from the place where the boiler cracks, and then evenly distributing the heat to the rest of the pocket would be more important than total watts. I also believe this was Dometic's reasoning in redesigning these elements. If you look at the picture above, you can see the heated portion of the element does not extend all the way to the bottom like it did before.
As for why they didn't replace the elements as part of the recall.......who knows? Perhaps Dometic is more concerned about liability and maybe isn't too terribly concerned about the longevity of the existing refers (just a guess) -OR- Perhaps they figured the stress patterns were already set, and changing the elements now wouldn't matter (just more speculation). Regardless of their reasoning on the older units, I'd be willing to bet they're concerned about the longevity of the new refers they're manufacturing now.
For those of us with the older refers (with original elements), it may be too late to reverse the existing stress patterns, but I'd still feel much better knowing I had the latest element (I'd consider the $40 cheap insurance). BTW, I stock about 10 or more of these elements and try to sell one to almost every customer I run into with a recall refer. Needless to say, I sell a lot of them. Tim
I have a question on the propane to the refer. what if I do not use the propane. can I disconnect the propane and still use the refer? I only use the electric anyway. will the refer still have the recall problem?
It will work fine without LP gas, but you should still have the recall done- Tim has posted some pictures of units over heating running just on Electric- the recall adds a thermal fuse to keep this from happening.
Yeah, this refer showed below was used only on electric. It is an extreme case (the worst I've seen anyhow), but it shows the potential hazard one could encounter. When I arrived at this job site, the sheet metal around the boiler was glowing red hot!
Like Chris said, the recall includes a thermal cut-off (see the last picture). This would have prevented the overheating and potential fire hazard as seen it the 1st 3 pictures.
Note: Thermal cut-off photo courtesy of bigdodgeram. Tim
I did not get a notification, but y buddy at work told me about the recall. I went to the Dometic website to check. My fridge was manufactured in 2007 - 4 years after the "affected" manufacturing run. But my serial number still came up a winner. When I called Dometic they sent me a notification letter and told me better safe than sorry.
I guess the point of my ramblings is that 1) even if you don't think you are affected, it might be worth a second look, and 2) I am sorry to say, I ain't really got a warm fuzzy about the technical support department at Dometic.
Although, the person I talked to was friendly and professional, and apologetic.
Just curious- what are the first 3 digits of the serial number (and entire model number)?
The reason I ask is that the Dometic serial numbers use the first three digits for the date- 1st digit is year, second 2 are week.
The RM2652 has just passed 10 years of manufacture, but they changed the model to DM2652 to avoid S/N mixups.
Chris Bryant wrote: Just curious- what are the first 3 digits of the serial number (and entire model number)?
The reason I ask is that the Dometic serial numbers use the first three digits for the date- 1st digit is year, second 2 are week.
The RM2652 has just passed 10 years of manufacture, but they changed the model to DM2652 to avoid S/N mixups.
This true, However I believe some of the refers made early in 2007 still had the RM numbers and duplicate S/N of some of the 1st effected by the recall. I could be wrong about this, but I seem to remember seeing one or two that actually showed up as being effected (even though they were manufactured 4 years after the last recall refers). Needless to say, it was a bit confusing. The thing that made me disregard was that I seriously doubted they would put a 10 year old refer in a brand new coach. Tim
Hi all,
I own a Ford GBH Landau with the effective unit in question and would like to use the transformer method, as I'm getting the cold shoulder from Dometic.......
The other problem is I live in the UK.
I can not get the transformer model / type in the UK, can any help me in sourcing the unit and posting to the UK?
Here we go again.
maybe I better look at mine and see why I have been having trouble getting it to light.
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. As for which element to run, I think moving the hot spot away from the place where the boiler cracks, and then evenly distributing the heat to the rest of the pocket would be more important than total watts. I also believe this was Dometic's reasoning in redesigning these elements. If you look at the picture above, you can see the heated portion of the element does not extend all the way to the bottom like it did before. 
