Fire

[Quickuc]

2014 Thor ACE 30.1, yesterday going down the road after leaving home 30 min ago, we smell burning paper, then burning wood, then burning plastic, PULL OVER ! FLAME FOR REFRIGERATOR WAS OUT OF CONTROL. Blew it out, easily thank God. Got to farm and pulled cover off RV to see back of fridge, looked ok. Turned off lp. Plugged RV INTO power. All is well.. fridge ok, leaving gas to fridge off...have appt. On Monday for service. What do you think happened??? And yes it's a Norcold unit, but not under recall I'm told

[Spdracr39]

You got lucky. I would be buying a couple of lottery tickets.

[Dennis123]

I had a Thor, no more.

Originally Posted by Quickuc

2014 Thor ACE 30.1, yesterday going down the road after leaving home 30 min ago, we smell burning paper, then burning wood, then burning plastic, PULL OVER ! FLAME FOR REFRIGERATOR WAS OUT OF CONTROL. Blew it out, easily thank God. Got to farm and pulled cover off RV to see back of fridge, looked ok. Turned off lp. Plugged RV INTO power. All is well.. fridge ok, leaving gas to fridge off...have appt. On Monday for service. What do you think happened??? And yes it's a Norcold unit, but not under recall I'm told

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by Dennis123

I had a Thor, no more.

That was uncalled for... nothing to do with Thor.... it's a refrigerator problem.

[Milford 47]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

That was uncalled for... nothing to do with Thor.... it's a refrigerator problem.

For sure

[Down South]

Propane regulator problem?

[n0mad]

Almost all RV fires start with the refrigerator. You're very lucky.

I'd take the money you are planning to spend on repairs and put it towards finding a residential fridge you can cram into the same space.

[rodekyll]

I can't explain what happened, but it seems to happen a lot. You need to thank whoever looks out for you. They were on the job.

I was doing a browse of salvage (parts) RVs the other day and noticed a significant number of hulks with the refrigerator area burned through the body. A guy I know who's prone to hyperbole once remarked that ALL those burned spots on the shoulder of the highway represent fridge fires. That means some, for sure. I'm convinced that these saturation-type fridges are an unnecessary fire hazard.

So I just sold my propane/electric unit in favor of a larger capacity residential model that fits in the same space. The propane models are crazy expensive by comparison. Mine was a 2008, 10cf Dometic. The money I got for it was seven dollars short of replacing it with a new 12cf compressor model, delivered. I'm prepping the alcove and waiting on delivery now. I was gratified to see that my alcove has no evidence of ever having been too hot.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by n0arp

Almost all RV fires start with the refrigerator. You're very lucky.

I'd take the money you are planning to spend on repairs and put it towards finding a residential fridge you can cram into the same space.

Not so; the majority of RV fires are in MH''s, the majority of MH fires begin in the engine compartment. Look up the 'stats.

[momdoc]

Welcome to the forum. Wow you are soooooo lucky. Run out tomorrow and get some Power Ball tickets.

Good luck and enjoy the adventure, but tone it down a bit...OK?

[n0mad]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

Not so; the majority of RV fires are in MH''s, the majority of MH fires begin in the engine compartment. Look up the 'stats.

Maybe I should have been more specific, and said trailer. That was my thought process.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Originally Posted by n0arp

Maybe I should have been more specific, and said trailer. That was my thought process.

If there were 1000 reefer fires, 999 cooking fires, and 998 converter/charger fires, the reefers would still be the leading cause... just sayin'.

Absorption reefers go POOF due to incorrect installation / poor maintenance, or from eventual cooling system leaks usually the result of operation while unlevel. The cooling systems mostly use hydrogen in the chemical mix (a couple use helium) and when it leaks while the boiler is running, things go Hindenburg. Helium fixes that but there must be a trade off of some kind or everyone would use it...

Maintenance is burner and flue cleaning and replacement if needed, and checking for scorching and singes in the vent space, etc. Most folks have never checked their propane burner.

[MtCamper]

Slow down there folks. Solo RV Guy needs to check his refer. They most definitely are not run on hydrogen or helium. Yes, hydrogen is in the chemistry as a part of ammonia but it is no more flammable than the hydrogen in water. The OP and his family were very fortunate, we're all glad they are not harmed and their coach is not damaged. I guess I'm confused as to the location of the fire. It sounds as if the OP blew out the flame from inside the coach and didn't remove the outside cover until later. I haven't had a unit with the flame accessible from the inside for a couple of decades. Something seems odd here, OP could you clarify this for us?

[Jake21]

Originally Posted by MtCamper

Slow down there folks. Solo RV Guy needs to check his refer. They most definitely are not run on hydrogen or helium. Yes, hydrogen is in the chemistry as a part of ammonia but it is no more flammable than the hydrogen in water. The OP and his family were very fortunate, we're all glad they are not harmed and their coach is not damaged. I guess I'm confused as to the location of the fire. It sounds as if the OP blew out the flame from inside the coach and didn't remove the outside cover until later. I haven't had a unit with the flame accessible from the inside for a couple of decades. Something seems odd here, OP could you clarify this for us?

Agreed. Seems odd. Flame was put out and then later he removed the outside cover and everything looked ok. And the fridge works fine on electric. Perhaps a leak in the propane connection, but that would have been accessed from the outside panel and would have left severe damage and everything would not have looked ok.