Time to replace defective and potentially dangerous absorption fridge

[Darrell Snell]

(07-03-2013 23:00)davidmbrady Wrote:  Darrell,

I think you did the right thing and I'm on your heels. I plan to swap out my cooling unit for an Amish unit. The only thing that I'd do differently is perhaps line the flue area behind the cooling unit with a thin cementatious board of sorts (hardy plank style). In effect, build a fire chamber. I'm still not convinced that folks are seeing charring of the wood at the roof of the bus. Some have seen discoloration which may be carbon from a rich mixture. Did you notice any discoloration when you disassembled yours? I personally think the fire hazard from ammonia absorption refrigerators is exaggerated. There are tens of thousands of these units installed in motorhomes and working today with thousands of hours on each unit. We've seen some fires but we've also seen fires from Aquahots, electrical wiring, generators, batteries, exhausts, and shorted alternators. I think there's a bit of hysteria here. A new cooling unit with a well built flue chamber and a fire apparatus is way above the call of duty in my personal opinion. In my personal opinion, we need to resist the desire to overgeneralize. What we see in a specific coach may not apply to all. My Dometic has had flawless performance. It's worked great for almost ten years. It's worked in Arizona in 120 deg heat and in Asheville in 10 deg winters. It's uber quiet and reliable with no moving parts. It doesn't need an inverter and it doesn't need 120VAC. All it needs is a few milliamps of 12V current and a propane source. It's performance has made a believer out of me.

I didn't see charring anywhere in the enclosure although there was delamination of the plywood on the forward bulkhead. All the same I added a thin gage sheet of stainless to the bulkhead near the burner.