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Old 10-05-2012, 08:20 PM   #1
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Tankless water heater caught FIRE!!!!!

Our Wildcat has been at the dealer for 2 weeks due to ongoing water temp problems with the Girard Tankless WH among other lack of quality issues. Previously this year they had it for a month and other times for one or two weeks. Girard provided my dealer a new retrofit kit that was supposed to fix the water temperature fluctuation problems.

Took my Wildcat home from the dealer today hooked up water then turned on the WH and and it burst into flames...FIRE shooting out of the water heater!!!! Was lucky I got the fire out before it spread just as the fire dept arrived. It was a very close call. The Girard tankless is destroyed and smoked up the interior of the trailer. We desperately want a normal water heater now!!!


United RV of Ft. Worth has some nice people working there but boy are they incompetent. Our trailer has been in their shop more days than it has camping for numerous warranty issues!!!! Most should have been caught at the factory. Looks like it will be spending more time in the shop. We love the layout of our Wildcat but quality control at the factory is sorely lacking not to mention at our dealership.
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Old 10-05-2012, 08:33 PM   #2
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Wow, sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope it all works out for you.

I would contact Girard and let them know what happened too. I’m sure they would be very interested.
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Old 10-05-2012, 08:37 PM   #3
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Wow that is a close call Glad you got it tested when you could keep a eye on it. I spent some time with the Girard folks in Indy and they suggested the kit you are talking about. The dealer is going to install it next week. Or not!What do you think was the cause of the fire. Did the dealer install the parts wrong or is the retro fit unsafe? I know thats a tough question but what your gut feeling?



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Old 10-05-2012, 09:23 PM   #4
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I plan to contact Girard on Monday.

Phil57... My gut tells me that my dealer screwed it up. As I said their nice but a very incompetent bunch. They never fix anything right the first time and sometimes the second or third time!!! Many times they have called me to tell me repairs were complete then when I arrive and do a walk thru to verify some things haven't been fixed at all so I have to leave it only to return again sometimes with the same result. Wish I had know this before buying from them. Also it seems like Wildcat takes their time shipping parts for warranty work so we play the waiting game alot. As much as we like this trailer it really hasn't been worth the agravation.
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Old 10-05-2012, 10:02 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnthecamper View Post
I plan to contact Girard on Monday.

Phil57... My gut tells me that my dealer screwed it up. As I said their nice but a very incompetent bunch. They never fix anything right the first time and sometimes the second or third time!!! Many times they have called me to tell me repairs were complete then when I arrive and do a walk thru to verify some things haven't been fixed at all so I have to leave it only to return again sometimes with the same result. Wish I had know this before buying from them. Also it seems like Wildcat takes their time shipping parts for warranty work so we play the waiting game alot. As much as we like this trailer it really hasn't been worth the agravation.
First I also want to say that I'm glad to hear that everyone is safe!

Based on what you wrote about the service department are you really sure that they really ordered the parts in a timely manner?
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Old 10-06-2012, 05:51 AM   #6
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Hopefully WildCat Chris sees this and perhaps can offer you some direction to get you out of the repair shop and enjoying your new unit.
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Old 10-06-2012, 08:30 AM   #7
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We had the Tankless water heater and had it replaced with a standard tank type. The tankless never worked right. The tank type fit right in and works great. We never run out of hot water and I like the fact that we can use electric mode. Don't fight it! I was disappointed that the replacement was not covered under warrantee but it was worth having reliable hot water. I suspect there are lots of slightly used tankless type water heaters in repair shops across the country. I know where there are at least two, if they haven't been scrapped.

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Old 10-06-2012, 09:29 PM   #8
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The bottom line (thermodynamics) on tankless water heater is that, if they can provide limitless hot water, they have to have very powerful heater systems, whether gas or electric. We looked at installing electric ones in our S&B. The wiring alone was prohibitively expensive.

On propane, they have to have big feed pipes and big burners, so the risk of a thermal runaway is always present. Since most RV's don't have the kind of 220V ac circuitry an S&B has, they'll always be a bit behind the curve running on 115V, plus they'll have heavy current consumption.

I'll stick with my electric/propane 6 gallon unit, thanks (well, maybe I'll upgrade to a 10-gallon one).
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Old 10-06-2012, 10:07 PM   #9
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I don't know what you are talking about big feed pipes. The one I have in my house has the same 1/2" tubing I see in an RV and it works great.

I did see an ad that the 2nd gen units are now out - so maybe they will get better. Frankly, though, I don't quite get why you'd want one. Maybe they use less propane overall? They don't seem to take up much less space - I would think space savings would be the big factor.

The big diesel motor coaches use an "aqua hot" system which I suppose is some kind of diesel fired boiler and not really an on- demand system like we are talking about here. True?
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Old 10-09-2012, 01:22 PM   #10
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The Girard Tankless water heater is propane only and is a very compact unit. The propane line to it is small no bigger than the one to the stove in the trailer. The only electrical is 12volt for the controls. It appears to me that something was screwed up in the 12v circuitry causing a short which ignited the wiring and control mechanism which was all burned or melted in the fire.

This was a very disturbing incident. It was parked next to my home and if I had not been there when it happened it could have burned not only the trailer but my home as well. If I had not tested it at home then on the next camping trip it would have surely destroyed the trailer and possibly killed my wife and I.
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Old 10-09-2012, 01:43 PM   #11
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My MH is at the dealers getting this same retro fit system installed. I asked that they have a conversation with Gerrard before installing and referenced your fire. I will test it many times before its trusted.
Thanks to you for bringing this issue to the Forum so we all can be on the look out for this issue.
Has anyone from Gerrard been in contact with you and do you still believe this was caused by faulty install and not faulty product design?
I'm sorry you had this problem but glad you were smart enough to test out before it caused a real disaster. Good for you!



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Old 10-10-2012, 07:58 PM   #12
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Haven't heard from Girard but I have to think that this retrofit kit designed by them must have been successfully installed and tested before being released to dealers. I don't really want to point fingers since I have no way of being sure what caused the fire but the dealer has accepted responsibility and is replacing with a regular RV water heater. As agravated as I have been with the dealer they are trying to fix the situation quickly.
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Old 10-10-2012, 08:04 PM   #13
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Thanks for keeping us updated on this issue. I hope it all turns out well for you.
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Old 10-13-2012, 09:04 PM   #14
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Okay I thought I would give everyone and update on the situation with the tankless water heater fire. The dealer finished the repairs and I brought our Wildcat home today. As I had requested they replaced the tankless with a normal Gas/Electric DSI water heater at no cost to us. They also cleaned the interior and there are no detectable traces or smell from the fire. Although I haven't had a chance to test it yet they did what looks like a pretty good job. The operations manager of the dealership personnally handled the situation.

I haven't heard from Girard yet but the dealer said that they were shipping it back to Girard for them to try to determine the cause of the fire.

I will update this forum if there are any further developments.
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