Age of Dometic Fridge

dahmmer · 01-05-2009, 10:37 PM

Hello all
I ran into a perplexing problem. My fridge quit working the other day. It worked fine for the first day I had the trailer out then just quit. It gets no faults on it and the lights all work on both elec and gas. The disturbing part is I decided after some reading to run my # through the recall web page to see if mine was included. It was. I also noticed that there was a page to register the fridge. So I thought what the hey. Well here is the disturbing part . I bought this trailer in Sept of 08 . It is sold to me and has the VIN # as an 2009 model , which by the way is a Sandstorm. When I went to register tonite the website won't let me as it says according to the serial # that this fridge is over 3 years old already so I must not be the origial owner as the purchase date is in Sept /08 . I understand that some equipment could obviuosly be older when FR finally uses up inventory in manufactureing but come on , 3 years . This is billed as an 2009 trailer I would expect the installed equipment to be 1 year old at the latest . Am I wrong in thinking this?

I am really peeved at this and am going to check dates on all installed equipment such as water heater and such. I am not sure if I have any recourse if this is the case. This is my first Forest River product and am not sure of the quality yet as I seem to have had quite a few issues so far . For the price I paid for this trailer I expect a lot more as this was in the high 50000 range Canadian. This is not my first new trailer and realize that there are always things to find ,but I am having alot of issues with things like the bottom skirting flopping so bad in the wind that it literally broke the trailer fender covers at all the screw holes , stuff of that nature.

PumaPro · 03-20-2009, 06:35 PM

Your forest river product should be under hitch-to-bumper limited warranty for 1 year from date of purchase. Dometic, I believe, should have a 3 year limited warranty from date of purchase. I don't know if FR keeps close tabs on serial numbers of appliances at manufacture, but if they do, they will run the numbers through their system and HOPEFULLY see that it is still the original fridge from the factory.

kenandterry · 09-28-2010, 07:52 PM

Dahmmer...

what happened with this? we're in the same Canajun boat.... did FR ever reply to this?

our showtime will be in two weeks with our dealer, we picked up Aug. 19 and have been to two dometic service depots... they can't figure it out. I have a hardtime thinking that they are going to repair? a new fridge???

thanks

jackhartjr · 10-02-2010, 09:52 PM

The recall has nothing to do with the original owner, it has to do with a fire hazard. Be persistant!

NWJeeper · 10-02-2010, 10:36 PM

I did the same thing. Tried to register it and it wouldn't go online. When I had to take it in for repairs Dometic said it was older than 3 years. I showed my proof of purchase of the motorhome and the date we took delivery and they reset the clock. I still have 1 year left of the Dometic warranty now. The waranty for the fridge starts the day you take delivery of your RV.

kenandterry · 10-03-2010, 06:23 AM

yes, thanks NWSweeper and JackHartjr - I understand what you're saying, but in our case our RV is a 2010 and the Dometic says its 2007 - I am just more than curious to know why they are stockpiled so long before installation. And we still have yet to find someone who can fix this

fridge. Very discouraging, at the very least.... it goes back to the dealer in two weeks for some issues we found on taking delivery and they are keeping the RV until this Dometic is resolved.

thanks

jackhartjr · 10-03-2010, 09:04 AM

I misread your thread. The recall covers any of the recalled fridges, I see you were talking about warranty now. Sorry.
Jack
PS...and to put a 3 year old new fridge in a new unit does not make a lot of sense either!

NWJeeper · 10-03-2010, 09:49 AM

It's not uncommon to have items installed that are older than the build date of the rig. Most motorhomes I have had have chassis that are a year old before the rig is built on it. The manufacturers buy truckloads of everything so It stands to reason that in some cases you will have exactly what you have in your rig.

Is your refrigerator installed in a slide out? If so, there have been problems with the venting on these keeping them from working correctly. Propper venting of RV refrigerators is about 95% of what makes them work right. If it is screwed up like it was on our motorhome then they won't work worth a hill of beans. Venting is an issue with FR not Dometic if that is an issue.

Also, I would find out who the Dometic authorized repair facility is in your area, in many cases it isn't the RV dealer. I would only take it to the Dometic repair facility. In our area it isn't even an RV dealer but an RV service company.

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