Melted plastic smell coming from Refer

[sheridany]

John:
This poor guy was camped behind me a few weeks ago and "smelled" burning plastic behind his refer while they were having coffee. 15 minutes later, his coach was gone. Residential Whirlpool. I did not hear back from him what the exact cause was, but he did say he had it at CW twice for refer repairs. Hmm. Fortunately the husband, wife, and pups got out OK. Don't take any chances!
Good luck with your repair,
Mike

Just seeing that picture reminded that I want to get a fire suppression like Proteng installed. Anyone have a suppression system and how do you like it?

 

[MikeyG]

Sheridan:
Yes, I currently have 4 areas with Proteng and 2 more to go. See my earlier post. How do I like them? Its piece of mind for me and I love them, but I hope I never find out how well they work. There are a few YouTube videos showing what they do and how they will extinguish the flame. There will still be damage, but we would be safe and the coach should be saved. I also added 2 10-year battery smoke detectors in the basement.
I sleep much better knowing they are all there.
Mike

 

[sheridany]

Thanks Mike. I emailed Tom this afternoon to schedule a time for an install. My biggest problem is I am hearing impaired and I cannot hear those alarms without aids. Even last month when the alarm was chirping a low battery, I didn’t hear it. I have strobes in my house but they are hardwired and i have yet to find a battery alarm with a strobe. So I am talking to a few vendors to try and engineer something. Same for the bays, I won’t hear them either. I figured with a suppression system, I have a chance of survival, but I need more. It’s not easy to solve top to bottom in an a RV.

 

[MikeyG]

I see what you're saying about the smoke alarms Sheridan. My wife says I just don't listen. :0(
Even if you just go with the Protengs, that will be a significant improvement over what you currently have. We certainly sleep much better knowing we have an extra layer of protection.
Good luck with your mod.
Mike

 

[Neal]

Any update on this saga @MapNerd?

 

[MapNerd]

Not particularly, @Neal . Fields Appliance Service (different tech) came out for the second service call. I had the unit pulled out for them. At this point, the refer had been powered off for over a week so he came in, opened the door and took a whiff and said he didn’t smell anything. The smell was still there but it was pretty faint at this point. I wish I’d thought to power it on the morning of the appt. He opened the back panel, looking for any signs of a short circuit, but there wasn’t anything at which point, he basically said he had nothing to chase and couldn’t do anything, then left.

Following that, I played phone tag with Erica Miller for a few days, finally got in touch with her Monday morning. Her response on the phone was to call Whirlpool back, schedule another service call but with a different company this time, see if a fresh set of eyes can find anything. If still nothing, give her a call back and she’ll see what she can do.

I’m pretty frustrated and a little - no a lot - let down by Newmar at this point. A bought a Newmar because I felt like they would stand behind their product but that’s not the experience I’m having right now. I get that this isn’t their product, it’s Whirlpools but it’s less than two months old. We’ve been to just four campgrounds. I wish I’d given a little more consideration to the fact that I have to deal with the item manufacturer when things break. I knew that to be the case beforehand but I didn’t expect such a major appliance failure to occur within less than a month of taking delivery and assumed if that happened, Newmar would be on it no matter whose product it was.

You know what they say about assuming...

We’re in the Keys right now and we’re headed back to Orlando afterwards to try and get it serviced. To get by, we’re letting it run during the day and cutting power to it at night. I work from the coach so if something starts burning I should be able to detect it pretty quickly. The strength of the smell seems to be strong some days and pretty faint others. It’s really hard to put a finger on, though I suspect it may be the defroster.

If it’s not fixed after the next service visit and Newmar doesn’t want to step up and replace it, I probably will. Then I’ll drive out to Napanee and dump it at Newmar’s corporate office with a kindly worded note to Matt attached explaining its presence and inviting him to Install in their kitchen.

 

[Neal]

Sorry to hear that, not the best feeling after spending big $ on a new coach, Newmar at that. I know the feeling as I had Whirlpool washer issues, they continued even after my service and I emailed Newmar telling them hey I'm going to be stopping through NIRVC, this would be a great opportunity to get this replaced. Didn't happen as I didn't continue to pursue with Whirlpool. I have a hunch Newmar will step up and take care of you, just keep patient as you can. If you can get the smell to reproduce from running it then hopefully you're all set for the next service call. These parts of RVing make RVing not fun. It's no fun when things don't work. Hang in there. Again, I do feel this is going to get resolved in your favor. Just let Erica know that you do not feel this is safe for your family to live in next time you have to work with her. She's the best in the Ventana crew, at least that I experienced.

 

[sheridany]

That is a really frustrating experience to say the least. What Neal says is spot on. Patience is key here and hopefully it will get resolved to your satisfaction. I have been there myself not with the whirlpool issues but others.

 

[sheridany]

One other thing for what’s it worth. I did search on google whirlpool fire burn smell and got quite a few links. The words that shows up a lot is Capacitor starter waterline and compressor through the links. Is it possible to look behind the appliance and plug it in to see if you can trace the smell. Just a suggestion and I know nothing about fixing appliances.

 

[sheridany]

@MapNerd Any new updates on this? Hopefully getting resolved.