I was out cleaning up the 5th wheel yesterday when I noticed that the refrigerator wasn't working. The interior was warm and the error light on the control panel was on.
I turned it off and back on, and it seemed to reset, but a half hour later it hadn't cooled down at all. RV refrigerators do not cool as efficiently on AC, so I switched it over to propane.
Within a couple minutes, I could smell ammonia, and I knew the fridge had a major problem. I called Terry at Terry's RV service, and as we were talking, I looked over to see that the fridge was on fire!
I ran to the trailer to turn the fridge off and grabbed the fire extinguisher on the way back out. The extinguisher is as old as the 5th wheel and had never been used - now when I actually needed it, it wouldn't do anything at all. I grabbed the water hose, and was able to get the flames out without any noticeable damage to the trailer.
The good news is that the damage is covered by our extended warranty. The bad news is that the warranty only covers the cooling unit and specifically excludes the cabinet, which now smells like ammonia and probably will forever. We opted to replace the entire fridge and pay the difference.
I did learn the answer to something I've wondered about. Most RV fires start in the refrigerator, and the motorhome or trailer is usually totaled.
Ammonia is not particularly flammable - in fact is almost always requires a catalyst to ignite, so why do they burn? The ammonia used as a refrigerant in RV refrigerator is in an atmosphere that contains helium and hydrogen. Helium is an inert gas, and is not flammable - hydrogen is not just flammable, it's been described as the most flammable of all known substances.
It didn't feel like it at the time, but I would guess you could say we got lucky.
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