One of the members on the Hobby Caravan Owners Club Forum recently received a letter from Dometic telling him not to use the Rope Lights fitted to his 2010 'van as two fires have been reported and Dometic are conducting further tests.
However, there is a Product Recall dating back to the middle of 2012 referred to on the European Unsafe Products website.
It is apparently a problem with their Halogen Rope Lights and the danger is listed as "Inadequate electrical connections may lead to a risk of fire in caravans" and is classified as a Serious Risk.
The recommendation is that if you have the product you should STOP using it and contact the dealer where you bought the product, the manufacturer or the national consumer safety agency.
From the information on the RecallUK website the fault affects 783 Rope Lights manufactured between Jan 2008 and Dec 2010 but there is another Hobby owner who has a 2007 'van with what appears to be the same problem.
Have contacted Dometic UK but they are being very tight lipped about what they are doing, simply saying that they are contacting owners directly by mail. They won't answer my questions about how they are going to contact owners who have bought a 'van 2nd hand nor will they answer questions about how to identify the faulty Rope Lights or the manufacturing dates.
Don't have any information about what makes of 'van or motorhome the problem affects other than we know it does affect Hobby caravans.
Has anybody else received anything from Dometic or the manufacturer of their 'van?
Quote: Originally posted by wasntbtf on 24/8/2013One of the members on the Hobby Caravan Owners Club Forum recently received a letter from Dometic telling him not to use the Rope Lights fitted to his 2010 'van as two fires have been reported and Dometic are conducting further tests.
However, there is a Product Recall dating back to the middle of 2012 referred to on the European Unsafe Products website.
Has anybody else received anything from Dometic or the manufacturer of their 'van?
This raises concerns with Hymer owners like ourselves to as some models also have "Rope ambient" lighting. Ours is a 2008 Hymer Nova S 546. Whether ours are even halogen type or of Dometic manufacture I don't know, but I am aware of mines high power drain so now I am suspicious they could be halogen type, something I had not previously considered. To add to our concerns one strip has developed a fault where in two areas clusters of individual "lights" have failed though overall the strip illuminates.
Things are compounded by the supplying dealer ceasing to trade, though the owning principal Lowdhams still are. They have made no contact which might simply be the Hymers are not not affected, so we are left wondering.
According to the info I now have from Hobby UK anybody with any concerns should contact Dometic via email at technical at dometic.co.uk or telephone Tech Support +44 (0) 844 626 0130 (they will need the VIN of your 'van/motorhome)
According to information found on a German caravan forum this problem affects several manufacturers including the Hymer Group (Hymer, LMC etc).
It seems Dometic have known about the problem since Jan 2012 as some German owners received letters warning of the problem back then. Owners in Germany have had the same experience as we have with lack of information/response. Not even all dealers there know about the problem.
If anybody has these Dometic Rope Lights fitted they should contact Dometic via the contact details above, personally I would email or write rather than rely on a phone call