Dometic Service bulletin

[lewster]

Hi Folks,

I have just received a service bulletin from Dometic pertaining to their Brisk Air II roof A/C units.


Dear Valued Dometic RV Dealers,

At Dometic, we continually strive to provide you with the industry’s leading products and services and we are extremely proud of our more than 80-year history serving those enjoying a mobile lifestyle. We feel that direct communication is essential in maintaining your trust established over all these years, and thus wish to take a moment to bring you up to speed on a specific issue related to our Brisk Air II line of RV Air Conditioners.

Over the past few months, we have been working with select dealers to properly identify and diagnose a durability concern related to the evaporator coils in our Brisk Air II Air Conditioner line. This condition is not apparent on all but a select volume of the units produced since 2013 and has been covered under our warranty terms; however, the incident rate does exceed the durability and quality standards we maintain internally as well as the quality standard you have come to expect from us. As such, we would like to take a moment to clarify what the issue entails and just as importantly detail what we have done to ensure the root cause has been addressed:

Condition – Root Cause

On 3-5% of units produced with manufacture dates between 2013 and March 25th, 2015, we have discovered the supplier of evaporator coils for our Brisk Air II units had an intermittent process issue that yielded the potential for premature corrosion which could create a leak in the evaporator coil which would directly affect the cooling performance of the unit.
For the balance of the units produced during this time (95%+), the evaporator coils were manufactured properly utilizing that specified corrosion inhibiting process and thus are not subject to the issue.
This manufacturing process issue has been remedied for all units produced after March 25th, 2015.
Population Affected ​

Potential for condition on 3-5% of all Brisk Air II Units produced between 2013 and March 25th, 2015.
Population NOT Affected ​

95%+ of all Brisk Air II Units produced between 2013 and March 25th, 2015.
Brisk Air II Units produced after March 25th, 2015.
All other Dometic/Atwood lines of Air Conditioners including Penguin, HP, Coolcat, and Aircommand.

Essentially, they have identified a defect in the manufacturing process that relates to potential corrosion in the soldered joints of the evaporator section of certain Brisk Air II units made within the stated dates in the bulletin.

This defect leads directly to a potential leak of refrigerant and subsequent loss of cooling power within the unit. Since the blower motor, fan and compressor will still operate, the only way to tell if your unit has leaked refrigerant if to check the output temperature at the cold air exhaust and compare that reading to the ambient air temperature measured at the return air grill.

Both of these measurements are to be taken INSIDE the trailer with the unit running for at least 10-15 minutes. If you are not seeing an 18-22ºF drop in the measured temperature between the return air grill and the cold air exhaust (regardless of the temperature outside the trailer), you have probably experienced a refrigerant leak in the unit.

Any competent RV tech who is authorized by Dometic as a service center can then test the amperage draw of the compressor to provide the empirical data that Dometic will require to facilitate the replacement of the upper A/C unit.

[DFlores]

Subscribing because I bought just this unit May 2013 and started running it December 2014 after completing the renovation of our Safari. Sure hope I am in the 95%, right now it is working great despite temperatures of 104 degrees in full sun.


Sent from my iPhone
David & Diane

[AWCHIEF]

Is there a certain range of serial numbers involved?

[lewster]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

Is there a certain range of serial numbers involved?

Dometic did not specify any serial numbers...... only production dates.


Lew Farber
RVIA/RVDA Nationally Certified Master Tech
Master Tech Energy Systems, Inc.
AM Solar Certified Installation Center
Lifeline Batteries**Magnum Inverters
541-490-6357

[SSquared]

Has Airstream used this model on new production? What Airstream products have it?

[lewster]

Not that I'm aware of. The factory uses the low profile Penguin II units.

These are the high profile, less expensive units that some folks have been installing as an alternative to the Penguin.


Lew Farber
RVIA/RVDA Nationally Certified Master Tech
Master Tech Energy Systems, Inc.
AM Solar Certified Installation Center
Lifeline Batteries**Magnum Inverters
541-490-6357

[daveswenson]

Too bad they don't recall all the bad Penguin II's that have had the same issue.

[xrvr]

Unless I read wrong, they are included.

[daveswenson]

Originally Posted by avionstream

Unless I read wrong, they are included.

I think you may have missed the sentence. "Population not affected".

In any case mine was produced before the dates listed. So I got to drop $1500 for a new one. I hope to install it this week.