The "Can't be fixed" Dometic oven problem

[mikeinca]

A while back I posted about how the Dometic oven in our 2018 30' Classic ran hot; anywhere from 75 to 100 degrees hotter than the indicated temperature on the dial. BTW, this was the second oven in the Classic; the first one wouldn't even light. Anyway, bear with me for a moment for a quick recap of the events since then.

At the end of September I took the trailer to the dealer to address the problem. A new thermocouple was ordered and I understood that Dometic would have to ship the part from Europe which, for some reason, was going to take 6 weeks and wouldn't arrive until November 22nd. As it turned out, it was worse than that. Dometic needed 6 weeks just to get the part in the mail(!) which I learned when I checked back with the dealer in December to find out why I hadn't been notified of the part's arrival. At that point I registered a complaint with Airstream and they coordinated with my dealer and arranged to have a another new oven sent from JC last week.

This morning I received a call from the dealer. The good news; the oven arrived yesterday and was installed. The bad news; it's preforming exactly like the old oven and is running much hotter than the thermostat setting. My service guy was extremely apologetic. Apparently they tried a number of different adjustments but none were successful. FWIW, they tested the oven in another Classic on the lot and it did the same thing. He contacted Dometic but basically was told "that's just the way they all work". Really? Hey Dometic, why bother putting temperature gradations on the thermostat dial then? Put lines on the dial and let the owner write in their own numbers with a magic marker!

I suppose I don't expect anything to come of this post other than to get some frustration off my chest. That and to state publicly, if Airstream is going to offer a gas oven in their expensive trailers they ought to at least choose a supplier who can provide a product that isn't deficient right out of the box!

[HowieE]

Dometic prides itself in having the poorest customer service in the industry. I have had them claim they Never made the refrigerator I was seeking parts for even while I read the manufactures SN plate to them.


There are other RV ovens available and I would ask Airstream to supply one that works even if they have to change brands.


Don't let them tell you others won't fit. There are things called industry standards and size is one they stick to.

[azflycaster]

The thermocouple senses if the flame is on and controls the valve that allows gas to enter the burner. The thermostat is what controls the temperature of the oven.

[mikeinca]

Originally Posted by HowieE

Dometic prides itself in having the poorest customer service in the industry. I have had them claim they Never made the refrigerator I was seeking parts for even while I read the manufactures SN plate to them.


There are other RV ovens available and I would ask Airstream to supply one that works even if they have to change brands.


Don't let them tell you others won't fit. There are things called industry standards and size is one they stick to.

Thanks. FWIW, I think I will pursue this further with Airstream. If someone unfamiliar with the problem sets the oven to cook something at 425 degrees and the oven heats to 550 and burns up my trailer who is going to be liable for the damages or possible loss of life? Airstream? Dometic?

At the very least, I should be provided with a warning sticker which reads, "Warning. Do not go by oven's indicated temperatures".

[mikeinca]

Originally Posted by azflycaster

The thermocouple senses if the flame is on and controls the valve that allows gas to enter the burner. The thermostat is what controls the temperature of the oven.

I don't know how the oven is designed. Maybe the thermocouple and thermostat are part of the same assembly in the Dometic oven or it's possible that the dealer misdiagnosed the source of the problem. Regardless, a new replacement oven should have resolved the issue and it didn't.

[azflycaster]

Originally Posted by mikeinca

I don't know how the oven is designed. Maybe the thermocouple and thermostat are part of the same assembly in the Dometic oven or it's possible that the dealer misdiagnosed the source of the problem. Regardless, a new replacement oven should have resolved the issue and it didn't.

your correct. Another call to Jackson Center?

[rmkrum]

I'm an inveterate DIY guy. This may or may not apply to the problem, but it sounds that the thermostat needs calibration. Usually the thermostat is a thin metal tube from the control to a bulbous metal "thingie" in the oven cavity. The adjustment will be related to where this tube comes into the valve and knob assembly that controls the oven burner. It usually clicks the gas flow on and off to control the flame, and thus the temperature in the oven. Its what engineers refer to as "bang-bang" control as the flame is either on or off, and the amount of time the flame is on controls the average temperature.

The thermocouple is usually part of a safety device that cuts off gas to the oven burner if the pilot flame goes out so it won't spew gas and blow up the trailer...both of these items may be on the same control knob.

In general, this is how you typically adjust oven thermostat temperature:

Some oven knobs pull off, and there is a calibration adjustment visible under the knob. Others the adjustment is on the body of the control somewhere else. It may be marked as such, have markings around it and a label that indicates which way to turn it to set the oven hotter or cooler as needed. Possibly arrows or + and - marks in the area of the adjustment. See if you can find it.

This may be one way to fix it. Once you locate the adjustment, if any, set the knob to about 350 degrees, turn it on, and carefully access the adjustment. With an accurate oven thermometer inside the oven cavity, adjust the calibration control slightly with an appropriate screwdriver or whatnot, let the oven have enough time to cool down or warm up as needed, and see what the thermometer is reading. Rinse and repeat until you get it close enough for your purposes. DO NOT make a LARGE adjustment all at once--sneak up on it carefully. Use partial turns of the adjustment! If the screw falls out, or goes in too far, it may destroy the thermostat part, or jam the mechanism.

When you figure out how it acts, put the knob back on, set the temperature, and see how close it holds. Tweak the setting a tiny bit more as needed.

The tough part is that as you tow the trailer, the thermostat mechanism ages, vibration, whatever, it will probably change the calibration. Always use an accurate oven thermometer to set the temperature and verify it when you cook-even at home...home ovens are not that accurate either--not even the fancy digital ones! And no, the calibration from the factory, if they even do any, does not usually survive shipping and handling before the stove is installed...

[mikeinca]

Rich, I appreciate the time you took to post your thoughts and I'll do some poking around to see what I can find. Since my dealer contacted Dometic about the problem I would hope they would have mentioned if there was a way to calibrate the thermostat rather than telling him "that's just the way they all work" but maybe a particularly unhelpful and uniformed person answered the phone!

I'm picking up the trailer tomorrow so maybe I can have this discussion with one of the dealer techs.

[rmkrum]

There is a lot of unhelpful and uninformed out there, but who can know everything about anything... I’d consider talking to a propane supplier that sells appliances intended for propane use. Now you’re making me interested in looking into my stove and checking it. We’ve never tried the oven (sigh). My data is from a household oven, but the principle should be the same.

I can understand an oven being say 20-30 degrees off, but over a hundred is going to burn food...

[switz]

Gave up on the temperature markings on the temperature control knobs on both of our Dometic CU434 stoves that we retrofitted to our 2014 Classic and 2015 23D International Serenity. I use a Thermoworks digital oven thermometer that has two probes, one for the air temp and one for the meat (or whatever is cooking) temp. They also have a single probe model that works well.

Single probe
https://www.thermoworks.com/ChefAlarm

Dual probe
https://www.thermoworks.com/Smoke

We just acquired their four channel unit for BBQ work...
https://www.thermoworks.com/Signals

[AirstreamInc]

Originally Posted by mikeinca

A while back I posted about how the Dometic oven in our 2018 30' Classic ran hot; anywhere from 75 to 100 degrees hotter than the indicated temperature on the dial. BTW, this was the second oven in the Classic; the first one wouldn't even light. Anyway, bear with me for a moment for a quick recap of the events since then.

At the end of September I took the trailer to the dealer to address the problem. A new thermocouple was ordered and I understood that Dometic would have to ship the part from Europe which, for some reason, was going to take 6 weeks and wouldn't arrive until November 22nd. As it turned out, it was worse than that. Dometic needed 6 weeks just to get the part in the mail(!) which I learned when I checked back with the dealer in December to find out why I hadn't been notified of the part's arrival. At that point I registered a complaint with Airstream and they coordinated with my dealer and arranged to have a another new oven sent from JC last week.

This morning I received a call from the dealer. The good news; the oven arrived yesterday and was installed. The bad news; it's preforming exactly like the old oven and is running much hotter than the thermostat setting. My service guy was extremely apologetic. Apparently they tried a number of different adjustments but none were successful. FWIW, they tested the oven in another Classic on the lot and it did the same thing. He contacted Dometic but basically was told "that's just the way they all work". Really? Hey Dometic, why bother putting temperature gradations on the thermostat dial then? Put lines on the dial and let the owner write in their own numbers with a magic marker!

I suppose I don't expect anything to come of this post other than to get some frustration off my chest. That and to state publicly, if Airstream is going to offer a gas oven in their expensive trailers they ought to at least choose a supplier who can provide a product that isn't deficient right out of the box!

Hi mikeinca,*

Please send us a direct message with your contact information and the last 6 digits of your VIN so we can share it with our Customer Service and Technical Support team.

Thank you.*

[fordgt40]

I am sorry to hear your issues with your oven. We have owned 3 older Airstreams, a 1977, a 1988 and we currently own a 1971 Sovereign with a Airstream Custom oven in it and the ovens have all worked great and accurately. I propose people stop buying new Airstreams with all their inherent issues and purchase a vintage Airstream for 10% of the price of a new one, and fix it up the way you want it and save somewhere between $50-70K dollars and have something that is customized to your wants and needs.

The only way to get Airstreams attention is for them to start having them stack up (not being sold) because of all the quality issues they have. As long as they can sell them with all the issues a new Airstream has, nothing is going to change.

Good luck with your oven, and I hope Airstream fixes this for you!!
Charlie

[Rob Cope]

It will help AS as a brand if every dealer insists the head office gives urgent attention to issues with its suppliers. Drawing attention to deficiencies like these are warnings the brand may fail.

[eganwh]

Thanks for starting this thread. I have a CU-434 ordered and will install once my replacement countertop is finished next month sometime. I will post temperature results once up an running. Best of luck working through this issue.

[Atwebs]

Our last trailer had a gas oven and we had exactly the same issue, although the dealer never replaced it. That one had a hot bottom and burnt everything we tried to cook in it regardless of how long we preheated the oven and waited for even temperatures to exist. We wound up using a portable thermometer to gauge the temperature. But if it needed to heat up a wee bit -burnt bottoms.

We also had a free standing Camp Chef oven that we used during a kitchen remodel and it also had a totally wonky temperature control. Usually it went from burning and drying stuff out to not cooking at all -nothing close to a regular baking temperature.

As I sold the Camp Chef to an excited tent camper she mentioned all she needed to do was to find a pizza stone to fit it. "You do pizza when you are camping?" Her answer was "No, you just insert the pizza stone above the flame to spread out the heat and keep the temperature more even."

Simple solution. My daughter in law who has the old trailer tried it too and it took care of the burning bottoms and helped to keep the temperature sensor from heating everything up too much.

[rucos]

My original 1970 stove/oven is still in use (I've replaced some valves).... we use the oven regularly and I have a inside oven thermometer mounted just inside the door for monitoring temp as the control was always wrong ... we very quickly learned how to get the temperature where we wanted it..... about 2 years ago i added a Pizza stone (as mentioned above by Atwebs) to the bottom plate just above burners ....you could also use unglazed tiles.... this makes a huge difference and has actually started to get the gauge settings closer to the real temperature... this is a MUST have for every gas oven to moderate temperature as the burners don't need to turn on as much because you have a mass holding heat..... its a simple solution and works great!
For us having a good oven is a must have.

[TheParula]

Our 2018 international oven burns every thing, mostly useless, still thinking of complaining. But expensive and time consuming to keep going to dealer.

[truxpin]

The thermostat for domestic ovens is adjustable. When we bought ours ( used 2001) the oven was terribly off in it's thermostat settings. It's been a while, but I believe there is a standard head screw located behind the know ( ( on the valve where it mounts to the front of the stove) we used a remote temp gauge and made small adjustments untill we got close. A good Google search should open up a pleathera of info on the subject.....

[BAB]

There is no adjustment screw behind the knob on the CU-434, at least not on my oven. It’s really nice to look at, but the temperature swings when you use it are mindless. I used my Weber iGrill (connects with my iPhone) to check the “accuracy” of the Dometic. With the thermostat set at roughly 350, after 20 minutes of preheating, the oven would range from 225 (about a warming oven temp) to 425 (well above where you’d bake a cake or biscuits). I think part of it is poor design. Instead of having the heating element UNDER the oven, it’s a tube with burner holes at the very BACK of the oven. So, you have to be incredibly vigilant to keep turning what you’re baking, as the back side of what you're baking burns while the front of the pan barely bakes. How to solve this nice looking but unusable oven? Buy one of the small Breville toaster ovens. Oh, and if you’ll note, I have a 2015 Classic. So this has been going on for 4 model years now.

[mikeinca]

Thanks for all of the replies and suggestions. In a "misery loves company" sort of way it's actually good to know that mine isn't an isolated problem with the oven. I intend to follow up with both Airstream and Dometic although I don't expect much to come of it.

Using a digital oven thermometer to monitor temps is a good idea so I'll look into that. The analog one we have is a bit too tall too fit under the top rack with the bottom rack in place. Also, the pizza stone or glazed tile solution sounds like it might be worth a try.