Loose Dometic stove burner

[Gliddenwoods]

I have a 2022 Oliver Trailer with a Dometic Stove D21 installed. One of the burners is loose and there are no screws attaching it to the stove. I do not know if screws ever existed or if the screws fell out & down. If screws once existed there are likely in the underside pan cover space. I have not tried to take the stove apart. (Photo attached)

 

I will check when I purchased the Oliver and the stove in 2022 when home so I am unsure whether the stove is under the 24 month warranty or not.

 

However, if one were to attempt to repair (reinstall the two screws) is this accomplished by remove the top stove from the top of the  counter OR dropping the stove "under pan" below the stove and behind the drawers.

 

Depending on which repair option is correct any information on how to conduct the repair process.

 

Thanks

[mountainoliver]

I don’t know but it looks like the two screws came up from the underside, went through the piece with the igniter, and threaded into the top cover. Are the two bosses in the top cover threaded? Can you look from underneath at the other good burner and see if there’s two screws going up into the top cover? Could that burner never been assembled completely from the start?

[SNY SD UP]

We also had this issue while up in northern Canada last summer.  We believe it was a problem for a couple of years, we just were not aware of it until it was loose enough to start coming apart.  When we returned home I got ahold of Dometic and received the following email reply.

=====================
From: CustomerSupportCenter [mailto:customersupportcenter@dometic.com]
Sent: Friday, September 1, 2023 9:46 AM
To: BryanB
Subject: RE: Dometic.com Support Form - US - productsupport - rv - b2c

Hello Mr. Bjornstad:

I was able to reach out to our engineering department.

The engineer indicated the information directly below:

“the bolts used to secure the burner caps are common M3x24mm socket head screws.  They can be found at most hardware stores.  
He should apply blue Loctite to the screws before putting them in.”  

=====================

Yes, there are threads in the underside of the burner caps. 
The burner cap is made of 'pot metal' so if the screws are not of the exact sizing and ARE NOT 'Loctite-d' in, they may vibrate out again or worse yet, they may strip (as ours did) out of the soft pot metal burner cap. 
There was no indication (blue) of there being any Loctite around our screw heads when we were taking it apart to repair it.  So the Loctite comment above may be a revision based upon customer experience.
The following is what we did to fix the issue.  We only had one screw per element and no Loctite at the time so we were at a less than ideal situation.  

• turn off the gas at the tanks,
• remove the stove from the countertop,
• disco your gas fitting,
• turn stove upside-down and, make a note of the 'ignition wiring' if you have to disco more than one of them, 
• remove the underside heat shield,  (you have to cut the zip ties to remove it, replace zip ties to reduce vibration on re-install),
• re-insert the screws,
• apply Loctite where the screw head comes in contact with the assembly,
• then re-install the stove ‘Check Gas fitting for leakage’.  

We actually became quite proficient at this and I would be able to do it (less Loctite) as Maggie was doing 'meal prep', so I was done when she needed the stove.  That is until the loosening of the screws and vibrating caused the 'burner tube' coming into the mixing bowl to break.  At that point the stove was UNSAFE to use.  So I put it in the back of the truck, got a brass plug for the gas supply line and covered the area with the 'Oliver supplied' sink cover, and taped that down.  That gave us a larger meal prep area, and more outside cooking.

Our final resolution when we returned home (because stove was basically shaken apart) was to replace our D21 (AMZN Dometic outlet), because we were unable to find the replacement parts that broke as a result of the ‘burner caps’ coming loose, and shaking/breaking apart the internals of the stove.  When the new stove arrived, I took it apart at the bottom and made sure all 4 screws were there and sure enough, signs of blue Loctite on the screw heads.

I have discussed using Red (hi-heat) Loctite thru PM's with others on the forum.  
The caveat is 'if you want it to stay put, Red would not hurt, if you have need to get in there and remove those screws and do other work, Blue would be better'...  So I will stick with the Blue for now, as I do not believe that the original stove had any Blue on it.  In fact, I do not believe we had two screws in each burner cap to start with. Never did find the two missing screws and I searched the entire enclosure and behind the false back of the drawer area.

We can now look back at it as a learning adventure.  Yah, may not take as many 'wash-boardy' roads less travelled, and will probably even go slower than we did...  We learned a lot about the Oliver, Appliances (lost the WH too), about repair in remote locations, phone conversations with SeaDawg & Outlaw Oliver, and our own tolerances to experiences when dealing with and overcoming unexpected issues that arise,  but GAWD, did we enjoy the adventure even with the adversities.  

So much so, WE ARE GOING BACK again this camping season, with the intent to make it to AK this time.  Cannot wait to try (after a local shake-down weekend) our new Dometic stove and WH (another thread)... the adventure continues.

B~Out,

 

 

First edit, if others end up purchasing a new Dometic D21 Stove... the Brass elbow attached to the stove is now pointed 180 deg. opposite the supply line.  So I just disco'd it, put on some YELLOW Teflon tape and then tightened it up to the orientation of the old one, and hooked the gas line back up. 

Second edit,  Some of your appliances are going to have 'Metric' in them, especially if they are used outside the US.  Just be Aware.

Third edit with pics: once you have the stove exposed, you remove the heat shield screws (sm. red circles), notice wht. zip ties.. 
Your burner cap screws pass thru here (black arrows).   
The large red circle is the broken supply tube between control knob & mixing bowl.  I tried to get some aluminum tubing to repair it. 
Even thought of sacrificing the stem to the coffee pot... I was told, that was NOT an option.  

Edited May 2 by SNY SD UP
Re-iterated YELLOW TEFLON TAPE

[johnwen]

On 4/18/2024 at 12:58 PM, SNY SD UP said:

We also had this issue while up in northern Canada last summer.  We believe it was a problem for a couple of years, we just were not aware of it until it was loose enough to start coming apart.  When we returned home I got ahold of Dometic and received the following email reply.

=====================
From: CustomerSupportCenter [mailto:customersupportcenter@dometic.com]
Sent: Friday, September 1, 2023 9:46 AM
To: BryanB
Subject: RE: Dometic.com Support Form - US - productsupport - rv - b2c

Hello Mr. Bjornstad:

I was able to reach out to our engineering department.

The engineer indicated the information directly below:

“the bolts used to secure the burner caps are common M3x24mm socket head screws.  They can be found at most hardware stores.  
He should apply blue Loctite to the screws before putting them in.”  

=====================

Yes, there are threads in the underside of the burner caps. 
The burner cap is made of 'pot metal' so if the screws are not of the exact sizing and ARE NOT 'Loctite-d' in, they may vibrate out again or worse yet, they may strip (as ours did) out of the soft pot metal burner cap. 
There was no indication (blue) of there being any Loctite around our screw heads when we were taking it apart to repair it.  So the Loctite comment above may be a revision based upon customer experience.
The following is what we did to fix the issue.  We only had one screw per element and no Loctite at the time so we were at a less than ideal situation.  

• turn off the gas at the tanks,
• remove the stove from the countertop,
• disco your gas fitting,
• turn stove upside-down and, make a note of the 'ignition wiring' if you have to disco more than one of them, 
• remove the underside heat shield,  (you have to cut the zip ties to remove it, replace zip ties to reduce vibration on re-install),
• re-insert the screws,
• apply Loctite where the screw head comes in contact with the assembly,
• then re-install the stove ‘Check Gas fitting for leakage’.  

We actually became quite proficient at this and I would be able to do it (less Loctite) as Maggie was doing 'meal prep', so I was done when she needed the stove.  That is until the loosening of the screws and vibrating caused the 'burner tube' coming into the mixing bowl to break.  At that point the stove was UNSAFE to use.  So I put it in the back of the truck, got a brass plug for the gas supply line and covered the area with the 'Oliver supplied' sink cover, and taped that down.  That gave us a larger meal prep area, and more outside cooking.

Our final resolution when we returned home (because stove was basically shaken apart) was to replace our D21 (AMZN Dometic outlet), because we were unable to find the replacement parts that broke as a result of the ‘burner caps’ coming loose, and shaking/breaking apart the internals of the stove.  When the new stove arrived, I took it apart at the bottom and made sure all 4 screws were there and sure enough, signs of blue Loctite on the screw heads.

I have discussed using Red (hi-heat) Loctite thru PM's with others on the forum.  
The caveat is 'if you want it to stay put, Red would not hurt, if you have need to get in there and remove those screws and do other work, Blue would be better'...  So I will stick with the Blue for now, as I do not believe that the original stove had any Blue on it.  In fact, I do not believe we had two screws in each burner cap to start with. Never did find the two missing screws and I searched the entire enclosure and behind the false back of the drawer area.

We can now look back at it as a learning adventure.  Yah, may not take as many 'wash-boardy' roads less travelled, and will probably even go slower than we did...  We learned a lot about the Oliver, Appliances (lost the WH too), about repair in remote locations, phone conversations with SeaDawg & Outlaw Oliver, and our own tolerances to experiences when dealing with and overcoming unexpected issues that arise,  but GAWD, did we enjoy the adventure even with the adversities.  

So much so, WE ARE GOING BACK again this camping season, with the intent to make it to AK this time.  Cannot wait to try (after a local shake-down weekend) our new Dometic stove and WH (another thread)... the adventure continues.

B~Out,

 

 

First edit, if others end up purchasing a new Dometic D21 Stove... the Brass elbow attached to the stove is now pointed 180 deg. opposite the supply line.  So I just disco'd it, put on some YELLOW Teflon tape and then tightened it up to the orientation of the old one, and hooked the gas line back up. 

Second edit,  Some of your appliances are going to have 'Metric' in them, especially if they are used outside the US.  Just be Aware.

Third edit with pics: once you have the stove exposed, you remove the heat shield screws (sm. red circles), notice wht. zip ties.. 
Your burner cap screws pass thru here (black arrows).   
The large red circle is the broken supply tube between control knob & mixing bowl.  I tried to get some aluminum tubing to repair it. 
Even thought of sacrificing the stem to the coffee pot... I was told, that was NOT an option.  

Thanks for the walkthrough.  Both screws from underside one burner came out...very fortunate Wendy found them both and we were able to use your help to fix everything.  I did have to disconnect the gas line and after using gas thread tape and follow up with a "sniffer" all turned out well.  We did use blue locktite on the screws.  No evidence of previous locktite application  Thanks,

John

[Guest]

Hello, 

This also happened to Carrie and I several months ago. I took the stove out and I was not able to locate the screws. I just drilled through the aluminum disk and used a bolt with a nut. Definitely shouldn't come out again. 

Kirk

[MAX Burner]

18 hours ago, snakeriveridaho said:

I just drilled through the aluminum disk and used a bolt with a nut.

Good one - nice fix!

[johnwen]

On 4/30/2024 at 2:19 PM, johnwen said:

Thanks for the walkthrough.  Both screws from underside one burner came out...very fortunate Wendy found them both and we were able to use your help to fix everything.  I did have to disconnect the gas line and after using gas thread tape and follow up with a "sniffer" all turned out well.  We did use blue locktite on the screws.  No evidence of previous locktite application  Thanks,

John

Follow up... the propane sensor went off this AM and turns out the gas line connection came a little loose when I reinstalled the top.  Turned off the propane bottle and headed to Ace hardware.  I initially used tape that qualified, according to the label, as suitable for gas line connections.  It was gray in color.  I didn't have the yellow that I have always used before.  Took back apart this afternoon and replaced with the proper yellow tape.  All is well for now...according to my sniffer.

John

[johnwen]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:20 PM, Guest said:

Hello, 

This also happened to Carrie and I several months ago. I took the stove out and I was not able to locate the screws. I just drilled through the aluminum disk and used a bolt with a nut. Definitely shouldn't come out again. 

Kirk

Just a long shot here Kirk...do you remember the bolt dimensions?  I will modify as you did (bolt holes are now stripped).

Thanks

John

[SNY SD UP]

These are metric screws that come up from underneath to hold down the burner cap.
“the bolts used to secure the burner caps are common M3x24mm socket head screws.  
Most RV appliances are going to have metric (screw, nut, and bolt) fasteners, to be compatible with the non-USA market. 

If you are going to ream/drill-out thru the burner cap and put in bolts... I would stay small, less than say 1/8-3/16"...  At that point I would probably go with a small 'round-not-slotted-head', a slotted head is just one more place for food to catch and be difficult to keep clean.

My problem was, with all the shaking (Campbell Hwy, roads to Mayo, Keno & Tuk) on our AK trip 'on roads less travelled', the threads on the underside of the burner cap had pulled/stripped away.  Also not thinking "hey, could they be metric not SAE".  So I caused some issue by trying to fit SAE into Metric.  My Very Bad!!!

If you have the D21 (ours was installed in mid-2020) and you remove it, and do not see blue Loctite on the screws, at that point, I would get some 'Blue', loosen up the screws just a bit and add a drop of Blue, retighten, and call it Preventative Maintenance time well spent.   
I am not sure when Dometic started adding the Blue Loctite to those screws.  it was done sometime between 2020 & their 2023 email reply.

This is not thread-drift,
but I believe the root cause for a lot of our appliance & trailer problems were Blown Shocks, which I did not check before heading 'Off-to-Alaska'.  
That said, after we replaced shocks & leaf-springs, "yah we broke some of them too".  This years R/T to Alaska was rather uneventful with regards to 'shaky-trailer-syndrome...'.  We did had an issue with the 'Highpoint Convection Microwave' coming loose from the front panel, but fixed it (interesting screw choice in there) and we were good.  However, getting it re-seated in the very back took quite a while.  

Thanks to all for the comments and feed-back.  Gawd I love this forum.

B~Out,

[SNY SD UP]

On 4/17/2024 at 4:26 PM, mountainoliver said:

I don’t know but it looks like the two screws came up from the underside, went through the piece with the igniter, and threaded into the top cover. Are the two bosses in the top cover threaded? Can you look from underneath at the other good burner and see if there’s two screws going up into the top cover? Could that burner never been assembled completely from the start?

That is the 'million dollar' question. 
When it was assembled at the Dometic factory did it have two screws on each element or one.  That would be a Dometic QC question.

I am not sure what happened with the Gliddenwoods stove, I was just posting that their issue looked similar to ours, and what our involved.

By the time the burner caps became loose, and then fell off, I fount one screw in the drawer below, and one was in the remaining element. 
I searched all over for the other two screws.  The heat shield below the stove, may have helped those screws find a really good hiding place. 
Kind of like where socks hide in the washer or dryer...

This D21 assembly 'Process Change' to add blue Loctite to the screws tell me, this was a re-occurring problem, and this is how they chose to address it.
And I am good with that.

[mountainoliver]

Except for the fact that the best way to ge loctite to release is to apply heat. The heat of a normally operating engine for example is not enough but say a propane torch or propane gas stove is I’d imagine is ample enough heat to release the loctite. 

[SNY SD UP]

At the time i was thinking about applying RED Loctite, i did not fully understand of its properties.
Yes, it requires some 'Heat' to break its bond.  At the time, i was thinking, "hey this part of the stove element gets really hot, so maybe i should try RED...".
That's what i get for thinking without knowing. 
I discussed using RED, for this application with the Dometic Engineer, his reply was 'Blue is all this application needs, that is why we now do it this way."

I also believe that by specifying 'using Blue Loctite', it is a QC measure to make sure they have 2 screws per element, hopefully tightened down.
 

B~Out,

Edited October 30 by SNY SD UP

[jd1923]

18 hours ago, SNY SD UP said:

I discussed using RED, for this application with the Dometic Engineer, his reply was 'Blue is all this application needs, that is why we now do it this way."

Blue is all you ever need for common repairs! If you have red, and your business is not engine rebuilding, toss it out!

[johnwen]

I went with red after drilling out the burner cover and installing bolt through the top with nuts below.  But my threads were trashed so I redrilled the holes slightly larger and installed bolt with nut and red locktite...not caring if ever I can get back apart as I'll replace the whole stovetop with sob.  I could cut the bolt head off if absolutely necessary.  Thanks per SNY SD UP :)