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Splendide fire

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Robert W Carlson:
Our Splendide is 6 years old.  In September the dryer portion failed and we called Westland and were referred to RV MD in Tucson.  The electronic board was replaced and the vent was cleaned.  On January 2, while drying one sheet, the smoke alarm sounded.  (Make sure your's is working!)  Smoke was coming from the laundry cabinet.  Opened the doors and looking through the glass in the door we saw flames in the drum.  Left the door closed and shut the power off.  The fire eventually went out.  There was no fire in the vent.  There was a lot of smoke ... spring cleaning came early!  If you have a Splendide, you probably shouldn't leave the coach while it is in operation.  Right now, I don't think I want to replace the laundry, I don't trust it.

Carol Carlson

Joel Weiss:
At least you are safe; that's the most important thing.  Clothes and dryers can be replaced.

Although it would be difficult to prove, it sure sounds as if someone left a "ball" of lint in the system that eventually grew in size until it clogged the vent.  I never thought of "not having vent fires" as a plus for the ventless model we have, but maybe it is.  Other than a vent fire it's difficult to imagine a scenario that would lead to actual flames in the drum.

Robert W Carlson:
We removed the vent pipe to make sure there was no fire in the vent.  It was clean.  Bob cleans it regularly.  Also, the dial that moves from wash to rinse to dry moved by itself to 9 hr delay start.  This indicates to me that the replaced board failed.  Bob called Westland and they didn't know why the safety sensors did not shut the machine down.  I still won't trust it!

Carol Carlson

Edward Buker:
This is a truly scary situation. This unit has a low wattage drying cycle given it is a 120V unit vs a home unit using 220v. I have felt the exhaust air outside of the coach at the vent and it is barely warm. It is hard to imagine how the fire could happen in the dryer drum unless a short took place and sparks entered the drum and ignited the cloth.

Never have been overly impressed with Italian engineering which usually does not give very Splendide results. I will keep one eye on ours and heed the warning not to leave the coach while it is running. That is hard given it takes forever to wash and dry...

Later Ed

Jeremy Parrett:
How do you remove the Splendide for a cleaning/inspection??
How does it heat/dry the clothes? Is there an element that heats up during the wash cycle?
Jane tells me the drum in ours gets hot enough to burn skin during the drying cycle.

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