Warning - Hot Water Tank Fire - in 2003 Jayco 27BH - bad design? - Take Precautions

[Carson]

Hi
Last week my 2003 Jayco 27BH started on fire! It was at luch time and smoke started to come up under by daughter's bunk. We ran out opended the storage compartment to discover flames. We yanked everything out and got the fire out quickly. A few things melted but everyone was safe. From what I can tell the electrical connection that runs to the back of the heater shorted out starting the fire. The breaker tripped but not soon enough. In my trailer and from what I can tell others of this model have the hot water tank in the rear storage compartment beneath the lower bunk. In my trailer and others I have heard about there is nothing dividing the tank and the wire at the back from the rest of the storrage area. I called Jayco and said that I felt that this was a safety concern. They had two basic responses. 1. The trailer was built to the safety codes of the time and 2. I should have used common sense and not put anything in this compartment that would come into contact with the back of the heater. Man this last statement pissed me off! By this logic this compratment should not have ANYTHING in it as items will shift in travel. The last I heard Jayco is "investigating". I have heard that some other companies have warning lables saying that you should not store anyting in with the hot water tank - these are designs where the tank is in its own space - there is no such warning on my trailer.

I feel myself to be very very lucky. If we had not been at the trailer it would have burned. If the fire would have happened at night with my daughter sleeping 6" away....

I want to warn everyone with this trialer design that they need to put up a barrier between the tank and the rest of the storrage. Aslo we will never leave our heater on at night again - either on gas or electric. We are also going to shut the breaker off at night - just to make sure. All of this we will be doing on a new - not a Jayco - trailer. My wife rightly refuses to ever let the kids sleep in the old one again.

I have asked Jayco to put out this warning themselves as they would be able to contact all old customers and dealers - they may very well still do this but I don't want to wait. It happened to me, it can happen again. Please be careful and take the needed precautions.

[clubhouse]

Read this on another forum too...very scary stuff. I have actually conducted fire drills with my 6 and 4 y/o girls so that hopefully should an emergency happen they have a fighting chance to open emergency window. We are very happy you are all safe, I don't even want to think what could have happened if this was the middle of the night.

My 2012 has the same rear storage set up, however there is a barrier between the water heater and the rest of he storage space. Even with that I have been thinking about adding a second barrier to further protect the tank, but also low point drain valves which are currently unprotected from shifting cargo.

Wonder when Jayo started adding the barrier?

[Phildakota]

Thanks for the warning I have the same model and I will be looking into that as soon as possible I am actually out camping for the weekend

[Rustic Eagle]

Carson,

Welcome to the Jayco forums, and good to hear there wasn't any major damage.

When you get a chance some pics of your storage area near the HWH would be helpful, will give everyone reading the thread a better sense of what the space looks like.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Phildakota

snip........I have the same model and I will be looking into that as soon as possible I am actually out camping for the weekend

Phildakota,

Is your Jayco 27Bh a 2003 model year as well? I'm sure many of us would be curious if your HWH is located in the same fashion as the OP's.

Bob

[tlhdoc]

Carson sorry your first post is one like this.

[Carson]

Hi
Your welcome for the warning. Please pass it on to anyone you know with a trailer with this unsafe design.

I too am very curious as to when Jayco started putting in a barrier. Does anyone know how I would find out if they did it because of a safety concern or if it was because of a change in regulations?

Also am I correct that trailers of my year and model did not have a barrier or was the barrier in mine missed? There never was a barrier - but I found out that Jayco called the RV center where it is at and asked them if there was any sign of screw holes showing that a barrier may have been removed. They even had them take photos of this area and send them in. I sent in the photos below that showed the back of the heater and the cord but not of the area where there would have been a barrier if one existed.

Although hard to see from my photos the rest of the area around the hot water tank is a long low STORAGE area that goes all the way under the bottom bunk bed - it was built and for and was meant to be storage. Still pisses me off that Jayco told me I should have used "common sense" and should not have put items in here that would come into contact with the hot water tank. Maybe they should have used a little common sense when they came up with such a poor and potentially dangerous design.

I just got my new Bullet today. The hot water tank is still under the bottom bunk but at least it is in its own compartment. I am going to open up where it is at and place a layer of fire proof insulation on top. Even though we got the fire out very quickly the plywood that makes up the bottom of the bunk where my daughter sleeps was hot to the touch. Every time I think about it I know how lucky we were.

Thanks for your time.

[bayleightucker]

Sorry to hear about this incident ,we get a lot of help full info on this site and even tho your experience was terrible, thank you for sharing it,you may very well have saved someones life by doing so. So thank full no one was injured,.........happy camping.

[nitrohorse]

I agree that Jayco, or any manufacturer, should have partitioned off the heater. But I also think we as adults have to recognize potential issues or danger as well. It's obvious that a water heater gets hot and that some have the electric heat ability. We as tt owners have to make sure that we keep the area near the heater clear of anything that can combust or damage the wiring. The real blessing here is that no one was hurt and that we all can use this as a reminder to maintain good common sense when loading rvs. Most of us have "exposed" or un-partitioned water heaters in our sticks and bricks. None that I know of have warnings or barriers around the heater to prevent the homeowner from stacking combustibles near or on the heater...it's just something we know not to do. Add in the fact that a tt is jostled around during travel and the storage bins become more of a concerned. Again, I'm happy that no one was hurt in you incident, but we all have to be more aware of the hidden dangers in our rvs and life itself....just my humble opinion.

[mcfarmall]

Well said, nitrohorse.

[Steverino]

Thanks for the warning, Carson! Glad to hear everyone's okay. Though the water heater in my rig is not exposed like this, I appreciate this thread as a reminder to do a fire drill with my kids and check my detectors.

It's the sort of thing that's critically important but easy to overlook.

[Carson]

If there can be something good come out of all of this it is that I truly do feel lucky.

I tried to post some pics of it but they didn't seem to work. I'll try again in two separate posts.
[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[Carson]

Here is the other pic.

And to comment about my responsibility in this. Yes I would never put anything around my home hot water tank and should have know better in my trailer but at the same time to my uneducated eyes the system in the trailer looked sealed - it was the way Jayco presented it to me - in a storage area with no warning labels. I just trusted that this was safe and went ahead and used it like it was apparently intended to be used. I guess my biggest fault was trusting Jayco that what they made was safe.

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[3'senough]

Sorry to hear of your fire! My last TT had this design in it but the bunk cover was screwed shut so access was not without removing something. I never kept anything in there as the space was small since it backed up to my outside passthough which was under the other half of the bunks.

That is not a safe connection. I cannot believe that there is no junction box at all! To have romex going to exposed wire nuts is just not safe. Every electrical connection should be contained in a junction box. That should not have passed an electrical inspection IMHO.

I am also going to have a firedrill which is a great after thought that should be in the top 10 list of what to do with a new camper!

[Bob in Mass]

Thanks for the information, glad that no one was hurt. The '05 25E we just traded had the HW htr in an open bay, with storage around it. I would imagine that many more models have the same set-up.

The 'common sense' statement from Jayco would make me angry, too. 'It is not our fault' don't make it.

I'll be looking at my new trailer, no storage near it, but don't know what IS near it, other than the heater.

Bob

[Phildakota]

Yes it is a 2003 jayflight 27 bh and hot water heater is in the same place but when i get home from this trip i will be closing it off

[rbrumfield]

Originally Posted by Carson

Hi
Last week my 2003 Jayco 27BH started on fire! It was at luch time and smoke started to come up under by daughter's bunk. We ran out opended the storage compartment to discover flames. We yanked everything out and got the fire out quickly. A few things melted but everyone was safe. From what I can tell the electrical connection that runs to the back of the heater shorted out starting the fire. The breaker tripped but not soon enough. In my trailer and from what I can tell others of this model have the hot water tank in the rear storage compartment beneath the lower bunk. In my trailer and others I have heard about there is nothing dividing the tank and the wire at the back from the rest of the storrage area. I called Jayco and said that I felt that this was a safety concern. They had two basic responses. 1. The trailer was built to the safety codes of the time and 2. I should have used common sense and not put anything in this compartment that would come into contact with the back of the heater. Man this last statement pissed me off! By this logic this compratment should not have ANYTHING in it as items will shift in travel. The last I heard Jayco is "investigating". I have heard that some other companies have warning lables saying that you should not store anyting in with the hot water tank - these are designs where the tank is in its own space - there is no such warning on my trailer.

I feel myself to be very very lucky. If we had not been at the trailer it would have burned. If the fire would have happened at night with my daughter sleeping 6" away....

I want to warn everyone with this trialer design that they need to put up a barrier between the tank and the rest of the storrage. Aslo we will never leave our heater on at night again - either on gas or electric. We are also going to shut the breaker off at night - just to make sure. All of this we will be doing on a new - not a Jayco - trailer. My wife rightly refuses to ever let the kids sleep in the old one again.

I have asked Jayco to put out this warning themselves as they would be able to contact all old customers and dealers - they may very well still do this but I don't want to wait. It happened to me, it can happen again. Please be careful and take the needed precautions.

I have owned several RVs over the years and one of the first things that I do after my purchase is to go through the new unit and look for things as you describe. I can't tell you how much I have spent on sheets of barrier material; reversing barriers because the way they were installed would cause more damage than they would prevent; etc., etc. It generally takes me a week to go through the RV "fixin'" obvious design errors. I have always maintained that whoever designs these things has never used one. They just know that they have "X" number of square feet to work in and they take their slide rules and go to work...

[Carson]

Hi
Thought you might be interested in Jayco's finding of their investigation into my fire. Jayco says the trailer didn't have and didn't need a barrier between the hot water tank and the rest of the storage compartment as there was some sort of plastic juction box hoding the wire onto the back (apparently it burned up in the fire). Newer trailers of this model have a small barrier because now there are copper pipes back there - the new barrier is not intended to protect the connection at the back of the heater because to Jayco it doens't need protecting. Jayco said my case does not warrent a recall of this design nor does Jayco feel that it even warrents them to warn those with this model of the potential danger. Doesn't that just give you the warm fuzzies! I am very glad that my new trailer is not a Jayco.
Have a good rest of the summer.

[nitrohorse]

Originally Posted by Carson

Here is the other pic.

And to comment about my responsibility in this. Yes I would never put anything around my home hot water tank and should have know better in my trailer but at the same time to my uneducated eyes the system in the trailer looked sealed - it was the way Jayco presented it to me - in a storage area with no warning labels. I just trusted that this was safe and went ahead and used it like it was apparently intended to be used. I guess my biggest fault was trusting Jayco that what they made was safe.

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

Really makes me wonder how this dangerous trailer made it almost ten years without an incident. What did the previous owners do differently than you did?

[Parcany]

Checked our Hot water heater today, it is under the sink, and we really don't put a lot there but never the less I built a barrier between the trash can and the hot water heater. Feel a lot better about the hot water heater now Thanx for the info. Glad nobody got hurt.