Keith -

It's called product liability from the manufacturer.  The manufacturer
(Dometic in this case) is not worried about guys like you and I who use a
bit of common sense in the "care and feeding" of our precious campers.
Dometic is more concerned about Camper and RM182 series owners who don't or
won't exercise their brains and use their common sense, so they've gotta
cover their bases legal-wise to protect their corporate butt.

And then there's the salt issue mentioned earlier.  I always use my cover
when washing my camper and when parked/camped in heavy rain (without the
propane running it of course - don't wanna melt-down!).
--
Jim Thompson
84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
73 K Ghia Coupe "Denise"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
***********************************
On 6/22/07, Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> I've never had a vent cover and it seems to me that it's not necessary.
> Have any of you ever had water in the flue or on the floor near the
> intake port? Never an issue with my 84 or 90 Dometic fridge. So, what
> is the concern here? By the way, my van always gets hand washed by
> yours truly because I never thought it would be a good idea to take it
> to a commercial car wash with the roof racks, etc. Maybe the high
> pressure sprayers could get water into the flue? After inspecting the
> burn chambers of both my 84 and 90 Dometic fridge's, there was some ash
> and a bit of rusty scale, but no standing water or major rust-through
> problems. If I were to convert to a compressor fridge (Norcold, or
> whatever) then I would want to seal off the vent/intake port
> completely. Whole different ball game. So, what gives here?
>
>
> Keith O.
> 90 Westy Syncro "VikingWagen"
> Past VeeDubs in the family
> 1984 Westy "Brownie"
> 1980 PU diesel
> 1978 Rabbit diesel
> 1979 Rabbit gasser
> 1963? 23 window Splitty
> 1965 Bus
> 1969 Bus
> 1959 Bug