Suburban SDS2 LP Leak Cooktop Owners

[Eggscape]

I hope to phone the 5 RV repair facilities in the area and see which one will give me the stove as soon as it arrives for me to install.

I will give them the stove back but would like to keep the glass top and knobs in case there is a future need.

[Melusine]

Hi Dee:
What stove are you expecting to receive?
Good on ya for getting any, repeat ANY, response.
Just a cautionary thought: if the promise is of a Suburban unit, there's a chance it's not going to happen.
Realistically, in the several (7-8) months I've been dealing (or trying to deal) with ETI and their remote surrogates, it's become pretty evident that nobody expects there to be any effort to replace the malfunctioning units.
Hoping to be proven wrong...
Jon in AZ

[Bobbie54]

Originally Posted by Melusine

Hi Dee:
What stove are you expecting to receive?
Good on ya for getting any, repeat ANY, response.
Just a cautionary thought: if the promise is of a Suburban unit, there's a chance it's not going to happen.
Realistically, in the several (7-8) months I've been dealing (or trying to deal) with ETI and their remote surrogates, it's become pretty evident that nobody expects there to be any effort to replace the malfunctioning units.
Hoping to be proven wrong...
Jon in AZ

There is a recall coming. They are supposedly replacing the tubes with stainless steel.

[Dee08802]

We talked to Suburban directly. They are supplying the 3031AST stove in compliance with the recall notice which will be sent shortly to all Escape owners that have this stove. This appears to be the same stove except for replacement of the aluminum gas lines with stainless lines. They informed us they will not send the stoves directly to owners. We were told to contact a authorized RV service center who would arrange receipt. The service rep offered to send it to us for installation which I thought was nice of him. He will probably get paid from Suburban for doing the install anyway.

https://suburbanrvparts.com/suburban...031ast-sds2ss/

[Eggscape]

Thanks for posting a link to the new stove.

It always troubles me when a company can’t even get the description correct for their own product.

The BTUs are stated as different, one states spark the other states match with the knobs in the front right corner.

[sreed27]

We have a 2020 5.0 with a suburban cooktop. I noticed shortly after delivery that the flashing underneath was not attached. How would we know if there is a problem like others are having? Thank you

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by sreed27

We have a 2020 5.0 with a suburban cooktop. I noticed shortly after delivery that the flashing underneath was not attached. How would we know if there is a problem like others are having? Thank you

If you're referring to the horizontal piece of sheet aluminum that's what's called the "heat shield". If you google that and stove you'll see threads that mention it.

Yes, others have had problems with it falling down.

Actually if you go through this thread you'll find lot's of info.

Ron

[JohnK]

First of all, I can't thank the recent previous owner of our trailer for emphasizing to us the importance of taking this Suburban cooktop issue seriously even before we made the decision to buy. After we bought the trailer he insisted that we take his propane wand detector and use it every time we light a burner. Having taken only one trip with this trailer so far, we have not used the cooktop beyond lighting each burner momentarily to see that they worked.

Today I removed the heat shield to see for myself what everyone is talking about and found that the forward burner aluminum tube has loosened up in its fitting on the burner end. The aft connection seems to be tight for now. Both rubber vanity rings have been removed from the nuts and locktite has apparently been applied to the nuts.

Secondly, I am puzzled by Suburban's choice of materials, design, foot dragging and workmanship in this product and by Escape's silence and apparent apathy towards this entire boondoggle.

Thirdly, I am more than impressed with this community of Escape owners' years of grace and apparent willingness to forgive these two manufacturers before they even acknowledged the problem. I'll do my best to fit into this culture of forbearance but at this moment that is not coming naturally, so, along with an apology, I am unloading here once and for all to get it out of my system.

If during my previous 10 years of fiberglass trailer ownership I have ever exhibited even one ounce of conceit for owning molded fiberglass instead of stick built, I apologize profusely. Molded fiberglass may be superior in design but obviously does not guarantee manufacturer integrity.

A local Suburban service center has learned from me of the recall, did some research and verified the recall and has our cooktop serial number, ready to work with us when the recall happens.

We're about to embark on a 6 week trip which will hopefully take us from Kansas to the furthest reaches of Newfoundland and back. The photo below of a Coleman camp stove substituting for the Suburban cooktop illustrates how we might be cooking inside when we can't do so outside due to inclement weather.

John

[Carmel Clown]

Originally Posted by sreed27

We have a 2020 5.0 with a suburban cooktop. I noticed shortly after delivery that the flashing underneath was not attached. How would we know if there is a problem like others are having? Thank you

One of the screws came out on my metal shield and I just put it back in.

[Carmel Clown]

Originally Posted by Eggscape

And it is made by Dometic…

Hmm. If the Suburban and Dometic are both bad, is there another option?

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Carmel Clown

Hmm. If the Suburban and Dometic are both bad, is there another option?

From Escape? Not really. Many of us have installed the Dickinson Cooktop and installed it ourselves.. I took the top off our Dickinson so I could see the guts and it’s a day and night difference in quality.

Enjoy,

Perry

[AnJ]

Originally Posted by Eggscape

Well this is what I have been waiting for.

I did enquire with Escape if they would bring a Dometic to the rally and sell it to me but they said no and gave me a link to it on Amazon for $563 Canadian.

I think the new tubes on the new model stove will be just fine. I also think the tubes on the old stove would have worked if someone on the assembly line had of assembled and tighten the control valve nuts correctly.

Looks like there is going to be a run on stoves this year as my news feed had an unrelated article came up of over 22,000 stoves to be recalled. Apparently some generic bad gas line nuts made it into many brands of stoves. The link has gone but I did manage to snap a screenshot of most of the article.

KZ RV is mentioned in the article but has nothing to do with our Escapes.

We took our trailer to Escape after not getting much of a response through email or phone. We had them cap off the line to the stove as a safety precaution as we have young kids. They mentioned that they could sell us the stove they currently install for $200CDN but we would have to go elsewhere to install it or install it ourselves. This was in September 2021 or so.

[Bobbie54]

This is one of my beefs with Escape. They'll sell one person the Dometic stove. They refuse to sell to another. They won't even tell a third which stove fits. They don't notify anyone about the problem when they are first informed of it, even to suggest they have the stove checked. It's not their fault (probably) about the quality of the stove. I suspect the installation IS part of the problem. The rest of the trailer quality is fine- if you want superior quality on all fittings buy an Airstream. But the service and response to this issue is not good. On the other hand- the stoves first went in under the old ownership and they didn't notify everyone after the first complaint, either.

[Eggscape]

Originally Posted by Carmel Clown

Hmm. If the Suburban and Dometic are both bad, is there another option?

The Dometic stove should be just fine but I was not going to pay over $550 for it as ETI suggested. That is very close to a real stove like a Dickinson.

Personally I am not impressed with some aspects of Dometic as a company.

[Lanark Camper]

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread and the resulting recall.
I contacted Escape about our stove and immediately got a reply from Karl,

“ The recall notification bureaucracy is not finalised and has only been reported in the USA, the process in Canada is different and Escape is currently in communication with Transport Canada to determine the extent of customer contact that is required.

The process from here is as follows:
For US customers,
NHTSA will contact Escape and request Escape to issue a recall on the back of the Suburban recall.
Escape will generate the list of customers to be contacted and will prepare and deliver physical letters.
The customer will follow the process instructions which normally direct the customer to contact Suburban or a dealer and effect the warranty replacement or repair. We have not seen the process yet.
Letters are expected to be distrubted by 28 June 2022.
For Canadian customers
Escape or the Canadian distributor for Suburban (still tbd) will contact Transport Canada.
Transport Canada will advise on the extent of the repair/replacement.
Escape will contact all affected customers within 60 days of Transport Canada notification.
For the present you are in a holding pattern until we have finalised with Transport Canada. We will email everyone and probably do a video on the process at that time.

Warm regards,
Karl”

[Carmel Clown]

Originally Posted by Perry Butler

From Escape? Not really. Many of us have installed the Dickinson Cooktop and installed it ourselves.. I took the top off our Dickinson so I could see the guts and it’s a day and night difference in quality.

Enjoy,

Perry

Oh. Is it the same size or does the counter need to be cut? Thanks.

[brroberts]

Here’s the link to my install which has some measurements.

https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...tml#post400136

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by Bobbie54

...- if you want superior quality on all fittings buy an Airstream...

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Bobbie54

The rest of the trailer quality is fine- if you want superior quality on all fittings buy an Airstream.

We've owned an Airstream, our friends currently own their Airstream 23FB, and other friends/acquaintances have sold their Airstream. There is NO superior quality and they buy their components from the Dometic/Suburban/etc. too. Don't be fooled by their looks.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Carmel Clown

Oh. Is it the same size or does the counter need to be cut? Thanks.

The counter needs to be cut and a small filler piece installed depending on how ETI cut in the Suburban. We had to move our LP gas line. It's pretty easy if you're handy with tools.

Enjoy,

Perry