Oven almost burned down my camper

Just got home from another great campout. It almost turned bad. I had not used the oven before and the lady I bought this from had never used the oven. It looks brand new. I light the pilot light with no problem. Turn it up to 350 and I hear it light. No problems. I go outside to get a cold one so I can cook (it's just nessary when camping). When I walk back in the plastic trim on the wall just about the back right side of the oven is on fire. I had some water near by and put it right out and shut the oven down. I can see nothing wrong when I took the top off and look behind so I'm not sure what caused the fire. Anyone had this happen and any ideas?

UPDATE: Pulled the stove foward from the wall. You can see fire marks all the way down the right side. I'll try and attach a photo. Looks like it came out from the vents that run down side. So I'm guessing there is a leak or something between the oven firewall and the back of the oven where the gas line runs. I don't see an easy way to get back there. Thinking this will be a job for a pro.

Wow! Good thing you caught it early. Yea I'd go with a pro, unless you have some special knowledge with propane.

There are threads here about the propane pipes rubbing in the back of the stove area. Potentially creating a hole where the gas can leak. Maybe something like that happened?

Thank you for the pictures. While I have not had a fire I did inspect the propane line as suggested in another post some time back and did indeed find a place where the soft copper was in a tight spot with an edge from the stove. The constant motion of the trailer in travel could cause a leak if the soft copper was constantly being rubbed or moved against a harder metal edge. Moved the line just a little and wrapped some leather around it for protection. It is something I check every so often. Thank you for the reminder.

[Bill]

Doc -

When the time is right, please give us a followup post to let us know what the final diagnosis is. I was ready to go with "gas leak" until I looked at your second picture. The scalloped appearance of the burn mark looks exactly like the flame pattern from the oven main burner. Did the burner come loose and move around, by any chance?

I'm REALLY glad you caught it, and could deal with it. But not as glad as you are, I bet.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

Doc -

When the time is right, please give us a followup post to let us know what the final diagnosis is. I was ready to go with "gas leak" until I looked at your second picture. The scalloped appearance of the burn mark looks exactly like the flame pattern from the oven main burner. Did the burner come loose and move around, by any chance?

I'm REALLY glad you caught it, and could deal with it. But not as glad as you are, I bet.

Bill

No Bill the burner was right where it should be. When you pull the stove out both vertical edges have cuts in them for air flow and that is where I think the fire was coming out by the burn pattern. (Could not get a good photo of the back corner of the stove) The copper line does not appear to have a leak and the fire was on the opposite side. Did a soap water test and a smell test and didn't see anything. For that much fire you would see the leak. I think the leak is comeing from the tube that goes from the oven knob to the burner. If you take the top off it runs into a hole behind the oven then comes back in though the back of the oven. I think the fire was behind the oven firewall and the back of the oven. There is about a 3 inch gap back there. Does not appear to be an easy way to get back there without taking the whole thing apart. If I had some kind of written instructions I would do it myslef but I just don't like messing with gas unless I'm 100% sure I know what's going on.

I've use the stove top many times now with no issues. Some day when I get some time I'll take it in and I'll let you fine people know what's up.

Dave

[wbmiller3]

We had a similar problem and I think it was with the internal gas line. Although mine showed up as soon as I lit the burner with way too much fire in there! Pretty scary. Glad it worked out OK for you.

You know, I like to think of myself as good with tools, fixing things, and overall handyman. I can't get that stove apart! Off to United RV tomorrow. I give.

Waiting on parts. They are replacing Parts from the knob where you adjust the temp all the way to the burner. They also found the main line was krimped but not leaking (yet) .

Is 100/hour the going rate for camper repair? No wonder I do all most every thing myself. At least the camper will not burn down now.

Dave

Two of the gas lines that run from where you turn on the oven were bad. On one, the end was sheared off so gas was flowing behind the firewall. The other line had a leak in the line. Looks like it was that way from day one. Just a small leak but could have been bad.

They did a leak check after they fixed that and the valve on the hot water heater was leaking also. R and R that.

The copper line going to the oven was damaged by someone before me. Looks like it had been twisted and kinked. They ran new copper from under the camper to the oven.

Charged for 4.5 hours labor and parts ect. came out to $875. Not a cheap fix but we are safe now. Did a shake down when we got it home and everything is working.

The service tech said that they guy who fixed it worked on travelmanors several years ago and said he did not like working on them. If it had not been a gas issue they would not have worked on it. I went there because they are an authorized rep of the oven we had. At $130/hour labor I don't think I'll be going there very often. However, I can't complain about the job done. Looks like good work to me. Done right.