Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Topic: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today) (Read 2387 times) previous topic - next topic

Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

September 17, 2012, 08:24:38 am

An old posting from the Yahoo Foretravel forum (I think) described a serious problem with the analog door bell:
When the door bell button sticks on, the operating coil on the gong overheats and can cause a fire.

I checked mine after reading that, and sure enough, one of the coils was cooked and had clearly overheated and partially melted the plastic housing (but no fire.) Not sure whether all door bells will do that but the original one on our coach did. I removed the gong and taped off the wires. Don't need a door bell, since we can always hear someone knocking.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #1 – September 17, 2012, 09:13:49 am

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – September 17, 2012, 08:24:38 am

An old posting from the Yahoo Foretravel forum (I think) described a serious problem with the analog door bell:
When the door bell button sticks on, the operating coil on the gong overheats and can cause a fire.

Found a couple of threads related to the fire concern, splitting this topic out for more visibility....

Pic's of doorbell fire

Stuck doorbell button causing fire

doorbell

Doorbell - Fire Hazard ?

Michelle

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #2 – September 17, 2012, 09:35:40 am

We've lived in our coach for close to four years. UPS rang the bell once. Not enough use to justify potential fire hazard. Removed the system this morning

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #3 – September 17, 2012, 11:38:18 am

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – September 17, 2012, 08:24:38 am

I checked mine after reading that, and sure enough, one of the coils was cooked and had clearly overheated and partially melted the plastic housing (but no fire.) Not sure whether all door bells will do that but the original one on our coach did. I removed the gong and taped off the wires. Don't need a door bell, since we can always hear someone knocking.

Same here.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #4 – September 17, 2012, 11:51:17 am

Same here.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #5 – September 17, 2012, 01:19:11 pm

Hmm sounds like the prudent thing although I sorta liked the idea of a door bell.

On our lake house the doorbell has never worked. Daughter and SIL (before they were married) painted a sign:

"Manual door bell: Push and yell "DING", release and yell "DONG".

Craig

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #6 – September 17, 2012, 07:25:43 pm

We met a couple at a rally that said their doorbell did spark a fire that caused some damage. Ours is disabled.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #7 – September 17, 2012, 11:56:23 pm

Since a sticking doorbell button can overheat doorbell coils, we put a very low amperage fuse in the 12-volt wire feeding the coils.

Hopefully the fuse will open if too much current flows. And now we can turn off doorbell if needed by removing fuse.

We also take out any bulb located in doorbell button.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #8 – September 18, 2012, 08:08:32 am

My problem with the doorbell is that a heavy, blowing rain gets into the button and shorts out the system, blowing a fuse.

I have tried finding some sort of waterproof button without success. My friend who owns a Bluebird has a round, black button which protrudes from the mounting ring. It has weathered the same storms which have fried my button. I have searched, but cannot find a button like that.

I do like the idea of having a dorrbell - friends we travel with have rung the bell many times. I do NOT like the idea of a fire, however!

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #9 – September 18, 2012, 08:55:00 am

Since we put dielectric grease on the back of our Lowe's doorbell button several years ago, we have not had any water infiltration problems.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #10 – September 18, 2012, 09:23:52 am

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – September 17, 2012, 08:24:38 am

An old posting from the Yahoo Foretravel forum (I think) described a serious problem with the analog door bell:
When the door bell button sticks on, the operating coil on the gong overheats and can cause a fire.

I checked mine after reading that, and sure enough, one of the coils was cooked and had clearly overheated and partially melted the plastic housing (but no fire.) Not sure whether all door bells will do that but the original one on our coach did. I removed the gong and taped off the wires. Don't need a door bell, since we can always hear someone knocking.

Here are the pictures that were referenced in the post ....
Pic's of doorbell fire
The selected media item is not currently available.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #11 – September 18, 2012, 12:55:10 pm

I took a good hard look at our doorbell "chime" system and it doesn't look like there has been any heat damage so that's good. I also like the idea of having a doorbell and I started looking around for something digital that would work on 12vdc but there aren't many options.

Has anyone found a good substitute that can use the same button?

Craig

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #12 – September 18, 2012, 01:54:50 pm

Would there be any wireless door bells that might be a replacment? jc

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #13 – September 18, 2012, 11:45:00 pm

There is wireless ones available that works great in a house should work in a motorhome as well. Walmart did carry them.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #14 – September 19, 2012, 03:06:40 pm

Yesterday I bought a $16 wireless doorbell (one button) from Walmart. I bought it because it had a wired "Try Me" pushbutton on the package. I was hoping that I could substitute the wires from the existing button on the coach for the one that was wired into the WM unit.

Well, it turns out that I can however the wired button does not produce one bell sound, it goes through all of them sequentially. So one push you get a foghorn, another push and you might get a knocking sound, and so forth. I have not yet managed to figure out how to make the wired button mimic the wireless button. I will probably have to completely disassemble the chime portion and see if there isn't a way to make it work the way I want (simple door bell sound).

At least it was only $15.

Edit: Took it apart and unless I can decipher the custom chips I'm out of luck. Only option would be to install the wireless pushbutton outside which might be a problem. I'm still looking for a proper solution using the existing button.

Craig

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #15 – September 19, 2012, 06:43:10 pm

Does using a digital door bell instead of the old coil type reduce the chance of fire? My switch was jambed, light did not work. Couple of minutes, with a new switch and we have been good. I did seal the switch around where it goes into the wall.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #16 – September 19, 2012, 09:53:46 pm

Had the same issue on a 95. Replaced the doorbell button with one from HD. It was not water resistant. Water got in and shorted it out. The doorbell solinoids are for intermittent service and get extremely hot if energized for a long period.
I smelled electrical overheat and cut off the power to the doorbell before it started a fire.

This happened twice using buttons form local sources.

Replaced the button with one from FOT and didn't have any more problems. It's more water resistant.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #17 – December 02, 2012, 11:44:35 pm

After seeing the pictures posted by Steve (gulp!) on the doorbell fire caused by a sticking or shorted out button, I decided to replace the button with a similar one from the hardware store I just recently replaced and had quit working. After washing the coach during the summer I noticed the button didn't light up anymore and then the bell stopped working altogether.

I took Barry's advice and spliced in an inline fuseholder with a 1 amp fuse to the 12v power wire for the chime inside. Tested by holding the button in till it blew and then put in another good one.

Everything works fine and this time I will use dielectric grease on the back of the button and seal it with silicone hopefully to make it watertight.

Thanks Steve for the pictures and Barry for the great advice on the fuse. I can sleep better now not worrying about a doorbell fire!

Karma for steve and Barry

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #18 – December 03, 2012, 03:42:58 pm

Quote from: Duane Budd – September 18, 2012, 08:08:32 am

My problem with the doorbell is that a heavy, blowing rain gets into the button and shorts out the system, blowing a fuse.

I have tried finding some sort of waterproof button without success. My friend who owns a Bluebird has a round, black button which protrudes from the mounting ring. It has weathered the same storms which have fried my button. I have searched, but cannot find a button like that.

I do like the idea of having a dorrbell - friends we travel with have rung the bell many times. I do NOT like the idea of a fire, however!

Cole Hersee makes 5 or 6 covered switches. Did the button on the Bluebird look something like this? Push-Button Momentary Switches | Normally Off Push-Button Switches90030 | Cole

Cheers

Ted

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #19 – December 03, 2012, 11:08:27 pm

They make some really nice looking "vandal resistant illuminated switches":
vandal resistant illuminated switch - Google Search
They can be a little hard to find but here's one from the Digikey Catalog:
PV3WF2G0BB344 E-Switch | PV3WF2G0BB344-ND | DigiKey
I thought I had the wrong voltage but the 48 volts is for the switch contacts. The illumination is 12 volts.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #20 – December 04, 2012, 08:06:13 am

I will try to get over to Kingsport soon and make a picture of the doorbell button for which I am searching. I will post it here soon.

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #21 – December 04, 2012, 08:39:08 am

The problem that you may run into with putting a doorbell switch in is that the factory switch is just a PUSH fit into the fibreglass wall that is then sealed with silicone. On mine there is no space behind the wall and I found it difficult to even push the wires far enough into the wall so that the switch would seat against the outside surface.
Gary B

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #22 – December 04, 2012, 09:34:29 pm

So, what does the stock doorbell look like? I don't think mine has one, did all of them come with one?
thanks,
Steven

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #23 – December 05, 2012, 08:34:34 am

Steven, I am not sure which models had a doorbell. I had doorbell on both the 85 ORED and the 95 U280. Both were mounted in the wall just aft of the lighted door handle. I have seen some newer models where the doorbell is located in the grab handle itself. Call FT and ask at either parts or James Triana, they have the best info.
Gary B

Re: Doorbell fire hazard (was Re: What did you do to your coach today)

Reply #24 – December 05, 2012, 01:18:55 pm

Quote from: smillner – December 04, 2012, 09:34:29 pm

So, what does the stock doorbell look like? I don't think mine has one, did all of them come with one?
thanks,
Steven

Mine looks just like a door bell button on a stick house. A small round push button switch. Right beside the entry grab handle. the bell mechanism is inside buried inside a cabinet, like Steve posted at the top of this thread.

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