High Pointe Microwave safety issue - rear wall being burned

[andrewssteve]

Renee just found this post (and other similar posts) on the Grand Design Facebook page. It sounds like a serious problem to me. I plan to call GD and find out why there's not a recall to (at the very least) get a heat shield installed:

"If you have a High Pointe microwave/convection oven, and you use the convection feature, please be aware that this might be happening. I had seen a previous post on here about the wall behind the oven being burned, and it happened to us as well. Our Hotpointe just quit working about 3 weeks ago. We have been full-timing in our Solitude 310 gk since April 1, 2018, and had never done convection oven cooking before and was loving learning to use it. When the oven suddenly quit working, I called GD Customer service, and they provided their usual great customer service and offered to ship us a new one. When we removed our old one to install the new one, we found our wall had also been burned. I called customer service back and told them about it, expressing concern about all other GD customers who might be having this happen and are unaware. They told me that we should put up some heat resistant tape or a thin piece of aluminum before installing the new oven. (I didn't think about asking if we couuld get the wall repaired through them). I told them we could put up something, but that still didn't address my concern for other customers who already own this kind of oven and might be having this issue. I really think customers should be alerted to this very real hazard. The customer service rep did tell me that management was well aware of the problem. I also messaged Emily Stahley, and she responded with a very thorough response, and said the units in production are having a heat shield installed. I'm glad they are responding for future customer's sake, but hope they do something to notify current customers. We love our Solitude and the personal experience we have had with GD customer service. And... We are really happy to have a microwave again after 3 weeks without it! We did put up some reflective tape behind the new oven, but I'm not sure if I will feel comfortable enough to use the convection feature again."

[andrewssteve]

I called GD and they acknowledged 1) that the oven can leave heat related marks on the back wall, 2) that the problem has been deemed not serious enough to warrant a recall (???), and 3) they are installing heat reflective shielding on all new units.

I gave them the VIN number of my 2018 unit, and we do *not* have the shielding. I've got warranty work scheduled in early August, and GD has agreed to pull my microwave and install shielding under warranty. Kudos GD, but I still don't understand why there's no recall for this. Have you looked at those escape windows and imagined how you'd get out of one in a hurry?