Fireplace

Troubleshooting and Replacing the Blower Element on Our Dimplex B8000 Electric Fireplace Insert for RVs

Before getting started

Some other articles I’ve written regarding the RVs electric fireplace:

Over the last two years, we’ve had a couple of instances where the Dimplex B8000 electric fireplace insert in our RV stopped working properly. Specifically, the fireplace blower element seemed to “die” on us. Here’s what we mean by “die”:

The electric fireplace works as expected for about 10 minutes, but then the heat shuts off and doesn’t come back on.
The RV fireplace blower continues running but doesn’t produce any heat.
Both the blower and the heat function fail to turn on altogether, though the “flame” effect still works.

This issue can be frustrating, especially when you rely on the heater in your RV for cozy warmth during cooler travels. Fortunately, we found a solution to repair the blower and restore our fireplace’s full functionality.

Before You Begin

To help other RV enthusiasts, I’ve also shared a few helpful articles about electric fireplaces in RVs:

RV Fireplace Insert Guide – Why we love our electric fireplace and how it saves us from dealing with wood or ashes.
Replacing the Heater Element on an RV Fireplace – Step-by-step instructions to replace the heater element if it fails.

Getting a Replacement Blower Element from Dimplex

Even though our fireplace insert was out of warranty, I contacted Dimplex customer support and requested a replacement fireplace blower element. It’s worth making the call because, in our experience, the worst they can say is “no”!

Once I received the replacement part, I did something unexpected—I read the Dimplex manual! You can find the manual for the Dimplex BT8000 RV Fireplace online, which includes an entire section on replacing the fireplace blower heating element.

Step-by-Step: Replacing the Blower Element in Your RV Electric Fireplace

After reviewing the manual and seeing the visuals provided, I realized that replacing the blower element was simpler than I expected. Here are some basic steps that might help if you’re dealing with similar issues:

Locate the screws: There are usually only four screws holding the fireplace insert in place. You’ll find their exact locations in the photos below (forgive my less-than-stellar photography and work attire—it’s only when you start adding pictures to a blog post that you wish you had dressed better!).
Remove and replace the blower element: With the screws removed, you can access the blower and heater components. Swap out the faulty blower element with your replacement part following the manual’s guidance.
Reassemble and test: Once reassembled, turn on the fireplace to ensure that both the flame and heat functions work properly.

By following these steps, we managed to fix our RV electric fireplace and restore the heating capability we missed. We hope these tips help you do the same and keep your RV warm and cozy year-round!

RV Fireplace showing bottom corner location of mounting screws

RV Fireplace showing location of top mounting screws

After the screws are out, the fireplace really just pops out. It is VERY lightweight. Surprisingly so.

RV Fireplace showing how to remove from mounting location

In the next picture, you can see the rv fireplace blower removed. I thought there would be wiring, but it is a standard household 110 Volt plug-in just like you would use for your vacuum cleaner or stereo. So all you do is just “unplug”.

RV fireplace showing unit removed from mounting location

The hardest part is removing the 4,397 screws that hold the rv fireplace blower heater element in place. Just remove them.

I didn’t say LOSE them! Keep track of them, you’ll need them in 10 minutes.

RV fireplace showing how to remove heater element

The next picture shows the fireplace blower heater element already removed. There are two wires you have to unplug to remove the unit. Watch what you do as you’ll have to plug in the new heater element in the very same way.

RV Fireplace showing heater element removed

Now just reverse the steps and you’ve completely fixed your RV Fireplace and saved the $200 from the RV repair person bill. This one is just too easy to have them do.

No, I like to reserve the really YUKKY stuff for the repair guy so I get my complete $200 worth.

Cheers!

Get RV Fireplace Blower Element Replacements on Amazon

CLICK HERE IF YOU DO NOT SEE A NICE SET OF AMAZON SEARCH TERMS RELATED TO fireplace insert blower BELOW

RV Fireplace – More charm than cheese

Our RV Fireplace is one of my favorite things in my RV. Yes, it chews up electric when it is running. Yes, it seems a little “rednecky”.

But honestly, the mood it creates in the room, the clean convenient heat, and the instant heat really makes a fireplace insert a wonderful addition to your RVing fun.

I’ve written previously about how much I enjoyed the RV Fireplace.

Convenient and Easy Heat

In defense of the RV fireplace, when you are hooked to shore power, a fireplace insert really doesn’t take that much power. A big reason for this is that the RV is a very small space compared to a house.

Our electric bills were never that big when we were able to directly observe the bill – not true at some RV parks where you get “free” power.

The other nice thing is that we never had to go for runs for propane. Propane never seemed to last very long with the furnace running.

How much money would an RV fireplace insert cost you per month (or per day)

Where we live we pay $0.10 a kilowatt hour. If an RV fireplace is a 1500 Watt appliance (1.5KW), then WORST CASE (which is impossible unless you simply run the fireplace outside) is that the total KW hours would be 36. At $0.10 a kilowatt hour then you would pay $3.60 a day.

Realistically though if temperatures are no more than a 30 degree difference from your desired temp, I have a hunch your heater would ONLY be on about 1/2 of the time.

So I think the heater would consume approximately $1.80 per day. This is just a rough idea.

Space Saving yet practical decorative accent

A really big advantage of the RV fireplace is that it doesn’t take much room. It is an insert that fits neatly underneath the cabinet space created for the TV and entertainment center. This means that you can get a really nice accent without using much space.

Our fireplace, the Dimplex BF8000 was not without faults having failed twice. It works OK after it has been off for awhile, then after a few minutes of operation the heating portion simply quits.

We’ve replaced this one time already with an RV repairman doing the work. Our RV repairman tells us he doesn’t think much of these fireplace inserts. I don’t know if he was against the Dimplex or the fireplace inserts in general.

An RV fireplace is very repairable

The 2nd time we repaired the RV fireplace, we decided to do it ourselves. We wrote about it in this article detailing the repair of our RV fireplace. The heater elements are not hard to find – they are abundant on Amazon. Here is a link to a search for heater elements like our Dimplex fireplace.

An RV fireplace would be easy to install as an after market add-on

When Sheri and I repaired our fireplace, one of the most interesting aspects to me was the fact that there was no special wiring. It only required a straight 110V plug-in.

RV Fireplace Insert Showing 110V AC Plug

This means that if you can build a nice looking shallow box in your RV, you could have a fireplace. They aren’t too hard to do and only require a simple 110V outlet.

How does the RV fireplace insert make such a realistic looking fire?

I had the opportunity to look inside of an RV fireplace so that I could see how such a realistic flame was created.

What the very clever inventors of these do is to create a turning shaft – much like a spit for roasting a chicken – that goes from the left side of the fireplace to the right side of the rv fireplace.

This shaft is wrapped with very reflective aluminum foil which has lots and lots of crinkles.

The shaft is illuminated with a light that has a flame color. When the shaft turns, the lights reflects on the back of the fireplace and that makes the dancing flames illusion.