Voted most helpful review
Stephen Witte
California, USA
Reviewed on January 6, 2025
Just letting you know that we call our 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer "Shiny Lemon"
This is what I tell everyone I meet about Airstreams:
I have a 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer that I bought new in October 2022. Almost every system in it has failed. Batteries went out at 10 months because...read more
Just letting you know that we call our 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer "Shiny Lemon"
This is what I tell everyone I meet about Airstreams:
I have a 2023 Airstream Bambi 19cb trailer that I bought new in October 2022. Almost every system in it has failed. Batteries went out at 10 months because of a faulty design in the WfCo 8955lis converter. I replaced the batteries and converter at my own expense as I had a trip planned for a month of travel in a few days and working with the dealer would have meant canceling the trip.
The furnace failed multiple times for various reasons but several times just because a part called the sail switch failed.
Cabinets fell off the wall on two occasions.
Our Girard water heater started leaking at 2 years and two weeks. Parts warranty expired at 2 years. We chose to put in a Truma AquaGo Comfort water heater partly because people love them and I'm hopeful it will last longer than the 2 years our Girard water heater lasted. This was last week.
Generally, the components now used by Thor (who owns Airstream) have been cost reduced and manufactured by conglomerate companies, like dometic, with quality suffering.
We no longer recommend Airstream to anyone.
Vitrifigo refrigerators replaced by Isotherm. If you are unfortunate and have a Vitrafrigo refrigerator, immediately purchase a temperature monitor so that you can log the temperature over time. Refrigerators need to keep the temperature below 40 F and mine couldn't do this in hot weather. You won't know unless you make the effort to find this out with a temperature logger. Vitrafrigo refrigerators only have a replacement warranty for 1 year so you need to find this within 12 months. Ours will be replaced next week as our dealer went from fixing the Vitrafrigos inability to stay cold to an inability to turn off when the correct temperature is reached. Even with the control knob rotated into the off position! This over the course of of many return visits from June to December! Just for the refrigerator!
Lead batteries replaced by Battleborn. Also pricy. But worth it.
Skip the Airstream. If you do buy an Airstream, try to get a precovid one. 2019 or earlier.
If you follow my footsteps and buy new. Use it a lot for the first year. Bring it back to the dealer repeatedly to get things fixed. Repeatedly. Buy a temperature sensor that logs the temperature in your refrigerator. Get your refrigerator fixed if it can't keep the temperature below 40F.
Most subsystem warrantees are only a year. Many things on the Airstream are only a month, such as the door not closing. Holes in the roof are not covered by warranty, at least the two holes in our roof were not covered about 18 months after purchase.
Fantastic fan lids have a defect in that they fracture where they are screwed into the lid. I glued a wood block to address this as new lids are backordered because so many are breaking.
Buy a 2019 or earlier, better yet, buy a Lance or some other brand not made by Thor.
-Stephen Witte
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