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fridge door on the floor and soda water
Yahoo Message Number: 102342
This is for any night owls out there, or for you early morning risers.
 I am in Reno, Nevada on my way to CA. to meet Pat Macias for our trip to Alaska and about five hours ago my fridge door fell off -I know I'll laugh about this one day, but not anytime soon.
 The black plastic thing that is attached to the bottom of the door and swivels for the door to open broke, so now I need a new door.  This is not likely to happen anytime soon since it is the weekend. I have all my fridge contents (and it was loaded) in coolers, but I haven't opened the freezer yet.  My question is: will the freezer work and keep the contents cold without the fridge door if I leave it on?
 Another question:  Why is the water from both cold and hot faucets coming out like soda water?  It is full of tiny bubbles. This has never happened before.  It is the same in both bathroom and  kitchen.
 Is this a bad omen and should I just turn around and go back to Massachusetts ?  Oh, and my cell phone stopped working when the door fell off.  I had to borrow another RVers phone to call the factory-they were already closed, of course.
 Are there places in N. CA that sell used appliance parts where I might find a door without having to wait for Dometic to send one?
 By the way my LD is a 2003, so why did this happen so soon?  Did I overload the door?
 Calicia (watching all her Mother's Day presents from Whole Foods get hot)
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102343
wrote: Are there places in N. CA that sell used appliance parts where I might find a door without having to wait for Dometic to send one? --- Calicia, try AAA RV Appliance in Sacramento:

http://aaarv.net/

Joan
2003 TK has a new home
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102344
Calicia, I'm so sorry to hear about your string of bad luck! This is the first I've heard of a late-model refrigerator shedding its door. Suggestions:

1. The freezer should stay cold even without the fridge door. Maybe not quite as cold as normal, but cold enough, I'd expect.

2. If you have "blue ice" style freezer packs, you can chill them in the freezer and then move them to your insulated coolers to keep the contents cold. If you have two packs per cooler, you can rotate them: one pack in the freezer while the other is in the cooler, then swap every six to eight hours.

3. You could tape an opened-up garbage bag or other plastic sheeting over the fridge door opening to help the freezer stay cold.

4. If you can figure out how to keep the contents in the fridge, you could put nonessential items in the fridge with a plastic sheet taped over the opening, and they'd probably stay pretty cold. If you have a silver plastic emergency "space blanket," that would be ideal.

5. You might be able to drill a hole through the plastic hinge piece that came off and secure it back onto the door using a 1 1/2" screw... or better still, two screws, if possible. I can't believe Dometic used PLASTIC for those hinge pieces! :-(

Hope this helps, and good luck finding replacement parts!

Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Andy Baird
2021 Ford Ranger towing 2019 Airstream 19CB
Previously: 1985 LD Twin/King "Gertie"; 2003 LD Midbath "Skylark"
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102345
Caliciah,
 You might use a blanket, stuffed into the fridge section so as to insulate the fins at the upper portion of the fridge. That should allow the freezer section to still work - - I think.
 I just ran out and had a look at my fridge and the bracket in question. It looks like it should be possible to make a new hinge bracket out of metal and there's clearance to attach it to the bottom of the door.
 If you are still in the Reno area, and want to drive down to Minden-Tahoe Airport (just north of Minden and about 40 some odd miles south of Reno on 395) . . . I'm pretty sure I can fix it for you at my hangar/shop. 'Course I'm retired, so the repair would be no charge.

Home phone is 775 783-4373

bumper, Yonder Minden NV
bumper
"Yonder" '05 MB
"WLDBLU" glider trailer
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102372
It is so true when those of you say that this group is great.  Thank you Joan for the Rv appliance repair link in Sacramento.  They didn't answer this morning so I assume they are closed on Sat., but I plan on calling them Monday to find out how one goes about getting a new door just in case this happens again.  And thank you Andy for the good advice on keeping the freezer cold using plastic or one of those silver blankets over the fridge. I was afraid to even turn on the fridge until I heard from you.
 And, MANY, MANY THANKS to a KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR, BUMPER, who happened to be only 40 miles away and met me at his HUGE ( three planes, a car, all the tools one could imagine and still lots of space for more toys) hanger. He spent his Sat. morning mixing up gooey concoctions  and cutting pieces of metal for reinforcement. He was able to glue the plastic piece together  since there was an almost clean break. He put the door back on and away I went.  It survived I80 W out of Sacramento so I know it's going to hold.  I'm still not brave enough to put milk and jars back in the door yet.  I may just use the fridge door as a sock and underwear drawer until I get over my trauma.
 Andy, you said that you hadn't heard of such a new RV losing it's door, but it's not everyone who follows Lorna blindly on unpaved roads that even a jeep wouldn't travel. Remember, it was my LD that Larry Wade discovered the water tank about to drop off on the highway. Now, how can I blame her instead of me with my laptop battery that went out this morning?
 Calicia( Happily ensconced in Cloverdale waiting to begin my Alaska trip tomorrow)
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102373
Caliciah,

You're welcome.

To all,
 After looking at Caliciah's broken door, and considering Dometic's dismal response to the refrigerant leak / fire starter problem, one thing is clear; this is not a very well designed or built fridge.
 The hinge pin bracket is steel, but the hinge half on the door is hollow plastic. It looks solid enough until broken open - - then it's apparent that there are only a few webs of plastic holding it together. Much of the door's weight is supported by the bottom hinge, so my advice is to go lightly on loading the door if you are going on bouncy roads.
 It may be possible to take some preventative steps (I'll have to look at my fridge door to check). First, be sure the door fits properly. It would be good if there was a small ramped support at the bottom of the door to take some of the weight as the door closes - - should be possible to add this.
 It is also doable to add a reinforcement to the door hinge *before* it breaks. On Caliciah's door, I grabbed the first piece of metal I could find, some stainless steel sheet, and cut a small rectangle to epoxy onto the bottom of the door frame overlapping onto the hinge past where it sticks out unsupported (where it failed). There's plenty of room for a thin strip of reinforcement material at this point, so I think I'll do this on Yonder as well.
 BTW, I would have preferred to use Loctite 330 Depend adhesive for fixing the door, but this adhesive has a shelf life on just one year (and they mean it!). Mine was one month expired and it didn't work so well when it tested it. Thus I had to use fast setting epoxy instead. The 330 retains some elasticity when set, so has an advantage over epoxy in that it works nicely for dissimilar materials, especially those that have different thermal coefficients of expansion.

all the best,

bumper

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
bumper
"Yonder" '05 MB
"WLDBLU" glider trailer
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102374
Quote
Caliciah,

You're welcome.

To all,

"After looking at Caliciah's broken door..."

bumper
What a guy, bumper! Helping a damsel in distress.
 We can learn from Calicia's misfortune not to overload the fridge door; however, the better news is that in the many years I've been reading this forum, this is the first case of hinge failure I've read about so it appears to be a rare malfunction.
 What about the water coming out like soda water?  Did anyone figure that one out?

Chris
Formerly: 2002 30' IB
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102386
On May 17, 2009, at 9:32 AM, Chris Horst wrote:

Quote
What about the water coming out like soda water?  Did anyone figure that one out?

Chris
My guess, and it's just that, is that water in the tank with some minerals likely some carbonates was mixed some mildly acidic fresh water.  Or vice versa on what's in the water.  Either way you can get CO2 bubbles.  Dumping and sanitizing the fresh water tank would be in order.

It would be interesting to know if Caliciah uses a filter when she fills the fresh water tank.
 Of course, the bubbles could just be air because the water lines have not been run to flush them out after winterizing.

Alex Rutchka, SE #4 '05 MB
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102391
Quote
What a guy, bumper! Helping a damsel in distress.
 What about the water coming out like soda water?  Did anyone figure >that one out? Chris
Hi Group,
 I've got to agree that this group has been a great resource and Bumper, I salute you for your response.
 Now about the water that is coming out like soda water; my guess is that there is a lot of air in the plumbing.  Every spring, when I dewinterize, there are lots of bubbles in the water as I purge the system of RV antifreeze and sanitize the water tank. It seems more prevalent after I take the water heater off bypass which probably adds more air to they system.
 The air bubbles seem to vanish after I run a lot of water through the entire system, including the shower. I think it takes several attempts at opening each faucet and the toilet to finally bleed all the air out of the plumbing.

Good luck on the trip to Alaska!

Steve K.
Steve K

2003 Mid-bath
Re: fridge door on the floor and soda water
Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 102408
That has to be it.  I winterize with antifreeze and bypass the water heater.  I will give it time to bleed the air out.
 I'm a little disappointed.   I thought maybe my sons had filled my water tank with champagne as a surprise Mother's Day present.

Calicia