Norcold Refer problem & fix

[RonD]

When we left Quartzsite for a short drive to Parker I found that the lower door hinge on the Refer was broken. Ours is a N811 model, 2 door, the hinges are a molded part of the door frame, a bump with a hole in it to receive a metal pin mounted to a steel hinge bracket, the only way to repair it I was told from Norcold was buy a new "expensive" complete door, they said this was a common problem, my reply was why do you use plastic for a door frame on a refer?, they had nothing to say. So what I did was remove the door, take the broken part of the frame and JB Weld it back in the correct place, then add a piece of 1/8" thick,X 2" wide aluminum piece to the under side of the door the full width of the door. I drilled a 1/4" hole to the piece for the pin, attached to the bottom of the door with 5 small counter sunk screws, then ran the drill bacn into the 1/4" pin hol to make sure it was completely in line with the plastic piece, once done I masked it off, and spray painted it semi gloss black. when I re installed the door I added a 1/4" washer to the lower pin to space the door a little higher to make room for the added piece on the bottom, the door looks like new, and works perfect, total cost twenty bucks, and better than it was when new. Now why did this happen?, I suspect a couple of things, first the door had a gap of about 3/16" on the hinge pins, if you open your refer door and lift it up and you will see, I would reccomend get a 1/4" washer in there to keep it from bouncing up and down when moving, also the pins have no lube on them, so I used some silicone grease on them.

[PackerFan]

Good tip and thanks for the advice.

[DQDick]

All great ideas. Thanks!

[garyka]

I wish I would of known that I had to replace a door for that reason and wasn't happy about the lousy design.I wonder how much money they made on the fix?

[Ozz]

Good job Ron!
I had to repair a lot of cooler and freezer doors like that in bars and restaurants.

[1retired06]

great post!