refrigerator doors

[Jamesadixon48]

We have the 2016 Montana 3160 RL with the 4 door Norcold refrigerator. In this model, the refrigerator doors ( not freezer ) are blocked from opening by the kitchen island while in transit or storage. After returning from a trip, we clean the frigerator well, but are concerned about mold build up because we can't partially open the bottom 2 doors to allow ventilation. We leave a box of soda in the bottom, but wonder if that will be enough. Anyone else have this problem who can offer a solution?

[jimcol]

Can they not be opened at all? A couple of inches is all that is required for ventilation to prevent mold.

[1retired06]

That was going to be my comment as well, couple of inches? We have a bar frig installed in the ODS storage compartment, and couple of inches is all I get with the outside door closed, and never any mold or smell.

[Rondo]

When we clean out frig out upon returning from our travels we wash it down with a Clorox, Dawn, and water solution and then rinse it good. We then leave our unit plugged in because we have it in the Montana Home(a 50X72' metal building). Before we had the building we just filled the frig with crumpled up newspaper with the frig turned off and never had a problem even if we closed the doors. We put the newspaper in both the frig section and the freezer section. The box of soda will keep it fresh also but the newspaper soaks up any moisture and odors that may happen but that is seldom the case since we use the fore-mentioned solution to clean the frig out.

[dieselguy]

I side with Rondo on newspapers. If we can't leave the doors cracked open a bit, we always wad a half dozen sheets of newspaper into balls and just set them on the shelfs. Never had an issue with mold or smell.

[DarMar]

Our 4 door Dometic came with a plastic apparatus that we slide in the latch area and it stops the doors from being pushed and latched closed for extended storage purposes. This just leaves the doors open a crack as 2 of our doors butt up against the island when the slide is pulled in.

[Irlpguy]

Since I am usually the one cleaning up the fridge when we return from a trip I have found it isn't so much what you clean it with but most importantly that it is completely dry inside before the doors are closed for an extended period. I leave that slide out with the doors open for several days to ensure there is absolutely no moisture within the fridge or freezer compartments. Over many years of using this process I have "never" had mold appear in any fridge. Your enemy is moisture not how clean the fridge is.
Have never put newspaper inside to absorb moisture, just made sure it was very dry before closing it up, it looks and smells like new when we fire it up for our next outing.

[Jamesadixon48]

When the slides are in, you can't even crack open the 2 bottom doors. On all our previous units this was not the case. We will take the advice of adding newspapers to soak up any excess moisture, as well as using the cleaning solution. Thanks for the help...it is greatly appreciated.

[rohrmann]

Could just extend the slide with the fridge a few inches so the doors could be cracked open, even if it is in a storage facility.