Dometic fridge door catches?

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Forum readers may remember my same-titled posting of 22/11/2005 when I mentioned difficulties I was having locking the large lower door on our newish RM7651L fridge. Eventually I decided to grind down the small round 'mushroom-cap' on the lower part of the central locking bracket. At the NEC show I asked a Dometic representative whether he was aware of any general problems with door-locking on recent-model fridges. He said yes, it was due to the doors drooping during use and the locking bracket on the latest fridges (not just on the 2-door or large capacity variants) had been revised. He pointed out the redesigned bracket and (you've guessed it) the mushroom-cap is no longer present. I said that, while my grinding ploy had proved an effective fix, it had inevitably damaged the bracket's plating making it liable to corrode - so were the new brackets obtainable through retail outlets? Not at present, he said, adding, when I enquired, that Dometic would normally not treat the problem as a warranty issue (unless something actually broke, presumably!) Adjusting the strike of the door-latch against the bracket by altering the thickness of packing washers at the lower hinge is an alternative to modifying the bracket itself. However, my own experience is that the fridge door's fit is sensitive to the weight of items stored in the door and, very possibly, to temperature. So, even if the door does latch OK post-adjustment, this happy situation may not last - certainly that was the case when I played around with the hinges. The real culprit is the original bracket's zero tolerance design that, for dependable locking, demands much finer engineering than is evident in the doors and hinges. The revised bracket 'self-adjusts' to the latching mechanism so that, even if the door moves up or down relative to the bracket, locking should remain unaffected. (Rodger Hilton's follow-up reply to my 11/05 posting mentions the possible availability abroad of a height-adjustable lower hinge-pin. I forgot to bring this up at the NEC, but it's probable that Dometic would opt for the redesigned bracket instead as this would be simpler, cheaper and more reliable in the long term.) To summarise then... Dometic has recognised a door-latching problem with some of their fridges and has redesigned the locking bracket to overcome this. If your fridge is one of those afflicted, I expect Dometic could be cajoled into sending you a replacement bracket.

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Well done Derek, and thanks for the information. Brian

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Just an update to this. I duly contacted Dometic through their website and explained that our 'fridge suffered this problem. Swift and very helpful response by e-mail, proposing they would supply a new catch and/or packing washers for the bottom pivot and asking for model, serial etc for fridge. Replied with details as requested, explaining the problem was more with the locking pin (as I called it) than with the catch itself. Added phone number as the written descriptions are a bit difficult to keep clear, and brief. Had 'phone call this morning from Dometic. They will send new latch and pin plus washers. Asked if I thought I could fit it (there's a challenge!), described what would be involved, and added that if I got out of my depth, they'd send an engineer to finish the job for me. How's that for service? Well done Dometic and thanks again Derek, for that NEC conversation. Regards to all Brian