Fridge Fixer
Prevent your Refrigerator from Opening while Driving
Article Date: April, 2019
Article and Photography by Mark Quasius
If your RV contains a large residential refrigerator I'm sure you're familiar with the limitations of the door
design when used in an RV application. These fridges just weren't made for travel and the doors won't stay shut when bouncing down the road,
resulting in the contents of the fridge spilled out onto the floor of the RV. Numerous methods have been used to correct this and range from
homemade devices such as bungee cords or blocking bars to more sophisticated methods, such as latches installed by the RV manufacturer. These
methods can be cumbersome to use and are not 100% foolproof.
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Our coach came with a large Samsung refrigerator with French doors and bottom pull-out freezer. Entegra Coach fitted
the fridge with a pair of stainless steel latches to lock the
refrigerator doors and freezer drawer in place during travel. It was a nice idea
but the latches didn't always hold and vibrated from the locked position to the unlocked position. After a few hours of driving the odds were
good that something was going to fly open on the next off-ramp.
At first we applied a sticky piece of Velcro over the latch to prevent the latch
from opening but all this did was buy us a bit more time and we were going through Velcro tabs at a rapid pace because once they were removed
they lost most of their adhesive strength. My next step was to drill the latch and insert a hairpin style safety pin to prevent the latch from moving. This
wasn't bad but still not ideal. And then I found out about the Fridge Fixer.
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The Fridge Fixer
The Fridge Fixer is a slick design that allows the user to easily lock both the fridge and freezer doors in place for
travel by simply inserting a plastic block key into a receptacle. Once removed it allows
unencumbered access to the fridge and freezer and when in
place it firmly secures the doors for travel. At $39.99 plus $4.50 it was an inexpensive solution to a continuing problem so I decided to order one.
The Fridge Fixer consists of a set of sliding aluminum rails that are mounted between the bottom of the refrigerator doors and
the top of the freezer drawer on a French door style refrigerator. These rails utilize the existing door hinge bolts to attach the rail to the refrigerator
so no drilling is required. Mounted on these rails is a 3D printed plastic
receiver that adjusts to the correct depth for your particular fridge. This
receiver will be the receptacle for the key-like plastic block that drops in place to secure the fridge doors. The beauty of this design is that it is an
easy bolt-on installation and doesn't require any permanent modification to the refrigerator. As long as you have a minimum 0.6" gap between the
refrigerator doors and the freezer drawer, you can use the Fridge Fixer. It will fit most French Door refrigerators, single door fridges with a top or bottom
freezer and four door French refrigerators.
Installation
Before sending in our order I measured the gap between the fridge doors and freezer drawer to make sure it met the
minimum requirement
of 0.6". I had plenty of room and checked the list of refrigerators on their website and found mine was not listed. The Fridge Fixer rails expand to fit various
widths but the center block needs to be deep enough to extend past the doors when closed. If your fridge isn't listed you just need to measure the depth and
order the correct size based on that dimension. Four different sizes
are shown so I selected the one that fit my door depth and placed my order.
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The inner-most door hinge screws were temporarily removed to allow mounting of the aluminum rails.
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The two set screws at the back of the plastic block were tightened once the block was centered between the doors
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The unit arrived within a couple of days so I began my installation that evening. The first step was to loosen the two adjusting screws
that locked the rails in place. I then removed one screw from each door hinge, extended the aluminum rails to meet the hinges and reinserted the door hinge
screws after passing them through the ends of the Fridge Fixer's aluminum rails. The rails are thoughtfully designed with countersunk holes on one side and
regular flat holes on the other side so that it works with either flat head or round head hinge screws. All you have to do is reverse the head on the rails
to change it over.
Once the rails are in place, the next step is to align the receiver block. Simply locate the block so that it is centered between the
two refrigerator doors and tighten the two hex head screws with the supplied Allen wrench hex key.
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The depth of the block is adjusted to just extend past the refrigerator doors
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The plastic key is easily removed and is equipped with a locking latch
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Next, adjust the depth of the block so that the keyhole extends just past the doors. A center screw is turned to move the block out or in
as needed. There needs to be just enough depth so that the door doesn't rattle once the key is inserted into the block but not so tight that it takes
excessive effort to insert the key. I adjusted mine to barely compress the rubber door gasket.
This system works great. All we have to do is drop the tee shaped plastic key into place. The top portion of the tee extends past the
refrigerator doors and prevents them from opening while the bottom stem of the tee prevents the freezer drawer from opening. The key is held firmly in place
via a locking tab and a small push button release allows easy removal. Just push the button in and lift the key out and toss it in a drawer or keep it inside
the fridge until you are ready to travel again.
Click Here for Complete Installation Instructions.
Source
Fridge Fixer
www.recubed.solutions
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