By Dick Wright
Norcold refrigerator doors are notorious for the bottom hinge breaking because they are plastic. While you could replace the piece on the bottom, it’s not available for Norcold. Their solution? Sell you a new door.
There really is no bonding agent that will hold the hinge for the long haul. Searching the Internet provides a permanent fix. It was an obscure posting and I have not been able to find it again, but I did copy images of the fix for my own reference. I can’t take personal credit for it — but for Norcold owners it’s a godsend, as it can save them hundreds of dollars.
The first large photo shows a normal hinge pin for a Norcold door. Remove the door by unscrewing the pin in the top hinge.
What I did first was glue the broken piece into place with superglue. I then drilled a hole on each side of the hinge piece and reinforced it with small screws that went through both pieces.
The last picture shows a piece of aluminum strap 1/8-inch thick the length of the door. You can purchase this at Home Depot or Lowes. Round the two outside corners. Drill and countersink holes every six inches. Drill the bottom of the door for each hole and temporarily attach with the first and last screw. Drill out the hinge pin hole being very careful to match up the new hole in the aluminum with the hole in the broken piece. Remove the aluminum strap and paint it black and allow it to dry thoroughly. Then replace all the screws and reset the door on the hinge pins. You now have a permanent fix and a hinge that is much stronger than the original.
Hi Dick, I had this happen to my fridge door yesterday. It almost broke my foot. Norcold was not interested in helping. My motorhome is a 2015 and I will be calling Jayco to complain. I wanted you to know I did this fix and it works great. I bought a 12 “by 1/8 “ hinge with holes already drilled. I just had to drill out the pin stop hole a bit. Thanks so much it saved me a small fortune- Cynthia
Dick,
As mentioned before, this happened to me a few days ago as well. Luckily, we were 10 miles from a HD. With some imagineering on the fly, The fix worked in the field, and when I got home, I refined it.
I’ve got some detailed photos of the repair and a list of materials everyone should keep on board their rig. Especially if they are away from a HD or Lowes.
1. 1/8″ x 3/4″ flat aluminum stock. Cut to size.
2. # 8 x 1″ flat head screws
3. #8 countersink bit. If you use oval head screws they can scrap along the lower portion of the fridge enclosure.
4. You have to gently remove the plastic cover of the control panel with a flat head screw driver to gain access to the upper hinge pin of the refer door (depending of model of fridge). mine is on a 2019 Outdoors RV. That’s the only way to reinstall the fridge door.
Let me know how to upload the pictures
I forgot to mention-you’ll need a 9/16″ drill bit to drill a hole for the lower hinge pin to go thru the aluminum
please send me info to upload pictures.
thank you.