Broken Freezer Door

[glanyard]

Are you on the road? If not, could you not make a door out of aluminium or well sealed/waterproofed ply?
glanyard

[jeffers]

Thanks Glanyard. No yes we are on the road- the road out of Bundaberg heading toward the Whitsundays.
Not possible to make a door and the problem also is to load the springs to keep door closed, it would be a pain to tape closed so that it didn't flop open every time that you opened the fridge. we purchased the new door but I will express my thoughts to Dometic direct also, not that it would do much good, but I have had dealings with the Vic Sales Manager and he seems quite a reasonable guy.
The next problem we have had is that there were no instructions on loading the hinges and it is tricky how it goes together, we will head further north with the new door in place, you can look at the diagram that J Reeves kindly supplied to see how it its back together.

[J.REEVES]

Hi Jeffers,
This description on fitting the freezer door was on the Caravan Plus site, it may help a bit.

There is a knack to replacing these. Pull the hinges out from the sides of the freezer box, but do not totally remove the door. Rotate them forward. Line up the crosses on the door with the crosses on the hinges that attach to the door. When you have the new door in, and in the closed position, you need to wind the hinges back to maintain the spring tension. It is a good idea to have a second set of hands.

There was a YouTube video on fitting the door but it seems to have disappeared.

JR

[jeffers]

Hi J.R Thanks for the advice.
I have fitted the door exactly as you stated . It is a bit tricky and you have to put the spring retainer in the right position then push it upwards to lock and retain the tension.
Luckily I found a retired engineer here in the Park and he twigged and got it right. If it were me on my own then I would still be cursing and abusing the door.
Just bye the way I ripped the old door apart and all that is inside it is a sheet of styrene foam for insulation.
It only reinforces my gripe that it is way too expensive for what it is.
Once again thanks or the advice.
See you somewhere out there.

[Old Techo]

We rang the Dometic Agent in the town we are in and were told that the replacement door would be $165.00 Come on Dometic its only plastic, and if it is made in Sweden then maybe its time to start making them in China.

Caravansplus have them for $145 but the cheapest I could find in the USA was $90 so they are a rip-off around the globe.

Dometic have been rightly chastised for their ridiculous prices on cheap plastic parts. Example, the above simple plastic door worth maybe 10% of what it costs.

Compare the value of that $145-$165 simple bit of plastic with the mechanical complexity and mass of a new 58 cc petrol chainsaw for $89 ... http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/58cc-20in ... ffa0e12117