Fridge that opens from both sides - I'm not a fan

[BuickGS]

... I look forward to the recall!

Just so you know, they never mentioned anything about a recall - that would be a costly big step, last resort by a manufacturer - unless they were forced into it by NHTSA or some other safety organization.

However, I too wish they would do a recall, or even a slightly lesser step called a "product enhancement" (which is sort of a voluntary improvement offer to the consumer if they can come up with a retrofittable fix). But, manufacturers usually try to fix problems quietly by changing future production first, then if someone complains about the old product they would quietly offer them a fix/replacement. It gets dicey though when it's safety related and someone can get hurt because of a design defect. We'll have to wait and see what they do.

 

[Larry-NC]

Lawyer clause

Here's the warnings I was referring to: "11. Your refrigerator is not intended for use by any person(including children)with reduced physical, sensory, or mental capabilities, or lack of experience and knowledge, unless given supervision or instruction concerning use of your refrigerator by a person responsible for their safety. 12. Children should be supervised to ensure that they do not play with your refrigerator."

I look forward to the recall!

Definitely a lawyer clause. And it likely means "Kiddo, don't lock your buddy inside the refrigerator." and is probably not specific to the bi-directional model.

 

[dwilli1]

Yeah I really doubt anything will be done. I haven't seen ANY complaints anywhere other than this thread.

 

[tyler811]

I seen that on the new TT also and did not like it. It's as asinine as the outer glass shield they are putting in the Grand Designs. Mine shattered in a million pieces when I was changing out door handle.

 

[Jcdewberry]

How do you disable so you just open from the right side?

 

[BuickGS]

This is what I did to disable the refrigerator and freezer doors from opening from the left side. This will not void your warranty, you will not be machining or modifying anything, and it can be easily removed if they wind up having a recall on this fridge or they come out with a new retrofittable latch mechanism to replace the one that's in there now. It also will work as a permanent fix, it can be done to the right side latch instead of the left side latch if you want, and no one will notice it once it's in place, unless you're looking for it (it blends right in).

So what I did was follow the K.I.S.S. design principle, as was discussed earlier in the thread.

1) I bought a 6' piece of black rubber fuel line hose having a 1/2" outside diameter (9/16" is too big; 7/16" is too small). Cost me $.78/ft, or $4.68 total. Do not use vacuum hose, use fuel line hose because it's stiffer than vacuum hose.

2) I cut a length of the hose about 2 inches shorter than the overall length of the left side handle on the freezer door (I don't remember the exact length but somewhere around 2 feet long). I cut the remainder of the hose about 2 inches shorter than the overall length of the left side handle on the refrigerator door (I don't remember the exact length but less than 4 feet long). Just measure your handles and subtract 2".

3) Per my attached picture (you may have to play with brightness and/or contrast to see it good), with the doors fully closed and latched, I just pressed the hose in all the way into the cavity along the outside left side of the freezer and refrigerator doors, in between the left side handle and the front of the door. It's a tight fit but can easily be pushed into place by just using your fingers to press the hose in place. I left about a 1" gap at the top and at the bottom of each handle. Note - if there is any writing/marking on the hose, push that side of the hose into the cavity first so you don't see it after installing it. And, my picture is only showing the top freezer door, but the same goes for the lower refrigerator door.

4) The hose will not come out unless you want to take it out someday with a screwdriver inserted into the end of the hose. What it does though is it prevents the left handles from being pulled and the refrigerator/freezer from opening from the left side - even if you grab the handle and pull it forcefully) since the hose is stiff (it doesn't collapse). Since the hose is black, you don't really notice it against the black fridge.

5) If you think this is a stupid idea, simply don't do it, but it's working fine for me.

 

[Mookie58]

We have the same fridge in our Flagstaff 21FBRS and it is located in the back of the trailer near the entry door. We haven't had any problems with the dual direction doors and I like the fact that I can step into the trailer from the door and open it to grab a beer without having to walk further into the trailer. I'm sorry for your accident, but maybe your particular unit does have a manufacturing defect. I haven't noticed any issues with the door function on ours.

 

[MCTroy]

NXR - It's a 12vdc 10 cu ft Magic Chef fridge. I don't have the model number handy right now. By saying that it "opens from both sides" means its not reversible. It actually opens from the right side by pulling on the right latch, and/or opens from the left side by pulling on the left latch. No swapping hinges. Just walk to the right side of the fridge and pull on the right handle to open the door to the left, or walk to the left side of the fridge and pull on the left handle to open the door to the right.


Never heard of it? I was told it's new this year.

I saw this when shopping for a new trailer. I thought it was just a gimmick. We weren't impressed and decided we didn't need the frig, or a newer trailer.
Hope your leg heals quickly!

 

[BuickGS]

MCTroy - Thank you, had a minor setback but my leg is healing pretty well, probably needs another week.

 

[gristle568]

I picked up a new 2024 coachmen freedom express with this fridge in it on friday, I was checking and testing things out on Saturday and I went to open the freezer to make sure it was getting cold and the door came off and fell on the floor and shattered the glass. what a stupid design. I talked to my dealer about it and hopefully they will cover the new glass but if they don't I'm just gonna put a price of black plexiglass on it. it will more than likely happen again so what's the point of putting glass back on it. it is litteralt just held on by double sided tape.

 

[BuickGS]

gristle568 - Sorry to hear that your freezer door fell off too when you went to open it. Glad you didn't get hurt, but that sucks about the door glass shattering. If you want, for future piece of mind, you could always try disabling the latch on either side of the doors by following my instructions in post #46 of this thread, and see if that works for you. That will prevent the door from ever accidentally falling off.

Please contact the NHSTA to make them aware of this dangerous design before someone really gets hurt - using the contact info provided by NXR in post #13. Contact your RV manufacturer (Coachman) too. Use e-mail so it's documented in writing. I also contacted the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but that was a dead end as they said this was more of an NHTSA issue than a CPSC issue.

So far, just in this thread, refrigerator doors on these new "dual swing door" refrigerators have fallen off for 3 people who just happened to come across this (kind of hidden) thread and who happen to visit FR forums. I also found another person commenting about this new refrigerator video on YouTube, that this has also happened to him. I'm pretty sure this is a new product introduced in 2024, so there aren't that many of them out there yet (relatively speaking). But I wonder how many others there are that this has happened to?

 

[mirkier]

door fell off

SO how did you get the door back on? I opened mine on both sides by accident and now I can't get it back on.

 

[BuickGS]

SO how did you get the door back on? I opened mine on both sides by accident and now I can't get it back on.

From what I remember... I pulled the handle on the left side of the freezer door (as you would normally do if the door was in place and you were going to open the door from the left), and then while still holding this handle in the open position I centered the door in the opening and firmly pushed the door to the left until it just kind of snapped the left side of the door back into place on the mechanism, and then I (cautiously) let go of the left handle. Once that was done then I closed the right side like normal. It wasn't hard to do.

I haven't had any problems with the doors falling off since I did my "fix" (which I described in post #46).

 

[markatspruce]

I'm getting my 2906 on the 30th,besides the fridge how do you like your unit.
I was really impressed with the fridge,after reading your post,time might tell.

 

[BuickGS]

I'm getting my 2906 on the 30th, besides the fridge how do you like your unit...

markatspruce - We love it. We are seasonals though, so if I had to tow that unit around every weekend I might not love it as much.

We've only had a few small problems with it so far (not counting the freezer door falling off). I'll just mention two of them. The biggest problem was the curved wall that starts just past the bathroom door that goes into the bedroom popped open near the bathroom door one day. It was only stapled in place and many of the crown staples in that area apparently missed the miniscule wood stud behind the wall and the force from the curved luan wall eventually was too much for the remainder of the staples to hold. I wound up opening up the wall some more, so I could add an additional 2x3 stud behind the wall, and then I put the wall back in place - but this time I got it so it's attached to the new stud securely and it won't be popping open ever again.

Another thing is... we don't care for the loud sound that things make when they hit this roof (such as acorns or a heavy rain). We've owned 4 different RV's, and this roof is by far the loudest and noisiest roof we've ever had. No way of knowing this when you're shopping for an RV. Just an acorn falling on the roof will just about give you a heart attack or make you jump from the loud noise, making it sound like someone just smashed the roof real hard with a hammer. I used to look forward to a heavy rain fall with our other RVs (would help me sleep), but not so much now. And, our hearing isn't even as good as when we were younger. You'll see about what I mean when you get your first heavy rain storm... it's deafening.

Other than that, a few of the good things are - the views and light from the many large windows everywhere, the interior layout w/the kitchen island, the large amount of seating (we added 2 stools to the island), the interior colors, the quality of the cabinets, the comfortable bed (the best of all our RVs), the decent amount of storage space, the large amount of interior space thanks to the 3 deep slide outs, the tv and fireplace location (directly across from the recliners), the amount of interior lighting, and the inclusion of many features that are optional or not available on lower end RVs. I could go on and on. But really, there are so many, many more things that make this camper our hands down favorite of all the ones we have owned. Just got to get me some earplugs

 

[JWood422]

I didn’t read every response but I did watch the video. Did anyone else hear the guy talk abut the blue LED light inside? We had that in our Dometic fridge. It was AWFUL!!! Fortunately Dometic realized how bad it was and sent us a replacement LED at no charge. The fridge was out of warranty and we were the 2nd owners. That spoke volumes to me.
And I agree completely about the safety issue. Thank you to the OP for bringing this to our attention.

 

[BuickGS]

... Did anyone else hear the guy talk abut the blue LED light inside? We had that in our Dometic fridge. It was AWFUL!!!...

JWood422 - The only blue LED light in this fridge (and the one that the guy is talking about in the video) is this tiny blue LED indicator on the temperature control panel inside the refrigerator section - that I circled and the arrow is pointing to in the picture. It indicates which one of the five temp settings that the fridge is set at. It's hardly noticeable unless you bend down and look up since the control panel is on the top of the inside of the lower refrigerator compartment and set back, and it isn't that bright. I'm assuming that the blue LED that you're referring to that was in your Dometic fridge was not this one?

 

[tomkatb]

It is pretty well known that refrigerator door seals are sort of iffy.

Often they leak.

I think this is a way to make the issue worse.

KISS

 

[JWood422]

JWood422 - The only blue LED light in this fridge (and the one that the guy is talking about in the video) is this tiny blue LED indicator on the temperature control panel inside the refrigerator section - that I circled and the arrow is pointing to in the picture. It indicates which one of the five temp settings that the fridge is set at. It's hardly noticeable unless you bend down and look up since the control panel is on the top of the inside of the lower refrigerator compartment and set back, and it isn't that bright. I'm assuming that the blue LED that you're referring to that was in your Dometic fridge was not this one?

Thanks for the clarification. The blue light I’m referring to is the light that comes on when you open the door for general illumination. (Yes, they do turn off when you close the door. Ha!) It was *AWFUL!

 

[BuickGS]

Thanks for the clarification. The blue light I’m referring to is the light that comes on when you open the door for general illumination. (Yes, they do turn off when you close the door. Ha!) It was *AWFUL!

JWood422 - Now I see what you're referring to on your Dometic fridge. Who would want that? As you said... that would be awful!