Reinforcing Your Norcold Fridge Door Hinges

The older Norcold fridge (maybe the newer ones too) have a design flaw in that the main fridge door lower hinge can break from rough-road driving along with extra weight people add into the door from drinks stored on the door shelves.  I decided to be proactive and so I bought reinforcement hinge hardware on Ebay, paying $49 for two sets with free delivery.  These kits are also sold elsewhere.  I think they are made by Norcold to address the problem.  I bought two sets to reinforce both the fridge and freezer door. 

Though the primary concern is the lower fridge door hinge, I decided to install both top & bottom on both doors since it all fit fine.  Who knows, maybe the top one will do some good on a bumpy road to Alaska one day.  The large thick washer that came with the kit fit very sloppy because the inside diameter "ID" was much too large to self-center.  It also stuck out far beyond the rest of the hinge, not a nice look at all.  I decided to replace it with two smaller and thinner stainless steel washers, placing one at each hinge (top & bottom) to assure there is no binding as was intended by Norcold, and also experienced when first using the original washer on only the lower hinge.  I will keep an eye on them to make sure they do the job as well as larger washers would.

The installation took all of about 20 minutes for both doors.  Now I can rest easy, not to worry about hinges breaking.  The reinforcements look nice.

Here is one reinforcement kit.  I am posting big pictures so you can see the detail better.
Notice how huge the original washers are.


Here you can see both top and bottom reinforcements and the thinner & smaller diameter stainless steel washers I used.

Ron,

We think you will find these reinforcement kits worth the effort, since we posted this in April http://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php/topic,2087.0.html, we have traveled over 2,000 miles, on some very, very rough roads and our refrigerator door has not had any issues. 

Barry and Sue

I am curious to know if the new models still have the broken hinge issue or if Norcold has corrected the problem. How do I know if I need the insurance of the reinforced hinge?

Mike

Mike,
I would do a live chat with Norcold on their website at www.thetford.com or call them at 1-800-543-1219 and ask them.  Have the serial number from your unit and specifically have them address the issue for you.  They should be able to tell you if they've changed their hinge from 2012.  Our unit is a 2012 and it needed the hinge reinforcements.
Sue

Mike, my 2015 PC, purchased in July 2014 (one year old now), was ordered with a 3-way Norcold refrigerator model N641.3.  I notice that it already has the metal hinge reinforcement plate on the lower hinge of the large door, from the factory.