Furrion 12v 20 cu. ft. refrigerator doors not staying closed

Gary C-MGRV

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Hello all,

I tried searching the forum for this topic but was unable to find my issue. The refrigerator in my 2023 310GK is the 12 volt Furrion with side-by-side fridge doors and 2 freezer drawers below. There are two thin, fairy flexible, metal bars that go horizontally across the fridge that are supposed to do double duty to: a) help keep the fridge from coming out of its hole, and b) to hold the doors/drawers closed while traveling. This latter part is accomplished by using black knobs that screw into a built-in nut in the metal bars.

For background, we bought our 310GK new in Elkhart in February 2024, and moved aboard in April.

About a month after moving in, we had our first problem with the fridge: the ice maker stopped working correctly. Excess water was pouring into the ice compartment and creating a mess. Then a couple weeks later we noticed some of our food had spoiled quicker than expected. I looked the doors over carefully, and noticed that the right door was sticking out very slightly further than the left door. When I opened the doors I could see that the upper of the two metal bars was slightly bent out away from the fridge, and was keeping the doors from closing all the way. I removed the bar, straightened it the best I could, and reinstalled it. But of course I couldn't get it perfectly straight, and even with a very slight bend it keeps the fridge doors from closing all the way. So I removed the bar completely and everything, including the ice maker, started working correctly. But this left me without a good way to secure the doors while traveling. It also left me with a less-secure installation.

I reached out to Grand Design customer service, and I have been extremely disappointed with the lack of help I received; after a month of basically being ignored I finally received a one sentence reply stating they can't help. In the meantime, we've been using a suction-cup handle as a backup to keep the doors closed while traveling, but it's failed twice and now we have dents in our doors.

Does anyone else have this type of fridge in their coach? If so, what have you done to secure the doors while traveling?

Thank you
 

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Maybe fashion some straps to keep the doors closed while traveling and attach the ends to the inside of the frame work of the refrigerator.

Something like this:
 
Hello all,

I tried searching the forum for this topic but was unable to find my issue. The refrigerator in my 2023 310GK is the 12 volt Furrion with side-by-side fridge doors and 2 freezer drawers below. There are two thin, fairy flexible, metal bars that go horizontally across the fridge that are supposed to do double duty to: a) help keep the fridge from coming out of its hole, and b) to hold the doors/drawers closed while traveling. This latter part is accomplished by using black knobs that screw into a built-in nut in the metal bars.

For background, we bought our 310GK new in Elkhart in February 2024, and moved aboard in April.

About a month after moving in, we had our first problem with the fridge: the ice maker stopped working correctly. Excess water was pouring into the ice compartment and creating a mess. Then a couple weeks later we noticed some of our food had spoiled quicker than expected. I looked the doors over carefully, and noticed that the right door was sticking out very slightly further than the left door. When I opened the doors I could see that the upper of the two metal bars was slightly bent out away from the fridge, and was keeping the doors from closing all the way. I removed the bar, straightened it the best I could, and reinstalled it. But of course I couldn't get it perfectly straight, and even with a very slight bend it keeps the fridge doors from closing all the way. So I removed the bar completely and everything, including the ice maker, started working correctly. But this left me without a good way to secure the doors while traveling. It also left me with a less-secure installation.

I reached out to Grand Design customer service, and I have been extremely disappointed with the lack of help I received; after a month of basically being ignored I finally received a one sentence reply stating they can't help. In the meantime, we've been using a suction-cup handle as a backup to keep the doors closed while traveling, but it's failed twice and now we have dents in our doors.

Does anyone else have this type of fridge in their coach? If so, what have you done to secure the doors while traveling?

Thank you
I have had the same issue with my 12v 16cf refrigerator. The last trip everything was dumped out into the floor when we stopped at the campground. I am pretty sure the switchback uphill turn did it. It had one strap from the factory and I had a second strap on it. The heat has loosened up the two sided tape and they came loose. I leave in a few days and I will have another type of strap and two sided tape on it. I was told to not have much on the doors when traveling. I also added more bars across the shelves. The drawers in the refrigerator and freezer do not open, so I put more in them.

Good luck - these refrigerators should have had some type of screwed in locks on them.
 
I have had the same issue with my 12v 16cf refrigerator. The last trip everything was dumped out into the floor when we stopped at the campground. I am pretty sure the switchback uphill turn did it. It had one strap from the factory and I had a second strap on it. The heat has loosened up the two sided tape and they came loose. I leave in a few days and I will have another type of strap and two sided tape on it. I was told to not have much on the doors when traveling. I also added more bars across the shelves. The drawers in the refrigerator and freezer do not open, so I put more in them.

Good luck - these refrigerators should have had some type of screwed in locks on them.
Do you have a Furrion fridge? Our last camper was a Reflection 150, and we had the 12v 16 cu ft Furrion. It had a bungee strap on top that would go around posts that were screwed into the tops of the doors. Worked very well (except for that time I forgot to put it on - then I had the same mess you described :rolleyes:)
 
Do you have a Furrion fridge? Our last camper was a Reflection 150, and we had the 12v 16 cu ft Furrion. It had a bungee strap on top that would go around posts that were screwed into the tops of the doors. Worked very well (except for that time I forgot to put it on - then I had the same mess you described :rolleyes:)
That is what I have, but it does not have a bungee strap setup. It has a strap about 9" long with latches on each in at the very top. I added another strap at the bottom, but they both failed on the last trip. The heat in the trailer is making the two sided tape come unstuck. I thought about putting two eyebolts with a strap across the door, but my wife did not want me to drill into the cabinets.
 
My suggestion is put govee temp sensors in the fridge and freezer the connect via bluetooth and will log the temps giving you a history report. You can even set temp alerts within the govee app as well.
 
My suggestion is put govee temp sensors in the fridge and freezer the connect via bluetooth and will log the temps giving you a history report. You can even set temp alerts within the govee app as well.
That's a good idea, I think I'll pick a couple of those up when I get back down in the states.

But I still don't have a good way to keep the doors closed when I travel.
 
we bought some child fridge locks and put those on. The fridge doors are terrible and wont stay in alignment. the biggest help for us was to make sure to not travel with anything stored in the door.
 
Is this problem just with these fridges? In our past fridge in our 2011 cougar that thing is fully stocked and nothing has ever fallen out or moved.
 
Hello all,

I tried searching the forum for this topic but was unable to find my issue. The refrigerator in my 2023 310GK is the 12 volt Furrion with side-by-side fridge doors and 2 freezer drawers below. There are two thin, fairy flexible, metal bars that go horizontally across the fridge that are supposed to do double duty to: a) help keep the fridge from coming out of its hole, and b) to hold the doors/drawers closed while traveling. This latter part is accomplished by using black knobs that screw into a built-in nut in the metal bars.

For background, we bought our 310GK new in Elkhart in February 2024, and moved aboard in April.

About a month after moving in, we had our first problem with the fridge: the ice maker stopped working correctly. Excess water was pouring into the ice compartment and creating a mess. Then a couple weeks later we noticed some of our food had spoiled quicker than expected. I looked the doors over carefully, and noticed that the right door was sticking out very slightly further than the left door. When I opened the doors I could see that the upper of the two metal bars was slightly bent out away from the fridge, and was keeping the doors from closing all the way. I removed the bar, straightened it the best I could, and reinstalled it. But of course I couldn't get it perfectly straight, and even with a very slight bend it keeps the fridge doors from closing all the way. So I removed the bar completely and everything, including the ice maker, started working correctly. But this left me without a good way to secure the doors while traveling. It also left me with a less-secure installation.

I reached out to Grand Design customer service, and I have been extremely disappointed with the lack of help I received; after a month of basically being ignored I finally received a one sentence reply stating they can't help. In the meantime, we've been using a suction-cup handle as a backup to keep the doors closed while traveling, but it's failed twice and now we have dents in our doors.

Does anyone else have this type of fridge in their coach? If so, what have you done to secure the doors while traveling?

Thank you
Gary-C-MGRV,

It appears we have the same 20 cu ft 4-door fridge (Furrion FCR20DCAFA-XX 12 Volt Refrigerator) and door lock system on our 2024 GD Solitude 310GK. I have been working with Carl at Fridge Fixer to develop a solution for our second fridge - the original unit died after a few months and was replaced under warranty. The replacement unit was slightly different as it has small spring loaded latches built into the doors under the two fridge doors and on top of the two freezer drawers that have created new issues with the metal bar catching the latch when the doors are forced open during travel thus "locking" the doors open during travel. Here's a link to a very short video showing this behavior. While these latches are part of the refrigerator, neither Furrion/Lippert or Grand Design offer a device designed to utilize these latches. More about Fridge Fixer in a minute.

As I was swapping out the metal bar system to install the Fridge Fixer solution, I found that the two small metal straps held in place with a single small wood screw on each end were also the only things securing the fridge in place. I was surprised to find out the fridge wasn't bolted to the camper floor or frame!! I'm hoping this was a simple oversight during manufacturing or when the dealer replaced the fridge and not the way Grand Design planned to keep the fridge from roaming around the camper during travel days. The fridge is on casters and rolls out with a slight one-handed pull without the straps in place. Those four wood screws in the molding around the fridge just won't hold any significant pressure in case of an emergency maneuver or a hard swerve to avoid an accident.

My challenge now is to get the fridge secured to the trailer so the metal straps can be removed allowing me to install the Fridge Fixer. Fridge Fixer is a really nice solution that should provide a user friendly and secure method of locking the doors closed on travel days.

The photo below shows a prototype Fridge Fixer in position on our fridge. The reason there are two door blocks securing the two refrigerator doors and upper freezer drawer is due to the factory latch on top of the upper freezer drawer would catch if the single opening for a door block was in the middle. If your fridge doesn't have the latches, a single block in the middle would suffice.

If anyone has had a similar issue with a free-range fridge, I would really appreciate some guidance / recommendations for getting it properly attached to the trailer.

Thanks!
 

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samhum,

The Fridge Fixer looks like it would be a good solution. I ended up using super glue to attach the existing bar to the fridge so it won't bow out. No idea how long this will last, but once it fails I'll probably get the Fridge Fixer. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Our fridge has a small board that sits in front of it to help keep it in place. It also has 2 long screws that go thru the feet brackets in the fridge and keep it screwed to the floor. I've attached pictures so you can see what this looks like.
 

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samhum,

The Fridge Fixer looks like it would be a good solution. I ended up using super glue to attach the existing bar to the fridge so it won't bow out. No idea how long this will last, but once it fails I'll probably get the Fridge Fixer. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Our fridge has a small board that sits in front of it to help keep it in place. It also has 2 long screws that go thru the feet brackets in the fridge and keep it screwed to the floor. I've attached pictures so you can see what this looks like.
Gary,

Thanks for sending the photos of your fridge and how it is secured. This is definitely missing on ours.

I am curious if there is anything (i.e. a bracket or block) visible above the fridge to keep it from tipping forward?

Thanks again and hope the super glue solution works.

Sam
 
Sam,

The fridge is not secured in any way at the top. The first photo shows the L-bracket that was installed on the ceiling above the fridge, which is unattached to the top of the fridge and a good half inch above it. The second photo shows the evidence of the fridge moving around while we travel.
 

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Gary,

Interesting and disappointing. We buy a high-end RV and this is what we get with no good solutions from Grand Design.

My main concern now is making sure the screws we use to attach the block and the fridge feet to the floor don’t go through and damage the floor in front of the fridge when the slide is pulled in.

Oh the joys of RV life.

Sam
 
Maybe fashion some straps to keep the doors closed while traveling and attach the ends to the inside of the frame work of the refrigerator.

Something like this:
Home Depot has some 10 foot winch strings for like $10 I use to keep my fridge and TV secured. I had to buy some hooks to screw into the wood for the strap.
 
Hello all,

I tried searching the forum for this topic but was unable to find my issue. The refrigerator in my 2023 310GK is the 12 volt Furrion with side-by-side fridge doors and 2 freezer drawers below. There are two thin, fairy flexible, metal bars that go horizontally across the fridge that are supposed to do double duty to: a) help keep the fridge from coming out of its hole, and b) to hold the doors/drawers closed while traveling. This latter part is accomplished by using black knobs that screw into a built-in nut in the metal bars.

For background, we bought our 310GK new in Elkhart in February 2024, and moved aboard in April.

About a month after moving in, we had our first problem with the fridge: the ice maker stopped working correctly. Excess water was pouring into the ice compartment and creating a mess. Then a couple weeks later we noticed some of our food had spoiled quicker than expected. I looked the doors over carefully, and noticed that the right door was sticking out very slightly further than the left door. When I opened the doors I could see that the upper of the two metal bars was slightly bent out away from the fridge, and was keeping the doors from closing all the way. I removed the bar, straightened it the best I could, and reinstalled it. But of course I couldn't get it perfectly straight, and even with a very slight bend it keeps the fridge doors from closing all the way. So I removed the bar completely and everything, including the ice maker, started working correctly. But this left me without a good way to secure the doors while traveling. It also left me with a less-secure installation.

I reached out to Grand Design customer service, and I have been extremely disappointed with the lack of help I received; after a month of basically being ignored I finally received a one sentence reply stating they can't help. In the meantime, we've been using a suction-cup handle as a backup to keep the doors closed while traveling, but it's failed twice and now we have dents in our doors.

Does anyone else have this type of fridge in their coach? If so, what have you done to secure the doors while traveling?

Thank you
2023 310gk. Same fridge, hate those metal bars and the screw in door locks.
After much trial and error, we went to these and they work like a charm. One goes across the main doors and then we put one across the two freezer doors with a third from refer door to top freezer. Bought at Home Depot but they are available online as well.
 

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Hello all,

I tried searching the forum for this topic but was unable to find my issue. The refrigerator in my 2023 310GK is the 12 volt Furrion with side-by-side fridge doors and 2 freezer drawers below. There are two thin, fairy flexible, metal bars that go horizontally across the fridge that are supposed to do double duty to: a) help keep the fridge from coming out of its hole, and b) to hold the doors/drawers closed while traveling. This latter part is accomplished by using black knobs that screw into a built-in nut in the metal bars.

For background, we bought our 310GK new in Elkhart in February 2024, and moved aboard in April.

About a month after moving in, we had our first problem with the fridge: the ice maker stopped working correctly. Excess water was pouring into the ice compartment and creating a mess. Then a couple weeks later we noticed some of our food had spoiled quicker than expected. I looked the doors over carefully, and noticed that the right door was sticking out very slightly further than the left door. When I opened the doors I could see that the upper of the two metal bars was slightly bent out away from the fridge, and was keeping the doors from closing all the way. I removed the bar, straightened it the best I could, and reinstalled it. But of course I couldn't get it perfectly straight, and even with a very slight bend it keeps the fridge doors from closing all the way. So I removed the bar completely and everything, including the ice maker, started working correctly. But this left me without a good way to secure the doors while traveling. It also left me with a less-secure installation.

I reached out to Grand Design customer service, and I have been extremely disappointed with the lack of help I received; after a month of basically being ignored I finally received a one sentence reply stating they can't help. In the meantime, we've been using a suction-cup handle as a backup to keep the doors closed while traveling, but it's failed twice and now we have dents in our doors.

Does anyone else have this type of fridge in their coach? If so, what have you done to secure the doors while traveling?

Thank you
***Some rigs come with a hinged T-shape door lock. Unsure whether it fit your twin frig doors.
Search . . . T-shape RV frig door lock. About $24 + shipping
(also helpful to use spring-loaded curtain rods in frig to prevent foods from tumbling out) ***
 
Gary, Have you looked at the Fridge Fixer solution? Carl (the owner) is developing a new design just for fridge's like ours that will be a significant improvement over the factory door lock system. I am in the process of installing this solution on my unit which is in final stages of prototyping. Once I have more photos to share, I'll add them to this post. Below is what the door blocks look like when installed. They snap into place for travel and simply lift out of a platform that is attached to the frame of the fridge. Releasing the block is done by pushing a release tab so they can't bounce out during travel.
 

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You guys got me looking for something external I must be missing. Furion must’ve switched things up again as my ‘24 310gk came with nothing external to keep it latched. However, whatever mechanism keeps the doors closed has done so now for almost 9k miles. And it’s been tested with food and shelves slamming against the inside of the door thanks to a different poor design by Furion. That was taken care of with plastic bins and diagonally mounted compression curtain rods.
 

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