Door Shelves Falling / Door Liner Cracked

Some refrigerator door shelves become loose after several years of hard use. They appear to not be secured to the door and often all off. Look behind the seals to see if the plastic inner door panel has broken away from the door seal retainer screws.

If so, install some oversized-head screws or specialized washers to put under the screw heads. Align the plastic inner door panel under the screws or washers and retighten them while also holding the door plumb.

Repairing Door Liner

Bob Wennerstrom's tip:

I have what I think is a better repair for refrigerator door liners cracking around the edges than the "washers under the screws" idea. I have done 8 or 10 of these (especially on Admiral/Wards brands) and they have all held up to this date. I have seen many of these Admiral door liners so cracked that washers would no longer repair them. My repair solves this problem.

Remove the door liner and lay it on some sawhorses. Cut 2" strips of fiberglass cloth 2-3' long. Mix up fiberglass resin and spread around outer 1-2" of door liner. Embed the cloth and soak with more resin and a plastic spatula. After it dries, use a utility knife or those scissors-that-cut-pennies to trim off all the fiberglass around the edges. The screws can usually be forced through the cloth with some pressure on a 1/4 inch nut driver so you don't have to re-drill all the holes. the resin is usually clear enough so you can see where you need to push. Leave the top and outside edge screws loose until the door is reinstalled so that it can be tweaked into true. Much cheaper than a new $100+ door liner.

This repair could also be used to repair a broken door liner where the door shelves are mounted to the panel.

FanMan's tip:

Most internal parts of refrigerators are made of ABS nowadays, not styrene. ABS is most commonly used for thermoformed sheet parts, while styrene is used for transparent parts and those requiring the precision of injection molding. Either way, gluing the thin edge of a broken flat part doesn't make for a strong bond... it needs to be reinforced.

A good way to repair such a part is with cyanoacrylate adhesive (CA, "super glue"). You need the thin kind, not the thick gel "gap filling" kind. Cut a small piece of synthetic fabric (fiberglass is best, but Dacron aka 'polyester' is OK... nylon will work, but because it's more stretchable it won't hold up as well). Glue the plastic first and let it set... it will hold it together but won't be very strong. Next, lay a piece of the fabric over the joint, smooth it flat, and drip the CA onto it. It will wick into the fabric, wet it out, and harden rigid. Do this on both sides if possible. Your repair should be stronger than the original material.

Warning

Newer refrigerator door panels are 'glued' together with the foamed-in insulation used inside them. On those models the inner door liner can not be separated from the outer door panel. If there are no screws located under the door seal, the panel is 'foamed in place' (aka FIP) and not able to be separated. A whole new inner and outer door panel assembly would be needed if external repair could not be performed.