How well aligned should fridge doors be?

[Henry]

Just got a GE Profile refrigerator the other day. It has two doors for the fridge and a lower drawer for the freezer part. One thing I noticed was that one door is a few mm higher than the other. In the manual it mentions aligning the doors, so I phone up Sears (where I bought it from) and the repair guy comes round. He says there's nothing he can do! He reckons the hinges on one side are slightly higher than on the other.

Should these things be made to better alignment than that, or am I just being too picky over my (expensive) new refrigerator?

Another thing that bugged me was that one of the door handles came loose as well. I connected it back again and tightened up the set screw. Seems OK so far, but I didn't really expect that type of thing on a new fridge...

Thanks.

[Pop]

Nope, you're not being too picky. The repair "guy" isn't too swift, either; you should complain politely but firmly until they take care of it, and don't be afraid to work your way up the ladder until you get satisfaction. As for the door handle, most of those things are shipped without the handles attached to minimize damage. The guy at Sears is almost surely the dummy who didn't fasten it correctly. I got to watch the guy assemble ours; they brought the box out unopened and he did the whole thing right in front of me. Even the icemaker filter was in its own box inside the big crate.

HTH, PopS

[Don Young]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I don't have a GE, but my dorrs are in perfect alighnment. Bitch until they fix them. No, you are nto too picky, they should be about perfect.

Loctite may help if it loosens again. But it should not have come loose to start with. Makes you wonder about the rest of the quality.

[Henry]

Thanks very much for everyone's comments so far. So you can see how large/small the difference is I uploaded a couple of photos to:

I wasn't holding the camera very level! For the picture of the top of the fridge you can see the bottom of the cabinet above it which gives you the real horizontal.

Cheers

[Henry]

I doubt it - I expect some yahoo/geocities software noticed that I'd written GE Profile refrigerator as the caption! I don't see most ads as I use firefox + Adblock...

[Gazoo]

I'd bitch and complain until they fix it or give ya another fridge!!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Looks kind of crappy tome. Just curious, I know Geocites accepts paid advertising, but an ad for G E Profile refrigerators is next to your photos. Co-incidence?

Get them to fix it. You may even want to call GE for satisfaction and tell them you are publishing photos of it for the world to see if they do not fix it.

[carbuff]

Did you RTFM? I have a GE SXS that's 1 yr old, and while the LH (freezer) door is fixed, the RH door is adjustable. There is a 5/16 long-head screw at the bottom that can raise/lower the RH door to align it with the LH one. For some reason, I have to tweak mine about every 2 weeks, so for that reason, I keep a 5/16 combination wrench in my 'everything' drawer so it's handy for the job. Mine'll sag/drop about an 1/8 inch or so after 10 days, and it just ticks me off to see a $1,500 appliance that doesn't line up properly. In any case, your owner's manual SHOULD have a section on door alignment. HTH

[Henry]

Mine is different and doesn't have that adjustment. (The appropriate manual is the one for "Bottom Freezer" models.) Anyway, I phoned Sears and they're bringing me a replacement.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Go here and it is on page 24

IMO, if yours need adjusting every 2 weeks, there is something very wrong and should be addressed. That is 25 times a year of maybe 250 to 400 times over the life of the fridge. Why not get it fixed properly?

[carbuff]

Also at the top of Page 11. While that one says a 7/16 wrench is needed, mine is definitely 5/16. Then again, mine is a Model 22.

Something very wrong? No, something SLIGHTLY wrong. I have to assume that every time the door is opened & closed, the adjusting screw rotates CCW a few degrees, so that cumulatively after a couple weeks, I have to turn the screw a full turn CW to get the doors even. It's not THAT big a deal, and I suppose a drop of Loctite or even Crazy Glue might cure it.

In order to answer the OP's problem, were you able to find an owner's manual for his type of fridge?

[Henry]

I don't need to click at all - the fridge came with a manual! Anyway, the Sears technician said it couldn't be adjusted (I pointed out the alignment section in the manual and he said it wasn't relevant). Since Sears are sending me a new fridge that's good enough for me.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

IIRC, he had a GE too. Every manual is on the GE appliance web page. He could easily find the exact model in about four clicks or less

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sounds like the technician is not relevant and should be replaced.

[Henry]

Turns out the fridge wasn't properly leveled. The delivery guys who brought the replacement fridge set it up right! (And so I didn't need the new one).