How to outweigh the refrigerator door: repair recommendations + step-by-step instructions

In most cases, the question of how to outweigh the door of the refrigerator arises when redevelopment of the kitchen is required and the equipment should be rearranged.

If the position of the refrigerator does not allow the door to open properly, it becomes necessary to hang it in the opposite direction for greater convenience. How to do it right and what you should know about in order not to damage the door?

We will discuss these issues in our article. For a better understanding of the process of re-weighing, we give step-by-step instruction, equipped with visual photos.

When is a door re-weighting required?

Sometimes such a need arises if one of the owners is left-handed, and he wants to install everything in the kitchen as he wishes.

This is also done if the refrigerator door does not close properly due to the rubber seal on the handle side being worn. In this case, the door does not fit tightly to the housing, and the device loses its tightness.

Sometimes it is necessary to change the entire seal, but in most cases it will still be better to simply outweigh the sash of the refrigerator, because it does not require financial costs

It is not difficult to verify this - it is enough to cover the refrigerator by pressing a sheet of plain paper with the door, and then pulling the sheet.

If it slips easily, then the gap between the housing and the seal is large enough. This means that the tightness is broken, and either change the entire seal around the perimeter, or outweigh the door.

In some models of refrigerators, this can be done without much difficulty, because there are already provided holes for handles and hinges on the opposite side of the door.

Before starting this work, we advise you to make sure that you have these spare holes in your refrigerator.

If you don’t find them, then you won’t be able to override the refrigerator door yourself - the factory design of the appliance does not provide for this, you should not even try!

Of course, some owners themselves can drill the necessary holes if they are not there, but still it is better to use the services of a professional master, especially if your refrigerator is equipped with a display or an opening sensor

Some stores include the service of hanging the door in the warranty package, so it is more advisable to contact their service center.

If the warranty period of your refrigerator has expired and its factory assembly provides for the possibility of independently hanging the door, then it will be quite simple to do it yourself, it is enough to comply with safety rules.

Tool List

Here is the optimal set of tools that you will need to work:

• set of wrenches - different wrenches may require different wrenches;
• flat and Phillips screwdrivers or screwdrivers;
• Scotch;
• instruction.

If you still have instructions for the refrigerator, then it will be very helpful - it may contain a good guide for self-re-hanging the door. But if there is none, then it does not matter - the work can be done without it.

It will also be nice to get someone's help, because the process requires some skill and it will be difficult to cope alone.

In order to cope with the door fixtures, you will need very few hand tools that are found in every home

Step-by-step process of changing the position of the door

Before you hang the refrigerator door with your own hands, disconnect it from the mains. Then you need to remove all products from the shelves located on the inside of the door, and a variety of magnets on the outside. Care should be taken not to scratch glossy surfaces.

Step 1 - dismantle the top door

The vast majority of refrigerators are two-chamber, with a freezer located above / below the main compartment. We talked about the varieties of two-chamber refrigerators in more detail. next article.

Therefore, in such models of refrigerators, it is better to start the outweighing from the upper door. It is necessary to attach the door to the case with adhesive tape so that it does not fall during disassembly. This must be done in several places.

As a rule, the door is attached to the body with hinges, which are screwed with two bolts. They need to be removed first, having previously removed the plastic plugs from similar holes on the opposite side of the door, where we are going to fasten the removed loop.

Two bolts on the upper loop that need to be unscrewed with a wrench. For different models of refrigerators, loops may look different

The plugs should be removed carefully so as not to scratch the surface with a flat screwdriver. If decorative panels are screwed onto the front, they can be removed using a Phillips screwdriver.

Some models of modern refrigerators are designed so that to remove the door in order to access the upper hinge, you must remove the top cover of the device.

We dismantle it and set it aside. All removed parts should be put in a separate container.

You must first dismantle the panel in order to get to the main parts of the mount. The shape and size of the mounts of different manufacturers differ

Unscrew the bolts of the upper loop, dismantle the loop. Then you should remove the upper handle, after removing the decorative caps. If the handle is not bolted, then you do not need to touch it, the possibility of reinstalling the door is already included in its design.

After all the screws are unscrewed with a wrench and the hinges are removed, you can remove the tape and remove the upper door, lifting it to separate from the middle hinge.Put the removed door aside.

We rearrange the previously removed caps on the opposite side into empty slots. For greater convenience, they can not be removed before dismantling, but rearranged already with the door removed.

Step 2 - remove the bottom door

We proceed to the next stage: we repeat all the steps with tape - we fix the lower door to the case. Using a wrench, remove the middle loop, first removing the gasket from the pin.

This is how the middle hinge on the doors of most models of two-compartment refrigerators looks like. But there are such models in which two middle hinges for the upper and lower doors

Then you can remove the tape and, slightly lifting the door from the lower pin, remove it and also set aside.

We remove the plugs from the holes in the middle part of the refrigerator for the subsequent installation of the dismantled middle loop and rearrange them into the formed holes.

Now we just have to dismantle the lower hinge, which remained after removing the door on the refrigerator body.

This is done with a wrench or screwdriver. The pins and mounting sleeves are removed, the screws that screw the lower loop are unscrewed.

Then the part is removed, and plugs from the opposite side of the case are transferred to the place of the formed holes.

That’s it, the disassembly phase has been completed, it’s the turn to directly carry all the dismantled parts to the other side in mirror order.

Step 3 - transfer the loops to the opposite side

We advise you to perform subsequent installation in the reverse order, starting from the bottom door.

All sets of dismantled fasteners should be moved without any replacement, because when interchanging interchangeable hinge elements, rearrangement problems may occur. Incorrectly installed doors slam shut and hang badly, since the hinges have a workout and you should not break it.

The procedure for moving the door is as follows. First of all, install the last loop removed last in the opposite place. Screw the bolts with a wrench or screwdriver. Install the lower pin and gasket.

Rearranging the bottom hinge on the refrigerator door is not always easy - some models may not have one or two required openings on the lower opposite side

Then, carefully install the lower door with the handle previously transferred to the opposite side on the pin and fix it with tape.

A little trick - the masters propose instead of using adhesive tape to just tilt the refrigerator case back a little, then the door will hold tight and not move.

Next, fix the middle loop. We put its lower pin on the sleeve in the lower door, and then, having combined all the holes on the hinge and the body, we fix the loop with the screws.

Then, in the same way, install the upper refrigerator door on the middle hinge pin. Do not forget about insurance - fasten the door with tape or slightly tilt the refrigerator back.

The last hinge is mounted last in the process of hanging, then it remains only to install the upper decorative panel, of course, if your refrigerator has it

Next, install the pin of the upper loop in the sleeve on the upper door, align the holes and fasten the part with bolts using a wrench or screwdriver. Everything, the new door is ready. It remains to check for leaks.

To do this is simple - you need to open the doors one by one and, having placed a small strip of paper against the case, slam them so that the paper is sandwiched between the door and the rubber seal.

Next you need to pull the strip. If it slides easily, then the door does not fit snugly, it needs to be adjusted. We recommend a paper test around the entire perimeter of the door.

It is imperative to check the installed leaves for leaks, because after re-weighing the door of the refrigerator, it may require additional adjustment

There are two-chamber refrigerators with separate fasteners, that is, their doors are installed on separate hinges, and not on a common middle hinge.

Reinstalling the flaps of such devices will also not be a big hassle. Dismantling is carried out in the same order, only instead of one fastening in the middle - two for each leaf.

You can even outweigh only one door, leaving the second in the same position. Sometimes it is more comfortable, especially if there is not enough space in the kitchen, and the arrangement of furniture is not very convenient. You can very stylishly beat such an innovative move, especially in the built-in version of the kitchen.

If your refrigerator is single-chamber, then the work becomes a little complicated due to the presence of decorative panels in many models.

Before dismantling the door, you must first remove the top panel to gain access to the hinge mount hidden under it.

After the upper hinge is removed, the same needs to be done with the lower panel and the hinge. This operation, although more time-consuming, but generally simple.

Sometimes, to dismantle the door of a single-chamber refrigerator, you need to remove the top cover, and if there is a display on the front panel, you must do this

It should be borne in mind that not all models of refrigerators are ideally designed for self-weighing doors.

For example, in the refrigerator Atlant the upper mount can be moved to the left without any problems, but there is no hole for one bolt in the lower left corner. Therefore, you will either need to purchase a left-side hinge for the bottom, or drill the desired hole yourself.

The nuances of outweighing a door with a display

Changing the position of the door can only be done on models whose design allows this. To do this, we recommend that you carefully study the instructions for the refrigerator, because if you get down to business without first collecting information, you risk spoiling the device.

In addition, such a service is sometimes included in the warranty package, then contacting a service center will be much more profitable and more expedient.

But if you are firmly convinced that you can cope on your own, and at the same time have good experience and skill, then here is a brief instruction on how to do this work with your own hands.

One or more cables usually pass through the top loop through the display on the front of the refrigerator.

If the unit door is designed for reinstallation, then this cable or group of wires are equipped with a special connector for disconnecting.

This is how the cable goes to the display on the refrigerator door. If the design of the device provides for the possibility of rearranging the door, the cable can be equipped with a connector

1. First you need to dismantle the top decorative panel, if available on your refrigerator model.
2. Next, unscrew the bolt on the top loop of the refrigerator, and then remove the cable and disconnect it from the connector.
3. Then it is already required to completely unscrew all the bolts on the upper hinge, remove it, and slightly lifting it, remove the sash from the middle hinge.
4. Then you need to dismantle the top cover of the refrigerator to gain access to the control panel. The connecting cable with the connector must be removed from the opposite hole of the panel, specially designed for this purpose.
5. Hinges should be carried over as described above. Be sure to refer to the instructions, because the installation of mounts in different models can have different subtleties and nuances.
6. The last one connects the cable on the door to the connector output from the opposite hole of the control panel; the loop is fully fixed.

The top cover of the refrigerator is put in place.

All parts are transferred to the opposite side in turn, while it is recommended not to confuse the connecting elements of each fastener, since the doors can be bent after installation

The upper decorative panel is fixed, and the removed plugs are moved to opposite holes.

The work is completed, and if you did everything correctly and according to the instructions, then you should not have any problems.

It remains only to wash the refrigerator inside and out, and place food on shelves and in drawers.

In conclusion, we present a video on how to outweigh the door of your own refrigerator.

Hanging a refrigerator door on your own, the design of which allows it, is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to act wisely and be careful, as well as safety rules.

The door is outweighed originally intended for users, so it makes no sense to spend money on calling the wizard.

Have experience hanging doors yourself and want to share useful tips with other users? Write your comments below this post.

If you have any questions or difficulties at a certain stage, ask them in the comments section - our experts and other visitors to the site will try to help you.