Refrigerator Hinge Reinforcement

by Greg Zimmerman
Published: Last Updated on

The Dometic fridge in the 17′ Casita has a weak plastic hinge.  It can break if it pops open in transit, is overloaded, or by leaning on it while open.  Replacing the hinge required a costly new door from Dometic until Little House Customs came to the rescue with a stainless steel reinforcement plate that will help prevent the hinge from breaking.  It will also fix a broken hinge.

For this project I needed a drill with a 1/8″ bit, phillips screwdriver, and a pair of 10mm wrenches.

The plastic trim cap on top of the hinge needed to be pried off, I used an old knife.  Working with the 10mm wrenches, the lower is used to loosen the nut 1/4 turn, then the top one is used to unscrew the hinge pin while keeping the lower nut from turning.  Pull out the hinge pin.

Here I opened the fridge, being careful to not let it drop or flop, and laid the reinforcing plate on top of the door.  Re-insert the hinge pin to hold the door through the plate and nut and screw it down while keeping the bottom nut from turning with the wrench. Then tighten up the lower nut.

I drilled just one hole before inserting a screw by hand before going onto the next hole.  If you drill them at all at once, they might not line up.  It’s soft plastic, so no power tools or the screws can strip out.

Installation complete.  With the door closed you can barely see it.

25 comments

Russell June 7, 2020 - 7:06 pm

This is an excellent article of a very important modification. To my knowledge, no one has been able to get an answer from Dometic as to why they cannot manufacture a door hinge from something other than cheap, weak plastic – or if they insist on doing so, why they don’t reinforce it in a fashion similar to what LHC has fabricated.

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Ruben November 12, 2020 - 3:21 pm

Where can I order it?

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ruben November 12, 2020 - 4:04 pm

where can i buy the reenforcement kit for my domestic fridge

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Richard F Sacks December 30, 2020 - 11:36 am

My Dometic RML 8555 euro fridge has weak plastic hinges on the inner freezer door. It’s broken numerous times, and the hinge replacement is expensive. The last time it broke, I received a bonk above the eye. Dometic knows about the problem and gave me some new hinges gratis.

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Rick January 28, 2021 - 7:41 am

yes, I broke the same hinge in the freezer and it didn’t last long w/ superglue —ended up buying a new one amazon that nearly fits – $100/each if I recall.

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David October 2, 2021 - 2:59 pm

Thanks for the help, everything went as planned.

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Jay Thompson October 30, 2021 - 3:39 pm

I just broke the head off the pin.😢 now what?

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Greg Zimmerman October 30, 2021 - 9:18 pm

Oh no! Did you not hold the 10mm nut still while backing out the bolt? This looks it: https://www.dyersonline.com/dometic-refrigerator-door-upper-rh-hinge-pin.html

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Larry Lord July 22, 2023 - 2:52 pm

Do you think this reinforcement plate will work for a Dometic Model RM2354? To me, it looks like it would be too big/wide.

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Greg Zimmerman November 13, 2023 - 2:11 pm

I would check with little house customs to see if they know. I haven’t tried on 2354.

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Jay Thompson October 31, 2021 - 12:02 am

I believe I have a dometic 2453, do you think the pins are the same?

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Greg Zimmerman October 31, 2021 - 12:16 am

I looked up the part number for your 2453, it’s part number: 2932647015

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Jay Thompson October 31, 2021 - 12:03 am

I’ll look on the forum tomorrow, thanks

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Jay Thompson October 31, 2021 - 12:20 am

Looks like the part number is 2932647015, maybe

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Greg Zimmerman October 31, 2021 - 12:21 am

It is, I posted it above. Finding one could be tricky.

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Mike Barton February 15, 2022 - 4:52 pm

I bought a 17′ Casita with a damaged refrigerator door. The bottom hinge is the one broken. Will the repair kit from Little House Customs work if I repair/replace both top and bottom. Will the screw heads (being rounded) interfere with the opening and closing of the door?

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Greg Zimmerman February 15, 2022 - 5:11 pm

I have not personally done one, but I’ve read of many Casita owners who’ve installed them top and bottom, so it should work.

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Bruce Siceloff June 11, 2022 - 4:32 pm

I got the Little House Customs kit to reinforce the plastic top hinge on my Dometic 2454 fridge. Unfortunately, like Jay, above, I twisted off the head of the bolt / hinge pin while trying to reinstall it.
A helpful support desk person at Dometic told me the pin part number I found online, 2932647015, was ‘obsolete.’ Instead of this single part, you now have to buy a complete hinge repair kit with about 20 other parts. This kit is 29326430300. I found it online a couple of places, and paid $51 something for the kit. (By the way, this probably will fix Mike’s bottom hinge problem, above.)
Just now I managed to replace the headless original pin with the new one, and installed the steel hinge reinforcement plate along the top of the door. I think it worked OK but I was not able to screw the hinge pin bolt all the way down – left almost a quarter inch of thread protruding from the top. Resisted the urge to try hard because I didn’t want to decapitate another bolt. I think it’ll work OK, even tho it’s not pretty. No problem with clearance along the top of the fridge door.
FYI the dyersonline hinge pin hyperlinked above is DIFFERENT. It is shorter and maybe fatter than the one for Dometic model 2454.

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Greg Zimmerman June 11, 2022 - 7:05 pm

Are making sure the 10mm nut can’t turn while screwing in the hinge pin? If the nut turns it’ll push down jamming up the pin.

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Larry Lord July 22, 2023 - 2:57 pm

I have a Dometic Model RM2354 and the top plastic hinge is broken. Do you think this reinforcement plate from Little House will work on this model? To me, it appears to be too wide.

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Greg Zimmerman July 22, 2023 - 5:50 pm

It should but check with little house customs as it is their product.

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John July 24, 2023 - 6:57 pm

Will this work for a dometic RM 2652 model freezer door

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Greg Zimmerman July 24, 2023 - 7:03 pm

I don’t know. Please ask Little House customs, as they make the reinforcement. [email protected]

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Thomas E Sztukowsk September 17, 2023 - 1:54 pm

I just installed one on my model year 2006 RM2652 and it fit perfectly. The hinge had broken off so I 3D printed an L shaped insert and used 3M ScotchWeld to reattach the hinge prior to installing the hinge repair kit.

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