Ashland Refrigerator door and moulding issue

[OToole]

We have looked at a couple of Ashland models and have noticed the bottom of the right refrigerator door rubs on the slide out fascia molding when opened. In fact the door will not fully open without rubbing and scaring the molding. Has anyone experienced this problem? Is the fridge not properly installed? There is no room to move the fridge to the left. The only possible solution I see is to move the fridge forward about 1/4" to 1/2". I would like to know what the fix is before I purchase the Ashland. I have a dealer checking into it and they have said they will check with Heartland. I thought I might find some answers here first.

Thanks
Mike

 

[TxCowboy]

Mike, I can't speak for everyone but the right hand door in our unit also rubs on the slide out facia. We have the Key West. I believe most LM owners have this type of issue with the fridge in the slide and its positioning right against the right hand slide wall.

There's really not much that can be done about it unless you want to perhaps move entire fridge forward and away from the back wall. Not sure how well it would travel in that position however.

 

[ksucats]

We also have a Key West and our refer was so far back that we could not even open the right hand door enough to get the refrigerator's packaging materials out. Our dealership took the bottom vent panel off and there are two screws holding the refer in place, They removed the two, pulled the refer forward enough that the door no longer hits the trim. HOWEVER, they did have to play with it a bit as they moved it so far forward the first time that the freezer door then hit the island edge when the slide was brought in. So, they removed the screws again to move the refer back a bit. Now it misses both.

 

[TxCowboy]

ksucats, how well does it travel in that position? How did they re-secure it to the floor?

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

When we bought our LM365 Ashland the fridge was sitting so crooked it was hitting the slide trim on top and 1" away on the bottom. The dealer tried to straighten it out by fastening it to the rear wall with an angle iron bracket (instead of figuring out why it was not sitting flat on all 4 corners) The first trip out after there repair, the fridge ripped off the wall, the rubber safety latch broke and half of our food including the eggs were all over the floor.
After we got home I pulled the fridge myself and found the right rear foot adjusted all the way down was still a 1/2" from hitting the floor. I had to put a piece of 1/2" plywood back there. Touched up the damaged trim and refasten everything back the right way.
In your case it can be adjusted but make sure you / they do it right.

 

[Bryced15]

When we bought our LM365 Ashland the fridge was sitting so crooked it was hitting the slide trim on top and 1" away on the bottom. The dealer tried to straighten it out by fastening it to the rear wall with an angle iron bracket (instead of figuring out why it was not sitting flat on all 4 corners) The first trip out after there repair, the fridge ripped off the wall, the rubber safety latch broke and half of our food including the eggs were all over the floor.
After we got home I pulled the fridge myself and found the right rear foot adjusted all the way down was still a 1/2" from hitting the floor. I had to put a piece of 1/2" plywood back there. Touched up the damaged trim and refasten everything back the right way.m
In your case it can be adjusted but make sure you / they do it right.

How difficult was it to pull the fridge out in one of these units? I've always wondered since you have that 3-4" lip of wood facia to deal with getting over pulling it out and putting it back.

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

It was easy, but I put a piece of cardboard down to protect the wood and I think I even put blue painters tape under that.
Pull out the 2 big screws at the bottom and wriggle it out.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[ksucats]

First: Since Lifestyle RV 'adjusted' the location of the fridge a bit forward it does open ok. As for traveling - it didn't appear to hit anything and we do use the velcro strap they provided to hold the doors closed. Until the slide adjustment yesterday we had at least a half inch of clearance between the freezer door and the island. Now it is less than a quarter inch but, with both the repair guy and I throwing our weight into it, trying to bounce the refer back and forth it still appears to clear. The trip home will tell I guess.

As for moving the fridge - when Lifestyle did that they removed a couple of screws holding the wood trim down in front to the fridge feet. They then had clear access to the feet of the fridge and the two screws holding the feet in place. I did not notice how those were attached, and am still amazed at how short they appeared to be. Regardless, when they put the trim back on it was also a bit forward of its original position. One last thing - the mobile repair man that worked on the slides yesterday was amazed that there was no other hardware holding the fridge in place. Then again, given what little I know about the mass and weight differences between a 'normal RV' fridge and ours, I imagine that Jess's incident would be the norm. I do wish there was something else holding these things in - America's roads are not getting any better and as much as these things bounce, well ...........

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

This is what I redid on mine. The dealer had put a small piece of aluminum angle iron with a few screws screwed into the wall. They ripped right out on that first trip. I redid it all with the (Hollow wall anchors)

this is the back wall top of fridge not easy to get to but it's not going anywhere now.!!!!

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[ShawnPHanna]

We had the same problem on our Ashland, well one of many problems on our Ashland that is. Unfortunately on my first parking after taking it home and when I put down the landing gear and set the auto level function, I went inside to move the slides out. soon after when my wife went to open the fridge and tells me that the fridge door doesn't open very far.

I check everything every where and see that the fridge is not positioned properly inside space for it. I talk to the service center and explained the problem. So the 1st of 3 return 160 km trips to fix all the deficiencies. Our service center has been top notch in resolving everything (Sunwest RV on Vancouver Island).

We removed the fridge plastic kick plate, see that the 3/4" piece of wood is partly broken, fridge has slipped back a bit on the right side, the steel bar running across the front is bent looked like it was done during the assembly portion of placing the fridge in place. Molding of the right side of fridge is damaged (beyond repair required replacement)

Fridge could not stay square to the right hand wall side, so now the fridge has been moved forward, a 3/4" piece of plywood on the right side is keeping it square to the slide opening and the molding replaced have not had a issue since. One other note on the freezer bottom hinge the center found that the door was missing part of the hinge. That took another round trip later to replace later.

No regrets on buying the LM 365 Ashland, only can hope that a little more quality control happens at the factory in the future. Three cabinet doors needed replacement (one bowed, two with blemishes), backside sink door frame coming apart, screw coming through the basement to the bathroom floor, fridge issues, carpeted molding of the living room fireplace slide at the bottom detaching and just a few other small details that were only particular to us.

First major lifestyle purchase, just a few shakedown adjustments to deal with, looking forward to the next part of life.

 

[bob34787]

my 2013 has had minor QC issues but it would appear something has changed in the 15 and 16 models far too many QC complaints

 

[TxCowboy]

This thread is very timely for Laurie and me. We just had a Frigidaire repairman tell us that our leaky ice maker needs replacement but that they don't move/remove the refrigerator in RVs (liability, I guess). So that task is left to me.

Got some good insight from this thread on how to remove the fridge, protect the flooring, and reinstall / level the fridge when the repairman is finished.

Thanks, all!