What's wrong with my refrigerator?

Maybe the little rubber strip around the edge has come askew? or one of the hinges has lost its spring?

My son’s refrigerator (no d) door behaves the same way. He examined everything he could think of and couldn’t find a cause. It seems that the door is just a little warped for no good reason. He’s trained himself and everybody else to push the bottom corner with their foot whenever they close the door.

Maybe the dust has built up too deeply underneath it so that it’s now balanced on top of that instead of its feet, and it’s just out of balance. Time to reposition it and clean out from underneath.

But seriously, unless there’s something wrong with one of the hinges, then I expect it’s a problem of balance: the door itself may be overloaded (or loaded in a way that it hasn’t been, up to now) or the kitchen floor itself may have settled a bit underneath it, throwing it just enough out of balance that the door won’t close by gravity any more.

Get a level and check.

Depending on how much weight you put on the door, it can cause the door to sag on its hinges. You can live with it, try leveling the fridge, or try taking the door off the hinges tightening the hinges and reseating the door.

I would check that the fridge was level, and then live with it. If you try the third option and something goes wrong, you may end up buying a new refrigerator.

try this then give the hinges a little WD-40

Sometimes I am guilty of hanging on the door while i bend down to get something out of the bottom of the frizzer. It is possible someone did this, and warped the door.

It’s spelled wrong. ;-)

On a serious note, see if the hinges are loose – that’s happened to me. you may just need to tighten them up.

My first guess is the plastic bushing/washer that the door pivots on has worn out. You should have a top and bottom hinge pin with a plastic bushing/washer on each. Google your make and model for a schematic and see if you can see where that part comes into play. My guess again is you should be able to open the door all the way have someone try to lift the door ¼”-½” and see if there is a worn out chewed up piece of plastic. Otherwise the may simply be out of alignment. Check for loose screws on where the hinges mount on the door and or fridge frame. Align the door when it is closed where you eyeball the spacing and “Level” of the door top and bottom tighten the screws and should be good to go.

If the door doesn’t weigh itself into closing perhaps you need to adjust the legs so that one side (the front hinge corner?) is slightly higher so that gravity does the job. Check out the hinges and see if they’ve loosened or warped. If you can’t fix that… the legs sometimes are adjustable so you can screw them higher or lower.

The rubber seal is tight.
The door is not differently loaded from any other time we’ve had the fridge.
The hinges are tightly attached.
The fridge is slightly out of level, but it’s been in the same place for as long as we’ve had it—maybe 15 years.
There is no rubber bushing on the bottom side of the lower hinge, although there is one on the top of where it connects. However it looks like there was never a bottom bushing on the lower hinge. I tried lifting the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

I also squirted some WD40 which may have had a tiny effect.
Our fridge is on casters, not legs.

The only thing left to try is to try to raise the front door side of the fridge. How that can be accomplished, I don’t know.

If you have no plans to move the fridge for another few years, then you can always use thin wedges under the front caster/s to raise them slightly. But I still expect that there is some way built into the casters themselves to adjust for an uneven floor. For example, you may be able to tilt the fridge backwards toward the wall (an inch or so should be plenty) and see if the caster is threaded so that turning it clockwise (in relation to the floor) may allow it to adjust downward and thereby raise the front of the fridge.

You can raise the front of the fridge by extending the leveling feet at turn or two. There is one on each corner. You can do it with a pair of channel locks. Just turn each one the same amount. You’ll probably have to take off the grill. That’s easy – it will pop off.
Here’s a risky way that works if you don’t have any tools. Stick a 2×4 under a solid spot on the frame and pry it up a bit. Then you’ll be able to turn the feet easily.

Just for fun put a level on the floor. It is possible it sagged just a touch.

The slightly unlevel combined with 15 year old wear and tear sounds like the culprit. If the casters don’t have a threaded end to adjust for a unlevel floor, try the thin wedges suggestion. Try the door section of your local hardware store for shims. I like the composite ones, they can’t compress like the wood ones can and break off where needed super easy.

If your fridge has to go, i highly recommend a new Samsung. we love ours.

We did find a crank on the castors and cranked up the front end a bit. The door will close itself now, but very, very slowly.