Broken Electrolux RM4233 Freezer door

The bottom corner of our freezer compartment door (effectively the bottom hinge) broke away this weekend: AutoSleeper Duetto, 2002/03 with an Electrolux RM4233 refrigerator.

A couple of questions for those 'in the know', please:

1. Can an effective repair be made using glue? It is is a clean break and we have the small corner part that has broken away. If so, which adhesive is recommended?

2. We are wondering whether to bite the bullet and buy a replacement door. We have only been able to find one supplier, suggesting the part is hard to obtain and may not be available much longer.  We are thus presently leaning towards obtaining a replacement while we can, especially if any repair is not going to be as strong as a replacement. This is despite the £48 cost.

This is the link we have found:

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The RM4233 model is not listed specifically, but the advertiser claims it fits the '4200 series'. We have just emailed the the vendor to ask whether it is the correct part for an RM4233 (not had a reply yet), but would be further reassured if anyone on the Forum can confirm.

We also note that the illustrated spare part has a 'Dometic' branding. Are Electolux and Dometic the same?

Thoughts and solutions to similar experiences appreciated!?

Hi
  The price of parts for these fridges are extreme,the problem is that the plastic is now getting brittle,we purchased a complete 2nd hand fridge when wanting parts and when we changed the door over it broke ,I think it would unlikely that you could glue the hinge back but you could try super glue the problem is do you spend £48 on a new door for 12 year old fridge Is it worthwhile buy a new fridge or trying to source a very good 2nd hand one from a caravan breakers if you have one near you,do not trust their description as your idea of good condition and theirs can vary
 regards Alan

Agreed, the fridge plastic parts do tend to get brittle as they age. However, if you are thinking of trying to glue the parts, there are much better adhesives around now than Super Glue for that sort of work.

In the fairly recent past I've had pretty good experience on that type of material with a product called "Unibond repair plastic", which is a 2-part epoxy. Unlike most epoxy adhesives it retains quite a lot of flexibility when fully set, which you really need on most plastics. It does however set pretty quickly once mixed - IIRC you only get around 5 minutes before you need to stop moving it about!

Alan and mojo

Thanks for the replies. The vendor got back very quickly and confirmed the part does fit the RM4233 fridge, so we have opted for the solution of buying a replacement freezer compartment door. The fridge is in very good condition otherwise, so it will be nice to get it back to appearing and functioning 'as new'.

The lesson learned is to be extra careful with the fridge interior in future, aware that the plastic has probably become brittle!

As a further aside, if anyone else is interested in adhesives to repair fridge shelves, etc, we have recently used Sugru successfully in another fridge repair context. (We did not, however, think it had the right properties for the hinge repair to the Freezer compartment door):

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(see embedded instructional video).

Hi
  If your fridge is in good order apart from the door ,it is probably the best option,I did not realize new fridges were so expensive becareful
   regards Alan