Bourton Fridge

It’s me again with another query.
I cannot work out the fridge door shelf and base salad draw design in our fridge. It appears that the salad draw is too wide to allow the bottom fridge door shelf to be used at the same time as the door won’t close if they are!

To use the bottom door shelf to store bottles and milk cartons etc it appears the salad / vegetable draw in the base of fridge has to be completely removed? If the bottom door shelf is moved up to put bottles in then other door shelves have to be removed because of their height in the small fridge. Am I missing something here?

In our previous Dometic fridge/freezer the salad draw was narrow enough that when bottles were in the bottom door shelf the door would close with the salad draw in place. As it dose in our home fridge.

I am adding a photo of our fridge layout to show what I am trying to explain.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

The salad drawer should fit so the front aligns with the silver trimmed shelf above. You have the wrong salad drawer assuming it is pushed fully in.

I can see the problem, it seems a bit odd.

The fridge is different from the one in our van, no translucent shelves in ours. Is the Salad Drawer fitted properly, in ours there are two pegs on the fridge side which it fits over, (a bit of a fiddle to fit it in) this allows it to tilt forward for access when the door is open.

[url=https://servimg.com/view/20310640/6][/url]

Not sure if these 4 photos help show what I am trying to explain.

I apologise if the photos have uploaded more than once I am not sure what I am doing and I could edit and delete them. Sorry!

Lainie wrote:Not sure if these 4 photos help show what I am trying to explain.

I apologise if the photos have uploaded more than once I am not sure what I am doing and I could edit and delete them. Sorry!

The photos do show more of the problem don't worry about the number it happens, you will get used to it. I don't suppose just rotating the Salad Drawer (so the higher part is at the front) will alter things, it seems to be shaped to come out into the door.

What make and model is it, it is totally different from my one. Given the details a web search may throw some light on it. Or of course another owner who has one.

Lainie, I reckon you have the wrong salad drawer...
We used to have a Thetford and I reckon the drawer was narrower.
The thing is, I think the motor is in the bottom of the unit which means a step on the bottom level, reducing the available width of any drawer.
Our current Dometic has the same width all the way up, so the salad drawer is pretty much identical to yours, this means the motor must be placed differently...

You cannot use the bottle shelf in the very bottom position with the salad drawer in place. 

Here's mine and you will see that I have placed the bottle shelf in the middle position and removed the middle door shelf to allow height for tall bottles.

TW, you have worked around the situation, but it has meant you can't use the fridge door fully, with bottle shelf at the bottom, it compromises the rest of the door storage...it seems pretty obvious that the salad drawer needs to be slimmer to allow the bottle shelf to be used at the lowest door setting...

Hi, our fridge is the same. We can either use the door shelves or the salad drawer. We opted for the door shelf in lowest position so that it will accommodate tall bottles (wine?).  Salad drawer lives in the loft with several other bits and bobs ..... excess cushions, wine glasses, glasses rack etc

This intrigued me so I've just looked in my van - as mentioned earlier you have the wrong salad draw  

On the contrary, BB, mine is not a work around but one of the options available. 

You can see the door has more slot options than shelves. It's done to give choice. Leave the salad drawer out and you can use the bottom slots. Leave the middle door shelf out and you can accommodate tall bottles. I still have the top door shelf in place out of shot. That suits me just fine and a smaller salad drawer would be useless to me.

Similarly, another option is to remove the freezer unit to increase fridge space. This fridge has myriad choices.

Peter Brown wrote:This intrigued me so I've just looked in my van - as mentioned earlier you have the wrong salad draw  

We had that model fridge in our 2011 van, Peter. The salad drawer was recessed, unlike the current model, and I suspect it was deeper over all.

Just as a matter of interest to find out whether the difference is the fridge or the drawer?  Drawer circa 23 cm and fridge circa 30 cm.

Tinwheeler wrote:On the contrary, BB, mine is not a work around but one of the options available. 

You can see the door has more slot options than shelves. It's done to give choice. Leave the salad drawer out and you can use the bottom slots. Leave the middle door shelf out and you can accommodate tall bottles. I still have the top door shelf in place out of shot. That suits me just fine and a smaller salad drawer would be useless to me.

Similarly, another option is to remove the freezer unit to increase fridge space. This fridge has myriad choices.

So has mine and others....
What you can't do is put the bottle rack at the bottom so as to allow more space further up the fridge, the door won't shut in that configuration....as Peter's will. It's sensible to mount heavy items like large bottles as low as possible in the fridge....this isn't possible with that wide salad drawer.
You might suggest you have a verstile fridge, but its obviously not as versatile as Peter's and others. I'd still say compromised.
If my fridge was like that, I'd be changing the salad drawer.....

From the Dometic website.



Looks like they are into flying Wine Bottles and Milk containers.

Gone is the old logic of weighty liquids stored at the bottom of the door and nearest the hinge.

Thats a completely new design of door to those earlier in the thread, the door shelf holders dont continue to the bottom of the door.

Exactly, M, the point I was trying (unsuccessfully) to make....

Peter Brown wrote:Thats a completely new design of door to those earlier in the thread, the door shelf holders dont continue to the bottom of the door.

I realise that, hence my comment :-

'Looks like they are into flying Wine Bottles and Milk containers.'


It will be interesting to see if anyone responds to your measurements, are there two depths of Salad Drawer or is the fridge depth different.


Who remembers the salesman saying which option for Salad Drawer depth do you prefer sir. 


Oh what entertainment we can get from our Fridges. Our Thetford narrow, stepped, probably a bit taller Salad Drawer served us well for over 3 months continuous touring. 

bolero boy wrote:

Tinwheeler wrote:On the contrary, BB, mine is not a work around but one of the options available. 

You can see the door has more slot options than shelves. It's done to give choice. Leave the salad drawer out and you can use the bottom slots. Leave the middle door shelf out and you can accommodate tall bottles. I still have the top door shelf in place out of shot. That suits me just fine and a smaller salad drawer would be useless to me.

Similarly, another option is to remove the freezer unit to increase fridge space. This fridge has myriad choices.

So has mine and others....
What you can't do is put the bottle rack at the bottom so as to allow more space further up the fridge, the door won't shut in that configuration....as Peter's will. It's sensible to mount heavy items like large bottles as low as possible in the fridge....this isn't possible with that wide salad drawer.
You might suggest you have a verstile fridge, but its obviously not as versatile as Peter's and others. I'd still say compromised.
If my fridge was like that, I'd be changing the salad drawer.....

That's what I said - you cannot use the bottle shelf in the bottom position with the salad drawer in place. Instead it is raised just a few inches and the plastic 'teeth' hold items in place.

Yes, I preferred the previous model like Peter's but things move on. 

You'd change the salad drawer and that's fine but you're you and I'm me.

Flying wine bottles and milk containers it is, then.

It’s not happened in 3 years.

I hope Lainie might have found the info useful.

Lainie wrote:It’s me again with another query.
I cannot work out the fridge door shelf and base salad draw design in our fridge. It appears that the salad draw is too wide to allow the bottom fridge door shelf to be used at the same time as the door won’t close if they are!

To use the bottom door shelf to store bottles and milk cartons etc it appears the salad / vegetable draw in the base of fridge has to be completely removed? If the bottom door shelf is moved up to put bottles in then other door shelves have to be removed because of their height in the small fridge. Am I missing something here?

In our previous Dometic fridge/freezer the salad draw was narrow enough that when bottles were in the bottom door shelf the door would close with the salad draw in place. As it dose in our home fridge.

I am adding a photo of our fridge layout to show what I am trying to explain.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

On our Bourton (2020) we took out the salad drawer in order to use the wine/milk shelf at the lowest level!  Any salad/Vegetable stuff is usually in paper/polythene bags loose at the bottom of the fridge.  Occasionally some "squashing" of veg occurs .....
Cath Dawson

Another interesting 'option'...
On a 2020 van that's pretty poor...I'd be asking (nicely) the dealer for the 'correct' salad drawer...