[C320-list] Remove & Replacing Front Loading Refrigerator

[Albert Kitten]

Hi,
We went through the pain too. I carefully sanded about 4mm off the upper
teak trim in front of the fridge and oiled the raw surface later.
Yes 4 screws and slide the fridge and plate as far as possible.
I layed a 20 litre water container on the floor to support everything as it
emerged. Lifted the fridge to the sink and manoeuvred the thing out.
We fitted a dometic :( which had a different rubber footing spacing and had
to change the holes in the plate to suit.
Come summer it couldn't cool enough with a respectable duty cycle and
flattened the batteries. Got it checked and it worked fine in the open.
The dometic with smaller cooling fins draws air sideways where the waeco
drew air from back to front. We enlarged the air vent but still used
excessive power.
For us it was a disaster in summer.
The dometic is now an expensive bar fridge at home.
We put a slider in and fitted a 46 litre portable fridge freezer.
Colder with less current draw and easy to remove.
Not recommending this or the method but it's what we did.
All the best,


On Sat, 4 Feb 2023, 2:44 am Steven Snyder via C320-list, <
c320-list at lists.catalina320.com> wrote:

> We have a 2007 320 Mark II. it has the original Waeco, front opening
> refrigerator, it looks like a dorm refrigerator. It isn’t holding temp
> below 47f so we have decided to replace it. Does anyone know how to do
> this? We removed the trim at the front edge of the countertop and the trim
> piece that attaches to the bottom shelf it sits on. I can see what looks
> like a piece of wood which keeps the refrigerator from rocking. It may may
> be glued to the underside of the solid surfacing countertop and sits
> between the underside of the countertop and the top of the refrigerator. We
> can see the front legs sitting on a shelf. They are not counter sunk into
> the supporting shelf. There appears to be 1 - 2 mm of space between the
> wood strip and the top of the refrigerator.
>
> It is difficult to grab the bottom of the refrigerator and pull it forward
> and out. It appears stuck and are looking for suggestions on how to remove
> it.
>
> Steve Snyder
> Norfolk, VA
> Windcatcher. #1101
> --
> “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we
> are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
> servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
>
> - Theodore Roosevelt
>