Just bought a Frigidaire - french door style fridge and I have it installed and set up but something is making me go crazy, and I'm hoping that a person with the techie background in installing fridges can help answer this conclusively for me. I've already called their supposed help line and they were about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. Just wanted to send out a technician rather than answer the question.
So the fridge is the type with rollers and two leveling screws in the front. According to the instructions, the fridge has to be level and the doors have to align. But as far as I can tell the ONLY way to level the fridge is using these two screws. Which are the same two screws that are used for the doors.
My floor is pretty slanted (old house) so if I use a level to level the fridge the doors don't align. And if I get the doors to align, the fridge is (very noticeably) NOT level.
Right now I have the thing about as dead level as I can get it, but the doors are a good 1/8 - 3/16" un-aligned.
There was a samsung in the exact same spot before, also french door style and it was fine.
So the question is, am I missing something? How do I get the doors AND the fridge even? Or is it normal/common for a fridge to be un-aligned in some cases?
I'm including a link to the manual - relevant pages is 5 and 6 (mostly 6).
ANY insight/help here would be helpful as I cannot believe that there's no way to do this.
Thanks.
http://manuals.frigidaire.com/prodin...05947001en.pdf

 

The two screws facing the front adjust the height of the rollers. With those two adjustments you adjust the front of the fridge for level.

If the doors rack.... remain unparallel then you need to add rear shims to get the back level too.
If the doors are just uneven in height.... that can be adjusted via the screw in the bottom of the hinge.

 

So it's dependent on the floor? I wonder how the prev. fridge did it. I didn't notice anything under it. Just rollers.
The floor is def. strong enough (very well made). Guessing the tiles are un-even.
Doors are uneven in height (so they're parallel but not even). But if I level off the top then there is a marked angle to the fridge (based on a level and the edge of the cabinet over it).

 

In my experience most homeowners don't own a decent level, or don't have an eye for using it. One tip would be to put the level on the TOP of the fridge... level it by adjusting either the front left or front right foot, then turn the level around 180° (end for end) and see if the level reads the same. If it doesn't your level is off.

If I'm looking as the instructions correctly, there is no rear levelling adjustment on this particular refrigerator, so that is probably what is making the difference.

I would pull the refrigerator out, and check the floor in back for level left to right. Then check back left to front left and back right to front right... to get an idea of what needs to be done to level it. So if you find the back left is 1/4" lower than the back right, you will want to put a 1/4" shim back there so that the back of the fridge sits level. Then the rest of the adjustment is done with the front rollers.

 

Here's what I would do:

Pull out fridge all the way.
Use a 2' level to determine where rear shims are needed and how thick of a shim.
The rear shim needs to built up in steps to allow fridge to roll in. I use either 1/8" or 1/4" ply wood strips.

Level the frame and the doors should be adjustable if the height is off.

 

I don't ever remember rear adjustments on a fridge. The back is supposed to be level and the front ones allow the front of the fridge to sit up slightly to help the doors to close.

 

Sub Zero's and a few others have rear adjustments that are done from the front.

 

Yeah... but those are like small battle ships and very heavy.

 

Tell me about it. They are great fun to slide in and out on a rough grouted flagstone floor.

 

I have also never seen a fridge with rear wheel adjustments.
Most models have front wheel adjustments only and the rubber feet are only to keep the fridge from pulling out too easily. If you tug on a bottom freezer drawer, you could move the fridge in some cases.

 

Maybe that's why they start at about $8000, those rear wheels are expensive. lol

 

What's got me the most confused is that the new fridge is wider only by 6 inches and the fridge that was there before was level as far as I could tell - it was also a french door style.
Wondering if it's the tiles. Maybe one is high.

 

It could be where the rear rollers were located. They aren't in the same exact location on every fridge.

Also... the metal frame on the newer fridges is much thinner than the old units allowing more chassis flexing.