Fridge Vent Grilles Brittle
How to get and old(ish) plastic fridge grille which is most likely brittle OFF
That's the basic problem. Details are : a Sterling Eccles 4 berth from 2000 with an Electrolux Fridge. Normally it would get a good clean and a check every spring. This year, for obvious reasons it was left in storage until last weekend.
You'll remember the especially hot and dry May? Wasps decided to build a nest in the lower of the two fridge vents. Luckily the fridge is sealed from the inside because of the gas, so they did not get inside. Sadly, the nest had to go, so they were zapped with spray.
The nest, however, remains, made of "paper", flammable, and ( yuck ) probably littered with dead wasps.
I hope to get access, gently, remove the remains of the nest and hoover up the mess, all from outside, without having to unbolt and slide out the fridge from the inside.
Thing is, there seem to be no clips under the top slat of the grille where "slider" catches might be ( according to youtube vids I've trawled through there could be ) and nothing in the instruction book either. There is the frame, sealant-gunned and screwed to the caravan body, and there is in it a flush panel, no sign of screw caps or anything, just a little extra semi-circular extra bit on the rear of each frame.
The flush gap between frame and grille is no thicker than a sheet of paper. I don't want to go poking at it with a blade because
1. it's bound to shatter.
2. i don't want to move anything or hammer at anything because i want to try and keep the nest in one tidy piece, limit the damage, limit the mess.
3. I don't want to get a new grille, if I can even find one. So before ringing the caravan shop and looking like a fool ( comes to something when you can't get a grille off ) I thought i'd do it painlessly anon. here first!
Anybody got a grille like this? ( wish i'd taken a pic.... No pic. Not only because i didn't think to at the time. Would you, with angry wasps chasing you down a field? ).
Comments
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Found a smudgy photo, but it does show the type and size of the vents
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Ugh! Mine look similar. I once had to remove the top grill to fit a new mixer tap. I found that I could gently prise the grill off with my fingers then re seal on refitting. Still there after 5 yrs! However, my caravan is a little younger than yours (2009 model). If the worst happens I think, looking at the pic, that the grills are still available. I would try anything rather than removing and refitting the fridge (anyway, wouldn't you need access to the back of the fridge to complete the refit - so grills off anyway!)
Good luck!
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Comeyras, thanks. Like you say, yuck. I'm plagued with the darn things. A nest in my garden , then at the weekend another in the caravan, in storage. Couple of miles away. They must love me.
Yeah I had a look again- on Google?Ebay/Amazon etc today, but i don't think the Electrolux kind are still available. The Dometic ones might do if these have to be shattered. Mad price though.
What's so odd is there is no externally visible way of getting the louvred insert off. No tabs visible, just this almost seamless flush fit into the bigger frame. Is that the bit you prised out, the inner bit? Start with a thin blade I suppose and do it very gingerly.
Thanks for the good luck : and no I'm not going to be dragging the fridge out. No way.
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Easy T. I know, but I couldn't see any. These are flush. No catches to see, no screws to uncover and unscrew. What holds the darn things in is a mystery.
Looks like I shall have to roll up at the caravan spares place in disguise - or swallow my pride!
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My grilles are Dometic but is there any sign of a sliding catch set into the grilles. Your pic is too small to discern.
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Update: thanks to everyone who tried to help. The grille had no hidden sliders, just needed to be very carefully prised from the base plate with a knife blade, bit by bit, softly softly. Underneath was the frame itself, and it was the frame that was sealed and attached by about 8 screws ( and so needed to be resealed ) to the caravan.
Any way. All solved now.
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