Refrigerator: Frigidaire FGHS2355PF5A
Here’s the issue. My Frigidaire which has operated wonderfully over the years is starting to have small issues stemming from a poor design. In the freezer cabinet, one of the wire baskets is sagging. It is supported by two plastic slide rails, one on each side. These slides are screwed into two (2) grommets which are press fit into the side walls of the freezer cabinet. The weight of frozen meats stored in the wire basket places a lot of strain on those grommets. The cabinet side walls are very thin and the grommet heads are very small, and as a result of the weight of the basket, the grommets for the right side slide rail has pulled outwards and downwards causing the plastic slide to tilt downwards. The wire basket can no longer rest securely on the slide surface. It now constantly slides completely off the track onto the surface below it.
After digging through the schematics for FGHS2355PF5A, I determined I need 2 new grommets to secure the right side slide mount. According to the diagram I need Shelf Mounting Grommet 241550801 / AP3688160.
However, there is one very large problem. This one plastic 1.40 inch long grommet is $38.80 and I need 2 of them. $77.60 for 2 little grommets the size of a BIC pen cap? That’s not a reasonable cost.
Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that this $38.80 grommet won’t also pull out of the freezer side wall. The head of the grommet is way too small and there is minimal surface contact between the grommet and the wall. Because the backside of the grommet is neither accessible or visible when it is press-fit into the side wall, gluing it securely in place requires a leap of faith.
I need a cheaper solution. I can use metal jack nuts in place of the grommets. The jack nuts will collapse onto the back of the side wall which will allow greater surface area contact with the side wall and prevent sagging. However, I don’t know what’s behind the sidewall (i.e. electrical wiring). I can certainly simply try it and see what happens, but perhaps someone with some prior experience with this problem can provide me with an opinion. It would certainly be helpful.
Thanks to anyone who can chime in with their thoughts on how to handle this.
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