Fix Broken Clear Fridge Shelf - Quickly, Easily, and Cheaply

by SabineT in Workshop > Repair

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Fix Broken Clear Fridge Shelf - Quickly, Easily, and Cheaply

fridge repair.JPG

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike those ginormous, almost walk-in fridges where carrot remnants desperately send out emergency shoots, half-empty yoghurt pots grow blue beanies against the cold, and dried-out sauce bottles linger that haven't been seen since last century? Once our current monster fridge dies, I will buy a bar fridge, which will provide ample space for my needs - minus the unfathomable depths.

Anyway, I digress. One of the shelves of our flash Mitsubishi Refrigerator broke as soon as it saw us, and has been dangling ever since - until I couldn't bear it any longer. On the web, I couldn't find any instructions that didn't involve paper clips, buying special glue, and a dremel, or keeping an ugly ply-wood shelf in the fridge.

Time involved
approximately 15 minutes

Materials used:
-Shoe Goo
-clear plastic discs found on top of new DVD/CD spindles

Here's what I did
I took the broken shelf out, cleaned it, turned it upside down, and propped it on some books to keep it lying flat without dangling.
Then I applied a little shoe goo along the break line (very little, you don't want it squeezing through to the other side).
Next, I applied a little shoe goo on to the flat side of the clear discs - one at a time - and pressed it flat so the glue distributes as evenly as possible without squishing out.

Just so it's clear: The discs are underneath the shelf, not on top...

It's been holding up a while, so I guess it works - and once you've put stuff on the shelf the break and glued discs are almost invisible.

UPDATE SIX MONTHS LATER: the shelf is holding even the heavy stuff as strongly as on the first day!

UPDATE AFTER TWO YEARS: still going strong!

UPDATE AFTER THREE AND A HALF YEARS: I think the fridge itself will die before the shelf... still holding up strong. Very soon, however, people will ask, "what are DVDs?"

UPDATE AFTER EIGHT YEARS: We finally caved in and bought a "new" used fridge. We sold the old one to students who since told us that the repaired shelf still keeps on going strong at the flat. Who would've thought the shelf outlasts the fridge in our house :-) Here endeth the tale of the little shelf that could!