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How to Fix a Samsung French Door Refrigerator Mullion Flap Spring

Bob Jackson
Last Updated on
by Bob Jackson

How to fix a Samsung French door refrigerator mullion flap spring by installing a new spring and pin.

I have a 4 year old Samsung French door refrigerator model RF268ABRS. The left door wouldn’t close because the center mullion flap wouldn’t retract and hit the right door. I found a small broken spring on the kitchen floor and realized it fell off the door flap causing the problem.

Broken French Door Mullion Spring

The spring retracts the door flap so the door will close. A broken spring causes the flap to swing open blocking the door:

The purpose of the mullion spring is to retract the door flap to engage the track in the refrigerator cabinet:

Samsung French Door Refrigerator - Spring Retracts Mullion Flap to Engage Track
Samsung French Door Refrigerator – Spring Retracts Mullion Flap to Engage Track

How to Fix a Samsung French Door Refrigerator Mullion Flap Spring

I ordered a replacement French door mullion spring and pin from AppliancePartsPros.com by looking up the refrigerator model number and identifying the parts on the door diagram. The parts cost about $6 and arrived in 2 days via FedEx. This is the new pin (part # DA81-01346A  / AP4162150), spring (part # DA81-01345B  / AP4577072) and broken spring:

Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair Parts - Mullion Flap Spring and Pin
Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair Parts – Mullion Flap Spring and Pin

Remove the Broken Door Spring

The old spring broke off at the elbow inside the hinge. Insert the new spring in the bottom of the hinge to push out and remove the broken part:

Hole Worn in Door Flapper Case

Looking closely at the mullion flap I see a hole is worn through the case. A new case (part #14-1 on the diagram) is only $16 which I’ll order for a follow-up repair:

Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair - Hole Worn in Mullion Case
Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair – Hole Worn in Mullion Case

Install the New Door Spring and Pin

The white plastic pin fits over the leg of the spring. The spring can only be installed one way and it doesn’t matter which end is “up”:

Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair - Mullion Flap Spring and Pin Assembly
Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair – Mullion Flap Spring and Pin Assembly

Insert the pin and spring into the hinge of mullion flap:

The lower end of the spring is inserted into the door hinge with my fingers. No tools are needed.

The spring repair is complete.

The spring retracts the flap when the door is open. I hadn’t noticed the spring until it broke because it’s concealed in the pocket:

Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair - Mullion Spring Retracts Flap
Samsung French Door Refrigerator Repair – Mullion Spring Retracts Flap

Expensive Refrigerator Design Flaws

I’m surprised that a refrigerator with a nearly $2,500.00 price tag has poorly designed parts that can’t handle a longer duty cycle. It seems it was designed to fail. Samsung and LG are both Korean manufacturers that share the same door flap design with an exposed easy to replace spring. LG refrigerators are sometimes rebranded as Kenmore with the same problem.

Best,

Bob Jackson

French Door Refrigerator Mullion FlapSamsung French door springSamsung Refrigerator RF268ABRS
Bob Jackson
Bob Jackson
Technology product manager by day and a prolific handyman in the evenings and over the weekends. Bob was the founder of the original Handyman How To website and that tradition continues on this site with excellent new handyman content into the future.
2 Comments
  1. It appears my door is about 1/4 to 1/8th of an inch too low. The mullion never seeds correctly. It the – the flapper – never seeds correctly . I have to manipulate the flapper manually.

    1. There are plastic shims that snap under the bottom of the door hinge to raise it up so that the cam on the flapper aligns with the track and closes automatically with the door. I just saw this on a youtube video.

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