Ice Box Lid Handles

One of my teak ice box lid handles has been broken for awhile. The non-broken handle is hard to grip and my wife always complains that the original handles are hard on nails.

I found some flush stainless pulls on Ebay for $10 each and free shipping. They are nice heavy duty handles and they just cover the old handle cavity.

After some carving with a wood chisel and painting the cutout area with Rustoleum Almond Gloss (an exact color match for Formica Almond 920-58), I now have easy to hold, nail friendly handles.

Mark

Nice job. I had the same problem with one of mine and came up with the exact same fix. Only I was lazy so only replaced the broken handle on one end and left the original teak on the other.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy

I'll copy that. The PO put a raised handle on the fridge lid, which is better than the original. But it sticks up.

Yours are perfect.

Here are the pulls on EBay (two for $20):

https://m.ebay.com/itm/2-for-1-BBT-...Duty-Stainless-Steel-Hatch-Lift-/302328832699

Very Nice quality stainless.

Mark

I like those handles. Mine is the "one finger" kind that's sometimes hard to handle, so having an actual handle would help a lot.

I tell you with some heat that the pull on the left side of the E38 double lid was not designed for the hand of any evolved hominid. Why, the ergonomic approach is preposterous. The wrist declines to make the bend, and the leverage of the suspended elbow is insufficient. The entire grip is by one claw, pressing down on a shallow depression for which the intended movement is up.

What is more, calming down a bit, is that a refrigerator lid needs some "stick" in its seal, a stick which must be broken by this imprecisely calculated lid-top invitation, so that nobody can do it without contortions and embarassment and exacerbation of any existing precondition of tennis elbow.

You can see the prior owner's solution, on the right-hand lid.

But you can't put a frying pan on that, or cut endive on it, and if the Prince of Wales is watching one feels a perfect fool.

Observers think: why, if he can't open an icebox, how shall he deal with this containership bearing down upon us?

And I don;t blame them.

And for those reasons, I intend to put on the recessed gizmos as soon as I finish my pedicure.

When I put the new handle on I did do one extra thing that has been nice. Bought a dial thermometer with a 1" diameter face and the probe just long enough to go through the insulation into the fridge (4 or 5" I think). Just sunk a 1" hole into the top of the lid about 3/8" deep using a forstner bit so it cut the formica cleanly and left the face of the thermometer flush with the lid surface. Then a 1/8" hole the rest of the way through with a long bit for the probe.

Probe has a sharp tip so I have to remember not to just open the lid a little and slide my arm in and grope around. But let's me monitor the temp with a glance.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy

Speaking of monitoring the temp.

We have a very similar one to this, bought on sale @ Camping World over a decade ago. the 'base unit' is secured on the nav desk. We like it.

Just found this handle ('pull') and it looks like the same solution, Nice looking ss.