sealant for freezer lid gasket

[Frank Thompson]

Gasket on freezer lid is in great shape but has become loose & therefore less effective. Will defrost it soon and put some sort of sealant or adhesive on it. What do you suggest?

[micky]

Where is it loose?

It's not attached well to the metal freezer door?

I forget if there are screws attaching it, and I don't know your brand anyhow. If there were, are they tight? Is it ripping right around the screws, you could make rectangular washers 3" or more by the current washer width, with a hole the same size. Oh, it's in "great shape" so this doesn't apply.

How was it attached to the door? I'd try to duplicate that if possible.

If there are no screws, or it's ripped too much to get by with longer home-made washers, I might use 5 minute epoxy in the syringe. I don't bother with the 4" mixing attachment, because I think that just wastes glue, and I think it's only for times you are using the whole tube at once. So I use a wood kitchen match to mix the two ingredients . If it's only small spots that are unglued, I might do several at once, but if it's long stretches, I would do one side out of 4 each time. Then hold it in place by shutting the freezer door and if at all possible leaning something, a 2x4 with weight hung from the top, against the door.

If the freezer's cold, it will take a lot longer than 5 minutes to set. An hour? But I'd still be reluctant to use 60 or 30-second epoxee because application time will be longer than that.

Sealant sounds to space-consuming to me. The gasket has to compress, evenly, when the door is shut. A bulge anywhere and it won't shut well. Epoxee too takes a little space, but a lot less than my fridge and freezer gaskets compress when doors are shut.

Sealant isn't especially adhesive, aiui, so thin layers are not as good as adhesive/glue is. .

[Terry Coombs]

I'd use 3M super weatherstrip and gasket adhesive , part #08001 . I use it for all kinds of small jobs - this stuff is very much like Pliobond . Available at most auto parts places .

[trader_4]

That's probably a good idea. It's tacky, works like contact cement, so you don't have to keep the seal in place until it sets up. Contact cement would be another option.

[Mayayana]

Contact cement. The solvent type, not the water-base type.

[nestork]

I'm thinking I'd use double sided tape.

It's less messy than working with adhesives, and you don't need a lot of bond strength to hold the gasket in place.

3M makes a really good double sided "transfer tape" called "950". A transfer tape is simply a layer of glue without any backing strip behind it like a true tape would have. You simply apply the 950 where you want it to go, pull the paper off the adhesive strip and then press your gasket onto the adhesive. Maybe mark the gasket location on the door or freezer with a felt pen before you remove it so that you can put the gasket down in the same location.

[Frank Thompson]

Yes, not attached to metal door

not attached with screws

I'd try to duplicate that if some sort of adhesive material