Should Freezer Door Swing Shut?

[Pavel314]

We replaced our refrigerator last month. The new one is similar to the old one with a top freezer. A few mornings ago, I woke to find that the freezer door had been partially open overnight, melting everything inside.

On closer examination, I noticed that when I opened the freezer door slightly, it did not swing shut as I expected it to do. The door to the main refrigerator does swing closed when opened slightly, however.

I was going to call to get it looked at but my friend at work said that freezer doors generally don't swing shut like that. Seems though they should. Anyone have an opinion on this?

I also noticed that when the refrigerator door is slammed shut, it sends a burst of air pressure into the freezer which pops the door open slightly. Never noticed that in any prior refrigerators, must be some new OSHA thing.

Paul

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Regardless, always we make sure the doors are shut tight.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, And is the unit perfectly level?

[Pavel314]

Yes, I checked it against the installation instructions and it's properly leveled.

Paul

[dpb]

On 08/04/2014 11:53 AM, Pavel314 wrote: ...

No, I've never seen one w/ an "auto-close" feature; probably because it'd be too annoying trying to get stuff in/out to have it butting your butt all the time...

If it's level, I'd expect the doors to stay in same place when opened and left.

[Stormin Mormon]

I've always tilted fridge or freezers back, so the doors swing closed.

[N8N]

This. when leveling a fridge I always set it ever so slightly high in the front, so if the door is

[hrhofmann]

I always start out level, and then raise the right front adjuster a lot and the left front adjuster somewhat less so the door closes slowly, but when it is almost closed it is at the maximum tilt to close either the fridge an d freezer doors. Saves a lot of wassteeed foodd.

[nestork]

Paul:

Fridge and freezer doors don't have any closure mechanism on them except the magnets in the door gaskets that cause the door to close if the gasket is close enough to the metal body of the fridge.

As has already been suggested, the easiest way to get the fridge and freezer doors to swing closed is to adjust the front feet on the fridge so that the fridge tilts slightly backward. That causes the doors to swing closed as long as they're less than 90 degrees open.

There are air passage ways between the fridge and the freezer compartments, so it's normal for the freezer door to be pushed outward slightly if you slam the fridge door. The vice versa would also be true, but to a lesser extent cuz of the relative volumes of air in each cavity.

Fridge and freezer doors have magnetic gaskets on them, but the magnets will only be on three sides of the gasket. The hinge side of the gasket will not have magnets in it.

You will also probably notice that the mullion between the fridge and freezer doors gets warm to the touch. This is normal. That mullion is heated to prevent condensation and even frost from forming on that mullion.

[Pavel314]

nd the left front adjuster somewhat less so the door closes slowly, but whe n it is almost closed it is at the maximum tilt to close either the fridge and freezer doors. Saves a lot of wassteeed foodd.

Good idea. The installation instructions call for it to be 1/4 inch higher in the front than the back, which it is. I'll try adding another 1/4 inch a nd see what happens.

[micky]

Do you think that would make the doors shut?

That's the problem.

Whoever wrote the instructions didn't plan on the doors shutting by themselves. He figures you'll shut them.

[micky]

That's because your hinges are on the right, right?

[micky]

I'm impressed. What brand is this? It sounds maybe like they've actually thought about self-closing.

Maybe a little more on the hinge side than on the non-hinge side.

At first thought, I'd expect you have to put all 4 leg bottoms inthe same plane or the fridge will rock, but I've never noticed during adjustment that any settings will make the fridge rock.

[Ed Pawlowski]

There are times I want the door to stay open. I don't want self closing doors. It is easy enough to push them closed when done. I'd not mind if it stayed open at 90 degrees, but self closed at a lesser point.

[micky]

Definitely. Neither freezer nor fridge doors come from t he factory set to swing shut. You have to make it happen.

You have to adjust the legs of the fridge. AFAIK if you get one to shut the other will too. Or at least if you continue working on the other after you get the one to shut, you can get the other to shut while the first one still does.

Now back in Brooklyn, the wall to the side of the fridge kept the door from opening more than a little past 90 degrees.

But in Baltimore, it could open almost 180 degrees. I think it has something to do with the humidity here, or angle to magnetic north.

It took a lot longer to get the legs right, maybe an hour, but once I did, I've been able to move the fridge out from the wall and put it back again a couple times and everything still worked right. 30 years now, of not having to bother shutting the fridge or freezer. And what have I done with that extra time. Nothing important. But at least the doors are closed.

P.S. It won't shut from 180 degrees, I think that's impossible, but it shuts from 95 or 100 degrees, maybe a little more.

The front legs get shorter if you screw them in, longer if you unscrew them. I doubt the back legs are adjustable, don't think I ever looked.

It's so if you and your refrigerator are in space, the fridge will be air tight and can be used as a rescue vehicle.