Magnetic Fridge Gasket

[Gm1234]

We just had new gaskets installed on our older Kelvinator side by side fridge.

It has one main door plus an upper and lower freezer door.

The main door and upper freezer door both now seal well and the manets hold them firmly closed. But the lower freezer door will not hold closed and the gasket is not pulled against the bridge frame.

The serviceman even came back and installed anotehr seal, but it has the same problem. The irst gasket was in place for several weeks (propped firmly closed) and the second has been in for about 5 days with no improvement.

The hinge was shimmed a little more, but this did not help.

Any suggestions as to how to improve the magnetic attraction?

George

[bamboo]

Buy a dozen or so 1/2" x 1/8" thick rare earth magnets and place them in stacks of 3 or 4 above the gasket so they are stuck to the fridge and pulling on the door. It solved my side by side sealing problem. You want them to almost touch both fridge and door when fully closed. Lee Valley has em as well as many ebay sites.

BTW I will never ever buy another side by side.

Gm1234 wrote:

[Gm1234]

wrote

Sounds like an idea, but when I looked at our fridge, I found that there is almost no space between the gasket and the door edge, so no room for magnets to make contact with the door.

What I did notice, was that both the main door and the two freezer doors close against the same metal frame that runs vertically between the freezer side and the fridge side. The main door and the upper door click close with quite a good pull from the magnets. But, the lower freezer door has almost zero pull, and this is after trying a second new gasket. What I suspect, is that the polarity of the problem gasket is opposite from that of the main door and yet they both are supposed to attract to the same narrow vertical metal frame piece.

I am going to try reversing the gasket in hope that other side has the right polarity! It's hard to check in place. While out I will try heating gasket to get it to relax to original shape (It's now a bit compressed from propping the door closed)

George

[Mark]

I think you may be on to something....

has the metal frame the the gasket is supposed to stick to become magnitized with the wrong polarity...

maybe you can de-magnitize the frame being carefull not to demagnatize the gasket itself...

Mark

[Gm1234]

"Mark" wrote

Mark, I removed the gasket and checked it using a fridge magnet - It seems that the magnets are N-S across the width of the magnet - In other words, the ouside edge might be North and the inside South. What I found, was that the two verticals sides of the gasket have opposite polarity. This should not matter on a new fridge because presumably the frame takes on the opposite polarity of whatever it sees. But, if the original magnet had the opposite polarity, then the frame would repel the gasket!

I reversed the gasket and although not super strong, it seems to hold better. I also softened the gasket while out (in the dryer!) and put it back carefully making sure it was evenly clamped all round. Also checked the hinge shim but left it as-is because the hinge side gasket was not binding.

Demagnetizing the frame would be the best idea, but not sure how to do it. Probably needs some kind of electromagnet that changs poles every second??

Not sure we have this licked, but will sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.

George

[Gm1234]

Update:

Rotating gasket worked - Luckily opposite side had reverse polarity - Gasket now holds perfectly.

Seems like gaskets are not made with any particular polarity. On a new fridge this does not matter, but over time, the frame must take on a polarity to match the gasket. If a new gasket is installed, it must have a polarity the same as the old one, otherwise it will be repelled or at best will not be attracted.

Hopefully this may help someone in the future!

"Gm1234" wrote

[Charlie Bress]

You may have a bad gasket. I have stripped the magnets out of fridge that was being scrapped. On the shelves over my PC I tacked up a couple of iron bars and use pieces of those magnets to hold notes etc. Better than a cork board with tacks. These magnets definitely have a polarized side that will stick well and a back side that is very weak. Is it possible the gasket was assembled wrong?

Charlie

[Gm1234]

"Charlie Bress" wrote

Charlie ,

I am not sure if it was a bad gasket, but if so, I had two of them!

Perhaps they don't pay attention as to the polarity when they assemble them, because on a new fridge it would not matter. It only matters when the fridge frame becomes magnetized over time.

In any event, reversing the gasket solved the problem and it now holds tight.

GM

[[e-mail]]

They are reverse Polarity just like all randell Half door gaskets

[[e-mail]]

All magnets have a north and south polar end. Randell gaskets reverse the polarity to screw with third party vendors. It only matters when the cabinet has magnets inside then if polarity is wrong the door will be push open instead of closed. for more info you can email me at [e-mail] i have a quick way for guys in the field to easily determine if something is reversed.

[[e-mail]]

All our gaskets are made with the magnets the orientation as well we know which Brands reverse there polarity. Randell all there Half-door reach ins are reversed to screw with 3 party vendors so you will stick with OEM.