We have just swapped a found to be too small vertical freezer with a relative, for a slightly larger one. When the door closes, it seems to produce (in addition to the magnetic seal) a bit of a vacuum too. The door seals seem to scrunch up over a few seconds and door then becomes very tight to open.
I always put this down to the fact that cold air takes up less room hence when you shut the door and if the seal is good the cooling down would shrink the air inside. Maybe I've been missing something all these yars!
It all depends on how air-tight the door seal is. After closing it, my first freezer (a chest freezer) was essentially impossible to open for several minutes.
The 'cure' is quite simple - arrange for the door to leak a little. For example, you could try trapping a piece of string or twine between the rubber seal and the body.
My understanding is that you get condensation on the sealing surfaces while the door is open. If you close it and try to open it straight away, the moisture enhances the vacuum effect. After a few minutes things go back to normal.
I'm sure it's that. Amazingly, our Electrolux freezer stills does this even though it was bought almost 20 years ago and has survived a house fire. I'm amazed how good the seals are. Do they still make them this well?
"You may notice that the door of the freezer sometimes refuses to open again directly after having been closed. If this does happen, wait two or three minutes for the vacuum to equilibrate"
'That's the first time I've come across "equilibrate" - which does indeed exist as the verbification of "equilibrium". I must try it one my friends!
Presumably a good door seal helps to minimise the flow of moisture-bearing air into the freezer, and hence minimise the build-up of ice inside. However, are frost-free freezers equally airtight? Mine has a container at the back which collects water when it's in the defrost part of its cycle, so presumably it isn't designed to be airtight?
Same here. If the seal is air tight then when the door closed no more air will get into the freezer.
Assuming it's an upright freezer, when the freezer is opened cold air will flow out and be replaced with air at room temperature. When the door is closed the trapped room temperature air will be coolled and contract resulting in lower air pressure in the freezer than outside it.
Our upright Bosch freezer does this. The handle is actually a lever that pivots when pulled to give extra leverage when opening the door so it's a problem Bosch knew about when they made the freezer.
Mine actually mentions this in the book and says that the vacuum disappears into thin air after a couple of minutes. The door is hard to open initially - so much so that when some friends were staying here I warned the lass not to try. Due to the way the door has to be held to open it, there's a fair chance of breaking a slim finger - my fence-posts are strong enough, but have been bruised.
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