How To Easily Fix A Broken Freezer Door Seal

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The food in your freezer should stay frozen, and ice should not build up at a fast rate. If either of these two things are happening in your freezer, it is probably because the seal around your freezer door is compromised or damaged. Luckily, you can easily fix this problem yourself.

Purchasing The Supplies

You are going to need to purchase a replacement seal for your freezer. Measure the width of the seal that is currently in your freezer. Most freezer seals are either ¼ inch wide or 5/16 of an inch wide. You can purchase a replacement seal online or at a local appliance parts and repair center. You are also going to need an adhesive or clips to keep the seal in place. You can also find these supplies at your local appliance parts store as well. Finally, you may need a hair dryer or hot air gun.

Removing The Old Seal

The first thing to do is turn off your freezer. If your freezer is overflowing with items, you may want to move some of them to an ice-chest or to an alternate freezer so you have enough room to work with. Once your freezer is unplugged, remove the old seal. Depending on the make and model of your freezer, this could require different actions.

• Screws. If your seal is held in place with screws, use a screwdriver to remove the screws holding it in place. Once the screws are removed, you should be able to pull it out.
• Adhesive. If the seal is held in place via an adhesive, you may need to use a screwdriver or scraper for leverage to help you remove the seal. You may also need to use a scraper to remove any adhesive that is left behind.
• Clips. Finally, if your freezer seal is held in place by clips, you need to unclip each one in order to remove the seal.

Installing The New Seal

Before you install the new seal, use a washcloth and some dish soap to clean the area where the seal was located. Dirt and debris could have easily built up there over the years. If you have to remove some adhesive, this is also a great way to make sure you got rid of all of it.

Once again, how you install the new seal depends on what was holding it in place to begin with.

• Screws. If the seal was previously held in place by screws, you'll want to push the new seal into place and use the screws you took out of the previous seal to hold it in place. If any of the screws are stripped or worn out, you should replace them with new screws.
• Adhesive. If the seal was held in place by an adhesive, squeeze the adhesive you purchased into the grove where the seal goes. You may need to use a putty knife to spread out the adhesive. You'll want to carefully push the seal into place, adding adhesive as you go.
• Clips. If the seal was held in place by clips, you'll want to push the seal into its groove and then reattach the clips. If any of the clips are broken or damaged, you'll want to replace them with new ones at this point.

If you have any difficulty getting the seal to fit around your freezer, you can use an air gun or blow dryer to warm up the seal. Start with the lowest heat setting on your air gun or blow dryer, and increase the heat setting until you find one that provides enough heat to warm up the seal. This will make the seal a little softer and easier to manipulate into place.

Once the seal is in place, you can plug your freezer back in and return any items that you remove from it. As long as you purchase the necessary supplies before you start this project, it should not take you more than an hour to complete.

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14 September 2015