Door Seal Installation/cutting

[nchvac]

I have a door seal on a refrigerator that I need to fix. I have a piece of material to do the repair with. I am going to try to fix it before I spend $70 for a complete new one already assembled in one piece.

I am probably going to cut a 45 degree angle on it whether in the corner or in the middle of the seal assembly to do the piecing unless there is a better method. What I am really wondering is what should I use to join the pieces together to bond them into one piece? Thanks

[Iceneck]

good luck!

[Moparmyway]

RTV Silicone

[lovecoldair]

Alot easier on a cool er than a freezer, But make sure its dry and use the RTV silicone

[rayr]

There is a gasket notcher just for that purpose. Believe me you are much better off having the gasket made. United refrigeration can get them for you. I haven't cut my own gaskets for over 20 years and we install about 80 a year.

[hvac wiz 79]

I agree with ordering it ... I use FMP who are reasonably priced & have them to me next day 99% of the time .... a attempted to piece together a gasket once .. that particular product which sucked quickly ended up in the garbage

[jpsmith1cm]

There is a gasket notcher just for that purpose. Believe me you are much better off having the gasket made. United refrigeration can get them for you. I haven't cut my own gaskets for over 20 years and we install about 80 a year.

X2

Unless it is the gasket material that comes on a roll, I'm not fooling with it.

That stuff, I drag out the pneumatic stapler, tack it in place, cut with snips and finish by screwing the plates back in place

[icemeister]

If you want to fabricate vinyl gaskets from roll stock, you really need a gasket machine which uses induction heating to fuse the pieces together...but that's big bucks.

3M makes a vinyl adhesive which does work fairly well (I got mine from RHS). I've tried it and found you need to make a jig to hold the pieces while they set overnight. I tries using wood scraps screwed to a sheet of plywood, but it was rather time consuming. I also tried using clamps, which were a bit easier, but still a PITA.

When all is said and done, unless you have the right tools and enough volume to justify those tools, it's much more profitable to just order the dang things.

[stonewallred]

Ditto on ordering the right gasket premade.
Unless it is your unit.
The extra cost involved is the customer's, not yours.
And if the one you make doesn't seal perfectly, then you are going to have issues, that you will have to warranty, which will cost you money.

[nchvac]

I should have stated it is mine. It is on a side by side refrigerator. The bottom gasket on the cooler side tore all the way across. My dad gave me a piece of gasket material he has from who knows where, but it looks new.

I have been tweaking on this unit a bit, and I think if I can get this seal fixed it will cut down on the run time a bit. This thing is 16 years old, so I don't want to put a lot into it. Appliance store wnats about $70 for a new one, and I can get one on ebay for $53. I thought I was going to have to change the compressor due to what turned out to be a restriction causing a high head pressure which was causing a clanking noise on shutdown, so at that point I was looking at about $300 for materials including the gasket, and started looking for a new refrigerator. Decided to dig into it Friday night and got the compressor running good now with factory speced charge and all of that. Held 500 microns vac at 590 microns, so no leaks evidently. Worth a gasket probably, but i do hvac work for a living and you know how that goes.

[stonewallred]

Is that like the shoemaker's kids going barefoot and the tailor's kids wearing rags?
Or the HVAC tech who still ain't gotta around to putting a filter in?
(In my defense, it is a Rheem coil, and in a closet with easy access, cleaning it takes 15 minutes top)

[nchvac]

Is that like the shoemaker's kids going barefoot and the tailor's kids wearing rags?
Or the HVAC tech who still ain't gotta around to putting a filter in?
(In my defense, it is a Rheem coil, and in a closet with easy access, cleaning it takes 15 minutes top)

Just trying to fix instead of replace, and maybe learn something that may get me out of a bind sometime. Plus I am tight with my money.

[stonewallred]

Just trying to fix instead of replace, and maybe learn something that may get me out of a bind sometime. Plus I am tight with my money.

No problems with that. Money seems to always be one of those hard to come by but easy to go thingees.