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Can You Replace Chest Freezer Seals? A Comprehensive Guide

Chest freezers play an integral role in commercial kitchens and supermarkets. Whether it’s in hotels, bars and restaurants keeping food fresh to be cooked by an in-house chef, or in the aisles of a shop for the public to prepare their own meals, chest freezers help to preserve the high quality of food items ahead of their use.

A freezer seal is integral to chest freezers doing what they need to. Should this crucial bit of kit fail, those reliant on the chest freezer risk food stored inside becoming unfit for use, leading to waste and loss of profits. A broken chest freezer seal must be replaced as soon as possible to prevent this from happening and avoid further disruption to your daily operations.

Fitting a new fridge seal

What is a chest freezer seal?

A chest freezer seal consists of a magnetic strip – usually in a rubber or plastic coating – which creates an airtight grip when holding the freezer lid firm against the body of the chest freezer. This keeps cold air within the chest freezer, maintaining a cold temperature.

If it isn’t looked after, or is overused, a chest freezer seal – also known as a gasket – will lose its airtight grip and allow warmer air into the chest freezer. This causes food to deteriorate.

How can I tell if my chest freezer seal is broken?

There are several ways you can tell your chest freezer seal is broken:

  • The lid keeps popping open: this is a sign the chest freezer seal has weakened and can no longer remain closed as it should.
  • The food inside the chest freezer is warm: if food isn’t completely frozen this is a food health hazard and will cause loss of produce, check your freezer seal.
  • A build-up of frost: the temperature of your chest freezer will constantly be changing if the seal is broken, which can lead to frost build-up.
  • The chest freezer is constantly making noise: your chest freezer should be quiet for long periods of the day. If your chest freezer seal is broken, it will have to work harder to maintain an optimum temperature. If yours is constantly running or making a noise, a broken freezer seal could be the culprit.
  • Electricity bills will increase : with the chest freezer working in overdrive, it’ll be using more electricity than usual.

Why should I replace my chest freezer seal?

There are several benefits to replacing your chest freezer seal, including saving money, improving energy performance and maintaining the lifespan of your appliance. For example:

  • If your chest freezer seal is faulty, without replacing it the food you had earmarked for serving or selling may become unfit for consumption. This will impact your profit margins, as any affected food will need replacing.
  • Should your chest freezer seal fail at a time when you’re preparing to welcome customers, it could impact your operations to such an extent that your reputation becomes affected.
  • Ensuring your chest freezer lid seal is working to its optimum level will give your freezer a longer life span which saves you money in the longer run and is kinder to the planet.
  • A broken chest freezer seal forces the appliance to work harder to replenish its cold air. This requires more energy use, which will increase your bills and exposes  greater carbon expenditure. Based on an average commercial kitchen, a new chest freezer seal vs a broken freezer seal could save 2,135 kg of CO2 per year, reduce energy consumption by up to 25% and help you save up to £500 per year in energy costs.

When do I need a professional to repair my chest freezer seal?

Commercial chest freezers are typically much larger than domestic chest freezers, and replacing their seals can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want the reassurance the job has been completed to the highest possible standards, contact an expert in chest freezer seal replacements.

For example, at Filta Seal, our skilled technicians are on hand to provide chest freezer seal replacement services to businesses across the UK and can supply and fit up to 95% of seal models. We have a 3-step process to replacing commercial chest freezer seals, ensuring your appliance is always in optimal working order. We’ll identify the seal you need, make you a new seal on site, and fit the seal  there and then  if the seal is available from our van stock. Using our retro track   we can even replace obsolete seals on certain units and if we can’t there is no call out charge.   .

All our freezer seal replacement services have fixed, standard pricing, which covers direct on-site supply and fit of replacement van stock seals with no additional call-out or labour charges.

Measuring for a replacement fridge seal

Take action today

Hire a professional don’t waste any time. The longer you wait, the more you risk the quality of your frozen items becoming affected – which has longer-lasting consequences.

For further advice, call Filta Seal today or explore our website for more on chest freezer seal replacements.