How Can I Tell If My Fridge Seal Needs Replacing?

A central part of any busy commercial kitchen, the fridge, plays a key role in ensuring you’re able to maintain high standards of health and safety when it comes to food service. But over time, and due to overuse, a fridge door seal – also known as a gasket – can become faulty and no longer airtight, which risks your refrigerated goods becoming contaminated and unfit for use. If this happens, you’ll need a fridge seal replacement.

How Can I Tell If My Fridge Seal Is Broken?

If your fridge appears faulty but you’re not sure whether the issue is the seal, here’s how to tell:

• Appearance: The most obvious way to identify a broken door seal is by looking for a noticeable crack or break, gently run your finger around the seal and feel for any imperfections.
• Warm interior: A clear symptom of a broken door seal is that the contents inside are warm. If food doesn’t feel as chilled as it normally would, check your seal.
• Condensation: Your fridge will start experiencing condensation if the door seal is broken, as a fault will allow warm air into the chamber. This will lead your food to spoil quickly and could also lead to leaks from the excess moisture.
• Fridge constantly running: Your fridge should be quiet for long periods of the day. If your seal is broken, warm air will get in and cold air will escape, meaning the fridge will have to work harder to maintain an optimum temperature. So, if yours is constantly running, a broken seal could be the culprit.
• Higher electricity bills: If your bills suddenly spike and there’s no clear reason why, it’s worth checking the seal on your fridge. With the appliance working in overdrive, it’ll be using more electricity than usual.

If you notice one or more of the above symptoms, then it’s likely that you’re in need of a fridge seal replacement.

Why Should I Replace My Fridge Seal?

A good fridge door seal is essential to keep a consistent temperature, extend equipment life, save on operational costs and help keep your business compliant with EHO inspections.

Plus, keeping your fridge in good condition is better for the environment. Based on an average commercial kitchen, a new fridge seal versus a broken fridge seal could save 2,135 kg of CO2 a year, reducing energy consumption by 25 per cent and saving up to £500 a year in energy costs.

Replacing Your Fridge Seal

At FiltaSeal, we provide bespoke refrigeration seal replacement services for 95% of commercial fridges used in commercial kitchens, bars and hotels.

If you think your fridge seal needs replacing, we’ll check it against our 6-point checklist to survey where it’s damaged and what requires attention. We’ll take a measurement of the faulty area and make a replacement while on-site, using our in-van, patented equipment. We offer a 90% first-time fix rate and can create seals to suit 95% of commercial fridges. Plus, we’ll have the job done in one call out, at one fixed price. There are no labour charges, and no time wasted. That means everything is done 80% faster than dealing directly with your fridge’s manufacturer.

Do you need a fridge seal replacement? Get in touch today.