How to Complete a Fridge or Freezer Seal Health Check

Commercial seals work hard to keep fridges and freezers cold. Customers and staff repeatedly opening and closing refrigeration doors cause wear and tear. Missing or broken seals can cause damaged stock and increased energy use. We recommend you complete a refrigeration seal health check every seven days.

What Can Damaged or Missing Seals Lead to?

• Increased temperatures – If the seals are damaged, then it makes it harder for the equipment to maintain the correct temperature, risking the quality of the food.
• Equipment failure – Damaged seals make the refrigeration motor work harder than it has to, causing the equipment life to diminish and the motor to burn out.
• Failed inspections – If an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) visits and notices your broken or missing seals, this can result in on-the-spot fines and a failed visit, resulting in poor hygiene ratings.
• Increased costs – Broken or missing seals can increase energy use by up to 3 times, making them far more expensive to run and can increase your food waste by shortening the shelf life.

What Should You Do?

To reduce food stock loss, prolong the life of your equipment and reduce your energy costs, we recommend you follow our six-point “RESIST” refrigeration seal health check at least once every week:

Resistance: Check if there is resistance when you open the refrigeration door – if not, they need replacing

Eroded: Check for wear on the surface of the seals – overly worn seals need replacing

Split: Check around the whole seal for splits or cracks – any broken seals need replacing

Impacted: Check to see if your seals are compacted and inflexible – seals should be flexible, if they aren’t then they need replacing

Secure: Check to see if the seals are correctly fitted or if they’re loose – loose or ill-fitting seals need replacing

Torn: Check to see if any of the seals are torn – any torn seals will need replacing.

What to do if You Find Any of These Issues?

If you find any of these issues with your refrigeration seals, they need replacing to help preserve the life of your equipment and any food stored within. FiltaSeal’s expert seal technicians are available across the UK to help with any commercial seal issue that you may have.

We have specially kitted vans carrying seals for a range of different refrigeration units and can supply and fit up to 95% of seal models on-site. We can even replace obsolete seals with our “retro” fit Filta Track System on certain units too!

Want to see how we can help you with your fridge and freezer seal issues? Get in touch today.