QUESTION FROM Kati

We have an ancient freezer that was working fine till yesterday. As it isn't a frost free freezer, so when we noticed the frost building up, we emptied it and turned it off overnight. Then when we turned it back on we noticed it wasn't pulling the door closed and you had to press the door to make the seal. Then after a few minutes the seal breaks. I have tried cleaning the seals and the contact surface neither of which have worked. It's a big stand alone btw. It's a Westinghouse Silhouette Deep Freeze 301. Not sure of the year it was a hand me down, but the energy sticker is well faded.

ANSWER FROM POLICY-Wizard™

Dear Kati:

The Westinghouse Silhouette Deep Freeze 301 is an upright model freezer with a door that is vertical, right?

From the description of your problem, here are some things to check:

1) Is your freezer level? Is it possible that while defrosting your freezer that it got moved such that is no longer level on the floor, and therefore the weight of the door is now pulling the door open, rather than pulling it closed? If this is the case then you should be able to adjust the "feet" at the bottom of your freezer to get the unit to lean slightly backwards to get the door to close against the seal.

2) Have the hinges to your door loosen, such that it no longer keeps the door aligned properly. So again, while you were defrosting the unit was the door possibly jostled and now the hinges are with loose or out of adjustment? To remedy this you would need to tighten the hinges back up or re-align them.

3) Lastly, even if the problem with your door sealing turns out to be due to one of the above reasons, it's still a good idea after you have leveled the unit or tightened the hinges to still do the "dollar bill test" to see how well the seals on your freezer are working. To do this, place a dollar bill between the gasket and the cabinet, and then close the door so that the bill is caught between them. Next, pull the bill out slowly to feel for resistance. You should feel a good resistance on the dollar bill as you remove it. You then do this about every 10 inches around the door seal, and you should find this same good resistance all the way around. But if you find that the dollar bill has less resistance at some places, then this may indicate the gasket is not sealing well at this point, and needs to be replaced.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com