Quick fix if your fridge won’t stay shut

When it comes to the kitchen, there are few things more distressing than when a fridge or – more pressingly – a freezer door won’t properly stay shut. You’ll try to shut it, it’ll stay closed for a second or two, you’ll start to feel a little hopeful and then it pops back open again. It’s infuriating!

But not to worry. We’ve been through all this before so we’ve picked up a trick or two to sort this out. Oh, and we just so happen to repair fridges and freezers for a living – so we know everything you need to know about troubleshooting fridge and/or freezer doors that won’t shut. Instead of feeling like you have to phone us and spend money, we’re happy to deliver these free strategies you can try at home before you have to get in touch with our professionals at Repair Aid.

The first step is to understand why a door won’t stay shut. Firstly, if it’s the fridge door that won’t shut, it could be that you’ve overloaded the fridge door compartments so much that the door is struggling with the weight. Try to remove some things from the door and see what happens. If it’s still not shutting, you’ll want to look and see if your fridge or freezer is level.

If you can, have a little look underneath or just look at the top to see if the fridge seems stable and level. If you’re a handy person, and you own an actual level, you can always use this to check and see. Lastly, the hinges that hold the door together may have loosened over time. In which case, grab a screwdriver and try to tighten the screws that connect the door to the fridge.

Failing all of this, it may well be to do with the seals on your fridge or freezer. This is the rubber seal that goes all the way around the internal border of the door which is also known as a ‘gasket’. It plays an important role because it’s what keeps the cold air in and the warmer air out and ensures that your food actually gets refrigerated or frozen. If there’s a problem with the seals, it could be quite costly to get a replacement sourced and then fitted – and it may even be more cost efficient to buy a new fridge or freezer

But before we get there, there are some things you can try. First of all, run your hand along the seal and make sure that it’s totally level. If it’s a bit dry, there’s a chance you could just get some wet kitchen roll and run it along the part of the seal that touches the fridge or freezer. This moisture will hopefully help the seal’s suction to kick back into action. You may want to hold the door shut for a few minutes to aid in this process. After the couple of minutes, the door should hopefully stay in place and you’ll have avoided any costly repair or replacement.

If this doesn’t work, try a more aggressive approach like cleaning the seal with warm, soapy water using a cloth (preferably a microfibre one) or, if you don’t have that, then a piece of kitchen roll again. Repeat the above process of keeping the door shut and see what happens. If this still hasn’t worked, now try apply some Vaseline to the seals. Not too much to the point of it oozing off the seals, but enough so that it can be rubbed into the surface. Once again, try to hold the door in place for a few minutes and see what happens.

If this fails, then it sounds like you’re going to need a repairer to come in and have a look at the gasket. It may be that it needs to be replaced. However, if your fridge or freezer (or fridge-freezer) is on its last legs, it may be a sign that you should buy a new one. But if that sounds like too much hassle or money, then give a local repairer a call. If you’re in London, get in touch with our team at Repair Aid to book an engineer today on 020 7183 6944 or book online.