Most refrigerators (excepting some odd models, perhaps) have a rubber or vinyl seal around the door, usually magnetic, that fills the gaps between the door(s) and the fridge itself. This ensures you have an airtight seal to keep the cold in and the heat out. This is called the “door gasket”.Over time, this seal becomes compressed, dirty, and/or damaged, resulting in a bad seal and therefore more energy used to keep the refrigerator at the correct temperature. Because it starts running more, you end up with higher power bills, condensation, improperly cooled food, and a shorter life for your appliance. In essence, this is a Bad Thingâ„¢.

My refrigerator has a bad seal. I first noticed this one night when getting something out and seeing that, upon shutting the door, I was still able to look into the fridge with the door closed. The corners on both the top and bottom of the main door had been compressed so much that they no longer contacted the metal of the fridge. I had wondered why it had been running so much lately — now I knew. The cold air was pouring out at both corners.

So, I headed over to RepairClinic.com, an online appliance parts supplier where I’ve ordered bits and pieces for my various appliances before. They always seem to have parts for my freaking-old machines, which I like. I looked up my refrigerator, a General Electric Model TBX18ZFC. I easily found the door gasket, but it cost $60, and at the moment, that’s something we don’t have to spend, so I had to make do with something else.

Instead, after examining the seal a good deal, I decided that some cleaning and some softening and reshaping would probably help the seal last a few more months until I could properly fix it. Here is the procedure I went through to do this:

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