At work we have a walk in freezer, somewhat similar to this, at least with respect to the door.
Lately we have a lot of ice building up inside and a quick dollar bill test tells me the gasket isn’t making a good seal anymore. Now, on our freezer, like the one in the picture, there is a gasket around the door. I don’t want to attempt to remove that for two reasons. 1)90% of it is still in good shape, there’s just a few bad spots and 2)I think it would be a big mess and I’d never get it all off.
So, I plan to pick up some adhesive weather stripping from Home Depot and apply it around the door perimeter on the freezer side. The mating surface is stainless steel, somewhat similar to this. Any thoughts on how to clean this really really well so I don’t have everything peeling off in a few months? Rubbing alcohol? Carb/Choke Cleaner? Starter Fluid? Windex?
While we’re at it, would I do any good by spraying it with adhesive (like Super 77) before I put the weather stripping on?
OTOH, maybe I should just get something that I can screw on with some sheet metal screws…it would certainly make it easier to replace in the future.
Actually, I think I might get one similar to this and then I can screw it around the door so that the rubber part is between the gasket and the freezer. Something like this would probably be just the right thickness to fix the problem as well.
But it’ll be easier to tell once I get to the store and can actually see them with my own eyes.
I started with choke cleaner since there just so happened to be a bottle within arms reach, that left the surface a bit slick. Rubbing alcohol did a good job, and left the surface a bit tacky which is what I’m looking for.
I have to go back to the hardware store. The stripping I bought said it was 17 feet…it’s 10, so I have to buy some more. I’ll pick up a small bottle of acetone while I’m there. Some of the current gasket has adhered itself to the stainless steel and I think acetone will get it off.
Also, the surface isn’t really cold except a few places where there’s some airflow (and the reason for the repair). After I put the gasket on, I’ll leave the door closed for a while which will keep quite a bit of pressure on it and should seal it nicely.
