How Important Are Door Seals?

Everyone knows that door seals are a key part of a refrigerators mechanism, but do you know how important they really are? We put a UCR140 to the test to see how much difference a damaged door seal makes to energy consumption.

How Do They Work?

A door seal provides an airtight seal between the door of your fridge and the actual fridge itself, which stops warm, moist air from getting into your machine. If your door seal is damaged and warm air is constantly able to enter your machine it can cause bacteria to grow and form inside your machine, spoiling your produce. It also means that your machine will have to work harder to keep the air inside cool, meaning it uses more energy and can cause increased energy bills.

The Test

We decided to put a unit to the test and see just how much difference a damaged door seal can make. We chose to do the test on one of our most popular units, the UCR140. We tested the UCR140 with the door closed in an ambient temperature (22°c) room to see how much energy it would use over a 24-hour period. We did one test where the door seal was fully intact and working properly and one test with a damaged door seal.

The test with the fully working and intact door seal resulted in a usage of 0.498kw over the 24 hour period. Whereas, the test with the damaged door seal resulted in a usage of 0.587kw over the 24 hour period.

This seems like quite a small difference, however, if you look at this over a year the UCR140 with the intact seal has a usage of 181.77kw and the UCR140 with a damaged door seal has a usage of 214.24kw. When comparing this against the average energy price, the total adds up and can make a big difference in your energy bills over a long period of time.

When using a UCR140 with a fully intact, working door seal your energy costs to run the machine over a year period, based on the current energy prices, will be £94.64. In comparison, if you have a damaged door seal it will cost you £111.80.

This might not seem like a huge difference, but if you think about how many units you have in retail establishments/ commercial kitchens that require an intact door seal to work properly, if you're not taking care of your door seals on any of the units it's going to cause a huge increase in your energy bills. This test was run on a brand new, straight out of the packaging unit, meaning it was empty, clean and working as efficiently as possible. When your unit has been in use for a while and is loaded up with produce it won't be working as efficiently as a brand new unit, meaning the energy usage will be even higher so making sure you're looking after your door seals is even more important.

How To Properly Care For Your Door Seals

Firstly, make sure you're regularly checking your door seals for any rips or tears, if you find any it's time to replace them. However, you can give your door seals a longer life by properly caring for them. Never put them through a glass or dishwasher, the heat from the machine can cause damage to the PVC of the door seal, you should also never use any sharp objects to clean in between the creases of the door seal, you run the risk of creating rips or tears yourself. Use a water-based cleaner and gently wipe them until they are clean, also making sure to clean inside the unit where the door seals sit.

In need of a new door seal? Contact our spares department on 01254 614488 or [email protected].