Installing strip magnet inside refrigerator door gasket?

[ken]

Has anyone else thought about trying to install strip magnet inside old door gaskets? Or maybe someone here has tried this? Having a magnet the full length of the gasket has got to seal better than relying on only the mechanical latch to pull the door tight.

Thats one way new fridges are better than our "vintage" models. And with gaskets 50 years or more old they arent as soft as they once were. I know new gasket material is available but just wondering about this.

BTW...When did magnet gaskets begin to be installed by manufacturers?

 

[whirlcool]

I think it was in the early 60's that manufacturers started using magnets to hold the doors of refrigerators shut. Some of it was a response to lots of kids being suffocated after being locked inside old refrigerators with locking mechanisms on them. That used to happen a LOT in the 1950's.

My parents had a 1962 Coldspot refrigerator that was our first refrigerator with a magnetic strip on the door.

As you will notice those replacement gaskets for refrigerator doors are $$$$!

 

[ken]

GE

first used a magnetic latch in 1956 and did away with the mechanical latch. The handle no longer had any moving parts in it and was merely a "hand hold" to pull the door open. But I believe the gasket was still non magnetic.

 

[rp2813]

No Magnets

Just foam inside the GE gaskets.  The picture below shows the gasket on my '57 Combo before I removed it, cleaned it, and rotated it upon re-installation.  A metal strip on the cabinet and two alnico magnets in the door are what sealed the gasket.   I kind of like the clicking sound this design makes when the door closes.

 

I don't know when GE abandoned this system and went to magnets incorporated into the gaskets.

 

[philr]

My grandmother's 1964 GE fridge (two-door and manual defrost top freezer) still didn't have magnetic door seals. 

 

[circlew]

We had a '78 Hotpoint 16 cu.ft. that used non-magnetic gaskets; each door had a magnet plate to hold it closed.