Keep the Refrigerator Door Closed with Vaseline

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Do you have a refrigerator door that randomly pops open at any hour of the day?

Although, let’s be real, it generally happens at night when no one is awake to hear the door pop open OR the resulting wind up of the refrigerator going into overdrive to warn you the food inside is warming up.

Vaseline just might be your answer.

Cheap.

Easy.

Fast…

If you apply petroleum jelly or Vaseline you are:

1. extending the life of the gasket on your refrigerator as well as
2. magnifying the seal so that the door has to try harder, if not make it impossible, for it to open on it’s own.

MATERIALS NEEDED

○ old towel
○ soap & water
○ Vaseline or similar petroleum jelly – https://amzn.to/2XprGG0 ← unfortunately a 3 pack, but it was the best deal I could find online and you can give two away to your two best friends. 😉

Here’s how:

First, clean off both the gasket on the door and the refrigerator side where the gasket meets.

Warm water and soap on a clean cloth will remove any buildup and create a clean surface for the Vaseline to have direct contact with the seal.

You’ll want to do this gently, of course, so you don’t damage the gasket. This is especially true if you have an old and brittle gasket–don’t try using a soft bristled toothbrush or something more abrasive to get inside the gasket grooves. A dried out gasket can tear easily. If that’s the kind of gasket you are working with just do a few more iterations with the warm water and soap until the gunk is all gone.

After rinsing and drying the gasket, apply Vaseline.

Applying Vaseline with fingers is just fine too.

I specifically put the Vaseline on the gasket side and not on the refrigerator side because it will fill in all the gaps of the gasket.

Apply enough Vaseline to get an even coat and the door seals properly.

If I put it on the refrigerator side it won’t fully coat the surface of the gasket and there would probably be some gaps in the seal.

I also cleaned off any excess off the sides at the end.

If you have an older refrigerator and still have the owner’s manual, you might even find that the cleaning and maintenance section of your owners manual calls for a light clean and reapplication of petroleum jelly or Vaseline two times a year.

Refrigerator door gasket maintenance owner’s manual instructions.

If you have a more recent one, it might be omitted for some reason.

Refrigerator gasket planned obsolescence.

If you are concerned about possible gunk buildup from applying Vaseline–you aren’t the only one.

Will Vaseline create gunk buildup?!?

I was afraid the tacky properties of the Vaseline would make hair, crumbs and other stuff stick to the gasket, making it utterly disgusting. 3 months later some of the Vaseline seems to have been absorbed or evaporated on the handle side of the door…

Petroleum Jelly makes refrigerator gasket stay flexible too.

but the rest of the Vaseline seems to be present and looks like it is making full contact with the opposite side. The gasket still seals without any issues even when I slam the door closed. In the video you see a test of this as well as slamming the freezer drawer as well, which also used to pop the door open (link below goes directly to the timestamp of both doors getting slammed):

As you can see there is no crazy buildup…

No gunk or grime on refrigerator gasket even on the BOTTOM of the door!!!

…and I’ve only wiped down the inside of the refrigerator for this follow up part of the video–not the gasket itself. So there probably is something to the older instructions stating this should be done twice a year to help maintain the elasticity of the gasket as well as recreate the maximum security seal.

Now could you replace the gasket, sure. But sometimes they don’t make them anymore.

Vaseline obviously won’t repair tears in a gasket, but it will provide a temporary fix before you can get a replacement gasket or buy a new refrigerator on a more relaxed schedule not driven by necessity.

There are a couple other fixes we did at the same time as when we put the Vaseline on for this video, such as re-leveling the door and “adjusting” the bracket on the bottom of the door. But even without those more extensive fixes, which involved more than one person to adjust the door, this Vaseline fix might have kept the door from opening just by itself.

**Warning** after you finish the job and try opening the refrigerator door for the first time: IT WILL BE HARD TO OPEN.

This is especially true if your refrigerator door currently doesn’t need an excuse to open. So watch out. You might break a nail when your hand slips off the handle because you are just not used to the refrigerator door fighting back and refusing to open.

Share this tip with a friend, take the proceeds of $ saved and go out for a drink! Or if this was a last ditch attempt before buying a new refrigerator you might get an entire vacation covered out of the deal!!!

I’d love to hear if this fix works for you. If it does please come back and leave a comment below.