Analysis of the most common and most worrisome causes and types of issues that occur when opening and closing the refrigerated cabinet door
The use of a refrigerated cabinet with the doors is becoming increasingly popular. The main purpose is that of obtaining low energy consumption, together with great quality food storage.
The door is the most strained component: opening, closing, shocks, forcing, misuse and the natural wear of its moving parts affect its correct operation.
Symptoms of possible door malfunctioning are noises during its motion. The following are the most common ones.
Rustle during movement
Noise generated by the friction between the door and the main frame, happening while moving the door. The cause is to be found in:
- structural failure of the door-hinge-frame system, because of inadequate sizing in relation to the environment of use;
- age of the fridge;
- poor maintenance.
The “SLAM!” sound when closing the door
Typical noise from a violent impact of the door that slams on the frame gaskets. It is often due to poor hinge calibration in relation to the size and weight of the door, or to uncontrolled hinge movement (typical of hinges with torsion springs).
The “CRACK!” sound when moving the door away from its “completely open” position
It is a very common scenario, hearing this “crack” sound, which makes us think we’ve broken or damaged something.
This noise is audible when the door is being closed and therefore moved away from the “completely open” position. It is often amplified by the presence of glass, and it is the result of the impact of the hinge pin against its seat in the door bracket. The cause is the coupling play between bracket and hinge, which gets accentuated over time due to wear.
In order to avoid this wear and the resulting issues, it is necessary to design the bracket in a suitable and functional way, so that:
- the contact surfaces of the hinge pin and the bracket are always in contact during the opening and closing movements;
- materials and treatments with adequate characteristics.
The same problem can be seen in the torsion spring hinges with mechanical stops. Such stop activates when you open the door up to 90 degrees, and then deactivates when the door is closed.
This switch in the stop position from active to passive generates a very annoying shutter noise; unfortunately, little can be done except changing the hinge type.
Hinge and bracket kits designed to solve all these issues do exist.
