Replacing Gaskets on a 700 Series

What each seal is judged on

We read every gasket for three things: damage, shape and the marks a leak leaves behind. Damage is a tear, at a corner or along a straight run. Shape goes when a stretch stays crushed after the door opens, or hardens and stands away from the frame. A leak leaves frost on the inside edge of a freezer drawer, or a film of water on the frame around the fresh-food door.

Door and drawers are tested together

On a 700TCI or 736TCI the freezer sits in the drawers, so a drawer seal that leaks shows up as frost below while the door seal governs the refrigerator above. We test the whole cabinet on one visit: a new door gasket beside a leaking drawer seal still leaves the compressor running long.

Level is read at the same time. Sub-Zero’s installation guide ties a cabinet that is off level to doors that do not close properly, and a new gasket cannot pull a door the cabinet is holding away from it.

The owner’s list, then ours

For frost, condensation or ice inside the cabinet, the 700 guide’s list comes first: a clean condenser behind the kickplate, a door or drawer that closes properly and was not left ajar, and for heavy ice a hair dryer on low, kept moving, with the unit off. A torn gasket is where that list hands over to service.

Ordering and fitting

The rating plate inside the cabinet, left of the upper drawer, gives the model and serial, and each seal is ordered against both. Once the new gasket is on, we repeat the paper test round its whole length and give it time to take its shape against the frame. The compartment temperatures are the last reading we take.