I recently bought the cabinet used. It’s wonderful, with one small problem: the metal strip attached to the cabinet’s wood frame (with which the door and gasket forms a magnetic seal when closed ) has small gaps all the way around between the metal and the wood. The door gasket is fine, as is the magnetic connection. Even so, the space between metal and wood is enough to allow cool air to escape, so the cooler runs every few minutes. I think I just need to run a bead of sone sort of sealant around the edge of the metal strip that faces the interior of the cabinet. I’m not sure what to use. The normal options (super glue, silicone caulk, etc) have terrible chemical odors, and I don’t want that inside the cabinet. It is loaded with wine. Assuming anyone can even decipher this message, any suggestions for an appropriate sealant to form a reliable barrier for moisture and temperature? Thanks.
I’d contact Le Cache and see if they have any suggestions. I’ve had great customer service with them and they might be able to assist.
I’ll give it a shot. I thought they might not want to deal with me because I did not buy new.
Call them. They are aces in the customer service department, and should be happy to help you.
+1 on their service.
If you think caulk will remedy the situation you could use some clear phenoseal which doesn’t stink like silicone.
I do have a tough tome believing that minor air leakage is causing the short cycling, is the cabinet full?
The cabinet is 75% full, clustered in the middle with the air flow rows clear at top. The cooler runs to 54, holds for about ten minutes until it hits 58, then runs again. The seal otherwise seems excellent. The cabinet is in near perfect confition. The condenser coils are cleaned. I can’t think of what else to check. I agree that it seems strange, but I can feel cool air escaping from that gap, although it should not be enough to cause this.
Hello all, anyone deal with a gasket that is not sealing? I am close to getting a new one. Just wanted to check to see if anyone knows how to demagnetized the metal in the gasket. One gasket works fine and the door seals with the swish of air pressure and the magnetism. The other door is like a flat tire, and does not magnetically adhere to the door frame. (I tried the hairdryer trick and it looks like the door is aligned.
Giving it one last go on the boards before I purchase the new gasket. Thanks!
I didn’t know you can purchase a new gasket. I bought a bunch of weather stripping and put it around the door opening to improve the seal. Our Le Cache won’t get below 62 or so here in the phoenix summer (house stays between 80-83).
Also remember to keep the door locked with the key as recommended in the manual. I didn’t not and, after quite a few years, noticed that there was a gap at the top corner of the door. Locking the unit nearly closed the gap and I added a bit of weather stripping to improve the seal. There are some trouble shooting tips on the Le Cache website for gaskets that aren’t sealing, gasket and metal strip repairs etc.:
Thanks for the tips Andrew and Andy. (Weather striping would do the trick.). I have a larger Le Cache, but this thread seemed to be the only one that focused on Le Cache. Yes, I checked the site, they didn’t cover re-magnetizing the gasket, but I’m pretty sure that it what the main issue is. Locking does help. Just worried about overusing the lock as it’s a bit loose. (Still need to insulate the lock with foam tape.). The gasket is stapled everywhere over a wooden strip so I’m trying to avoid having to replace the gasket if I can.
I got rid of my weather stripping on the fridge after following the Le Cache method of hairdryer to heat up the gasket. It worked pretty well. I did add two small pieces of weather stripping behind the gasket to push it out a bit where there was a gap. Mine had a gap at the top left corner (above the lock). After doing this I have a good seal against the normal fridge gasket contact surface.
Thanks Andrew. Good to know. I’ll get there. I have my good hairdryer permanently next to the Le cache and just try heating it up every few days. Someday. Little goals.
I have the same question. I just got a used Le Cache with an 1800XT cooling unit. The unit runs every 20 minutes for about 10 minutes. Is that normal? This is after I re-glued the metal strips and do not detect any leaks. If this is normal how efficient is the cooler? Will I have a huge electric bill? Also how loud is the cooler supposed to be? The fan seems to be pretty loud, but does not seem to be bearing noise, just loud.
No question, the correct first move. One of the few companies where you can actually get a live human on the phone, someone who is actually helpful.
10 min on, 20 min off? Seems fairly normal depending on your house temp. I have a larger unit and it runs longer, less often. But it definitely runs quite a bit, as I would expect to keep the temp 20 degrees cooler than the outside.