I spent 15 years jamming a flathead into door gaskets until a guy in Tucson showed me a dollar bill

River Scott · 2026-09-16T22:00:05.55435+00:00

I was doing a fridge seal call in Tucson last spring and the customer, an older guy who used to fix commercial units, watched me shove a flathead screwdriver under the gasket to peel it loose so I could check the seal. He laughed and asked if I liked buying new gaskets every year. Turns out the screwdriver stretches the rubber and crushes the magnetic strip inside, so even when the seal looks fine you just wrecked the gap. He tore a dollar bill off his counter, shut the door on it, and told me to pull it out at four or five spots around the frame. If it slides out easy, you got a bad seal. If it drags, you are fine. No tools, no damage, 30 seconds. I switched to the bill test on every seal call since then and I have not replaced a single gasket I tore up with a screwdriver. What are you all using to check door seals without messing up the rubber?

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I spent 15 years jamming a flathead into door gaskets until a guy in Tucson showed me a dollar bill | Appliance Repairers - Discusd