The short answer
A Black+Decker refrigerator showing this usually tells you one thing: a draught you can feel on your wrist is air being drawn in, and it will be at a hinge corner or the handle side. Locating and cleaning is owner work; if the seal is sound and the draught persists, the door is out of plane.
What you actually see
- The door does not pull itself shut over the last inch — A door left to swing should close under its own weight from a hand-width open on a level cabinet.
- Condensation on the inside of the door frame — Beads of water on the frame mark where warm room air is meeting cold cabinet air.
- Frost forming near one edge of the freezer section — A local frost patch marks the exact point where humid air is entering.
Causes, ranked for this refrigerator
- Gasket compressed flat from age — The usual answer. the seal works by springing back into shape, and once the rubber has taken a set it cannot bridge the gap it used to. Rule it in or out properly here; a maybe at this position costs an hour further down.
- Gasket lifted out of its retaining channel — The runner-up. it looks attached from a step away, which is why it survives a casual inspection and keeps leaking. Getting a definite answer here is worth more than a quick look at the three below it.
- Something inside holding the door open — Third. an overfull door shelf or a container standing proud of a shelf will hold the door a fraction open with no visible gap. If this is the answer, the rest of the list stops mattering entirely.
What to check, in order
- First — the gasket profile — Do the paper test every hand-width around the frame. Free-sliding paper marks the flattened section.
- Second — the gasket seating — Run a thumb around the inside edge of the gasket and feel for a section standing proud of the channel.
Checks an owner can do safely
- Step 1. Warm a set gasket and reshape it — A gasket that has taken a set can sometimes be revived with a warm damp cloth held against it for a few minutes, then worked back into shape by hand.
Tools: warm damp clothAbout 20 min
- Step 2. Check the door shelves for obstructions — Empty the door and the top shelf, close the door slowly and watch the last inch for contact before it is home.
Tools: noneAbout 10 min
- Step 3. Run the paper test around the whole door — Close the door on a sheet of paper and pull. Repeat every hand-width. Free-sliding paper marks a leak; drag means the seal is holding there.
Tools: sheet of paperAbout 10 min
Before you open anything
Safety
Isolate first, inspect second. Pull the plug or open the breaker, then wait before touching anything behind a panel — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Put the plug somewhere visible so nobody restores power while your hands are inside.
When this becomes a service call
The line is not about confidence, it is about what the next step needs. If the seal passes the paper test all the way round and the cabinet still runs constantly, the fault is not the door and the cooling checks are the right page.
Sources
General guidance- The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) — OSHA 1910.147 and manufacturer service manuals, fetched
Nearest pages
What this page does not cover
Treat what follows as the class-level answer for a Black+Decker refrigerator. It will not tell you which board your unit has, which part number fits it, or what a particular code means on a particular family, because those differ within the range. The family and model pages beneath this one carry that, and they are linked under Related pages.
Related pages
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