The short answer
A Driven compact refrigerator that will not stay shut is almost always leaning forward or carrying something that holds the door open, not suffering from a failed gasket. Compact doors are light, their gaskets are short, and their feet are usually adjustable, so levelling fixes a large share of these calls. Test the seal with paper before you buy anything. What you have is a cube-style mini fridge.
What you are seeing
- The door does not swing shut on its own from half open
- A visible gap at one corner of the door, usually the top or bottom hinge side
- Ice or frost forming along one edge of the frame or on the rear plate
- A cabinet that stays sealed but does not cool is a capacity problem — the not-cooling page covers it — This points at a different fault; the page named above covers it.
Most likely causes on a compact refrigerator, in order
- The cabinet is not level, or leans forward — first, because a compact door has little weight to help it close and the feet are adjustable — a cabinet tipped slightly back closes itself, and one tipped forward never will
- A bottle or can in the door rack fouling the frame — the door on a cube cabinet is shallow, and a tall bottle in the rack meets the shelf edge before the door meets the gasket
- Something inside is holding the door open — a bottle in a door rack, a shelf pushed out of its slot or an over-filled drawer stops the door by a fraction and nothing about it looks wrong from the front
- Gasket deformed, folded or hardened — shipping folds, a long period in a warm store and cleaning with harsh solvents all leave a gasket that no longer springs back
What to check, and why in this order
- Empty the door racks entirely and close the door again — On a shallow cube door that single check explains a large share of these
- Watch the door close from half open before touching anything. — A door that stalls tells you about levelling; a door that closes and then springs back tells you about an obstruction
- Level the cabinet next, with a very slight backward lean — Everything below is measured against a door hanging correctly
Step by step
- Open the door to half travel and let go. Note where it stops. — Time: a minute.
- Empty every door rack, close the door and watch whether it now pulls itself shut. — Time: a few minutes.
- Put a spirit level on the top of the cabinet, front to back and side to side, and adjust the feet until it reads level with a very slight backward lean. — Time: several minutes.
Tools: level, spanner
- Close the door on a strip of paper at the top, bottom and both sides, several points each. Pull gently. Anywhere it slides free is not sealing. Mark those spots. — Time: several minutes.
Tools: paper strip
Before you start: safety
Safety
Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before removing any panel. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Unplug the cabinet before working near a hinge or a latch, and never use a solvent, bleach or an abrasive on a gasket — they harden the rubber and make a marginal seal permanently worse.
When to stop and call a technician
Call for service when a gasket is split, when it will not stay in its channel after cleaning and reshaping, when a hinge is worn enough that the door drops visibly, or when the cabinet shell itself is out of square. A gasket is a part rather than a repair, and fitting the wrong profile is worse than the fault.
Sources
General guidance- Manufacturer service manuals, universally; OSHA 1910.147 for the principle — safety-constant-allowlist, fetched
Nearest pages of the same kind
What this page does not cover
This is generalized information: it covers Driven refrigerators as a class, not one family or model. It does not carry your model's error-code table, wiring, part numbers, capacities or ambient range — those are on the rating plate and in the documentation, which are the authority wherever they disagree with this page. It leads with one form, the cube-style mini fridge, and flags where the others diverge. Any family- or model-specific page is reached from the brand hub below, and takes precedence over this one. Pages this one hands down to: Common DRIVEN Refrigerator Problems (driven-refrigerator-problems).
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