How to identify a door seal profile from a photo

Most people who need a door seal don't know what it's called. That's normal. There is no universal naming system, brands use their own codes, and the equipment is usually older than whoever's now responsible for it.

The good news is that you don't need the name. You need the shape.

What a profile is

Cut a seal across its width and look at the cut end. That cross-section is the profile: how the seal grips the door, where the magnet sits, how it meets the frame, and how thick the wall is.

Two seals can be the same length and height and still be completely different profiles. The profile is what determines whether a seal will actually fit.

Why the brand often doesn't help

A fridge badged one brand may have a door built by another, with a seal from a third. Equipment gets rebuilt, doors get replaced, and after fifteen years in a commercial kitchen the badge on the front tells you very little about what's in the door groove.

The profile doesn't lie. It's the physical shape in front of you.

How to photograph it

Photograph the cut end straight on. Pull a corner of the seal away from the door until you can see its cross-section. Hold the camera square to it rather than at an angle, because an angled shot distorts the proportions that matter.

Use a plain background. A sheet of paper behind it, or the pale surface of a bench. Not the inside of the fridge.

Include something for scale. A coin, a ruler, the end of a tape measure. Without it, a 12mm dart and a 20mm dart look identical in a photo.

Get the light right. Natural light or a torch from the side. Flash flattens the shape and loses the detail we're reading.

Add a second photo of the corner, showing how the seal turns. Mitred, moulded and corner-block seals are made differently.

What our identifier does

The photo goes to a matching tool that compares the shape against 216 profiles we stock or manufacture, and returns the closest candidates with a confidence score.

It's in beta, and it can get things wrong. Treat the result as a shortlist rather than an answer. A person here confirms the exact fit before anything is made or dispatched, and if we confirm a part that turns out to be wrong, we replace it at our cost.

What to do with the shortlist

Compare the suggested profiles against the seal in your hand. Look at the dart width, the wall thickness, whether there's a magnet channel and where it sits, and the shape of the sealing lip.

If two look plausible, send both numbers through with your photo and we'll settle it.

Once you have the profile

You'll need the measurements as well. That's covered in the measuring guide, and the two together are everything needed to make or supply the right seal.