A fridge magnet is a small motor that never spins. One face wants iron. The other face is a picture. If the door is the wrong steel, the picture slides. That is physics, not a weak souvenir.
Ferrite, alnico, neodymium
Most souvenir fridge pads are ferrite, a ceramic mix of iron oxide. They are hard, brittle, and cheap. They hold a thin tin print on painted steel. They do not yank a screwdriver across a counter. Goudsmit publishes the usual magnet-materials split: ferrite for everyday holding, neodymium when you need a lot of pull in a small disc.
Alnico is the older alloy: iron, nickel, and cobalt, sometimes with aluminum. You meet it in school magnets and guitar pickups more than in a $6 city disc. It keeps magnetism when hot. It is not the pad on the back of a flamingo.
Neodymium is the strong rare-earth disc. A small coin of it will hold a stack of paper that ferrite will not. It also chips if you let two discs slap together. A car magnet or a heavy enamel plaque may use a stronger pad. A thin tourist tin usually does not need one.
What steel it sticks to
Iron and low-carbon steel hold. Painted refrigerator doors in older houses are usually that steel. Stainless is mixed. Scientific American, Thomas Devine: ferritic stainless is generally magnetic. Austenitic stainless, the family that includes Type 304, usually is not. A downtown condo with a fingerprint-proof French door may refuse every souvenir you own. Test with one magnet before you buy a set.
Aluminum does not hold. A hotel minibar door is often too thin or the wrong alloy. Side walls sometimes work when the front door does not.
The red plaque here
The red enamel face with a navy rim is a fridge plaque. The tab at the top is a hang hole for a hook or a nail if you ever take it off steel. It is not a suitcase tag and not a luggage loop. Leave it on the door. If you travel with it, wrap the face so enamel does not chip on tile. The travel note is on travel magnets.
Florida air
Morning humidity in Orlando sits high most of the year. Condensation on a fridge is ordinary in August. Wipe the steel. Dry the paper. Put the magnet back. Ferrite pads shrug off a wipe. A tin print stains if it sits wet under a takeout menu.
Tin versus enamel hold is the compare. The fridge wall is Shop.
Get this Orlando crystal glass magnet. A 2-inch glass disc with the city on the face.
Get this Orlando USA 3D fridge magnet. A handmade resin city souvenir for the kitchen door.
Get this Orlando city collage magnet. A 4.4 by 3.4 inch molded-rubber skyline made in the USA.
Why ferrite is the souvenir pad
Goudsmit's public magnet pages treat ferrite as the everyday ceramic. Iron oxide plus a ceramic binder. It resists corrosion. It is brittle. You can snap a thin pad if you bend the tin. That is why a souvenir sheet stays flat. Neodymium, often written NdFeB, is sintered rare earth. Same company pages put it at the high-pull end. A fridge souvenir does not need that pull. A car sheet or a tool holder might.
Alnico is Fe, Ni, Co, sometimes Al. The letters are the recipe. It holds when hot. A kitchen door in August is not that hot. The pad on a flamingo is still ferrite.
GE Appliances still says to bring a magnet and test a door if you want a bulletin. One disc tells you more than a product page. If the disc slides, try a side wall before you buy a set.
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Publisher: Orlando Magnet Company and Tabaconda LLC. Write sales@tabaconda.com.