Leave refrigerator on or off?
 

When you leave your FL home, 4-6 months do you leave REFRIGERATOR on or off?
Receiving conflicting information on on or off? Thank you for your input.

We leave ours on..

I turn mine off. AC at 80 degrees. Electric bills while away less than $35/month. Lesson learned once in my life. Went away for two weeks plus. Somewhere during that period refrigerator crapped out. You could not stand the stench when we opened the door upon return. Refrigerator shot (just a thermostat which would have been an inexpensive fix) but the food in freezer defrosted and liquids penetrated the insulation. Weeks to get rid of the stench in the house and a new fridge.

Leave the refrigerator on, but turn off the ice maker, and close the main water valve for the house. Some people also say to turn off the circuit breaker to the electric water heater, but I am not sure that is necessary.

When we were seasonal, we always emptied the fridge and freezer and turned the power off to the appliance. We propped the doors open. We were not in our villa for 9 months of the year.

I would empty it including ice tray and shut off and leave door open.

Leaving the refrigerator off for 6 months will save less than about $40 on electricity. You can turn the setting down to reduce the electricity usage even more. But, I think that leaving it on is better for the refrigerator because it will keep the refrigerant flowing. The refrigerant contains oil that continually lubricates the internal parts and the seals. My opinion.

Empty the ice. Leave water in the fridge and leave it on. Worked well for 11 years.

When we close up back up north we empty it out, prop doors open and turn it off.

Conflicting here too.

But I WOULD, empty ice, shut off ice maker, shut off water.....leave it ON.

:ho:

If you will be gone for 6 plus months it is best to empty it, turn it off and leave the doors open. Between my wife and I one of us tries to get to our Villages home at a minimum every 2 months, so we leave ours on so when one of us arrives we have some food in the freezer and some cold beer, water, and wine in the fridge. We also have friends who live in the Villages part time, and whenever we go to our home we check on their place and they always check on ours. One time we checked on our friends home and the fridge had died. The stuff in the freezer was beginning to turn very nasty but we caught it in time and were able to clean everything up before it caused bad damage. That was a wake up call for us as to what could happen, so we now only keep basic stuff in the freezer that would not make a mess if the freezer/fridge failed.

Based on my experience, I would not worry about damaging the fridge by turning it off annually for an extended period of time. We have a refrigerator in our garage up north that goes crazy when it gets below freezing outside, so we turn it off after Thanksgiving and don't turn it back on until Easter, and have never had a problem. We also have a seasonal family lake house in the Berkshires, and the fridge is only on from early May until mid October each year, and that also has never been a problem.

Leave it on.

Yes turn off water heater at breaker.

I agree with turning it off. Make sure you have an object that prevents the doors from shutting.

I leave my refrigerator on - fill it with water bottles, turn temp down to 3 - turn off ice maker and it's always just fine.

If I decide to leave mine on, I will make sure there is no perishable food in there. I haven't decided what to do yet.

I know that something magical happens to any piece of machinery left off for a few months. Whenever I re-open my lake house up north after months of not being used, all sorts of stuff that worked great in October when I turned it off, no longer functions the following Spring when I restart it. Winter Gremlins.

edit: BTW, the owner's manual for my Samsung refrigerator suggests emptying it, turning off the power, and propping the doors open if going to be gone for an extended period.

We leave ours on but we have a friend/neighbor walk through house weekly when we are gone. We reciprocate with a gift certificate out as a gesture of thanks.

We must have been very lucky to not have any problems when we returned after nine months with the fridge off. We did that for several years upon the advice of the guy who "watched" our villa for us while we were up north.

If you’re going to turn off the main water valve you need to turn off the water heater. I do recommend turning off the main water valve because a burst pipe can cause a lot of damage in your house. That damage may not be paid for by the insurance company!

I have left mine on for 10 years now. This last time I emptied the freezer, including ice. Worried mine might be on its last leg.

I would never turn off my fridge when going away just for a couple of weeks. Nor would I raise my a/c to 80 to save a few dollars. If the fridge is that old that it would just crap out, replace it. With all the humidity, setting the a/c max at 76-77 degrees is about right. 80 is way too high. Just my opinion but its worth it to me to spend a few pennies more on electric than just shut everything down and get that stale moldy smell

I always leave mine on. Turn off the ice. I fill water bottles and place them in the freezer. Keep the main frig full of beer, ready for my return. With the lack of door opening very economical to keep running and better for the fridge.

If you must turn off for any length of time leave the doors blocked open.

Au contraire, when we leave for 6-8 months we turn the AC to 83. Never had a problem. 76-77 is cooler than we run it while here--79 or 80 during the day; 76 at night.

I have done both with the refrigerator, but now we turn the fridge off and prop the doors open.

It's what to do about the johns that I can't seem to find the right answer for.

Finally-- someone else that reads the manual!
 

Reading the manual is the best way to prolong the life of anything that has moving parts.

Even if you empty it out and leave it turned off, leave an open box of baking soda on one of the shelves and it will absorb any odors that occur.

So.......Bunny, have your answer??

Shut it off. Prop both doors open. Shut off water line. Empty ice. Leave an open container of baking soda inside.

I was not saying turn off every time your away for two weeks - not practical, Just saying this happened to me once while on a two week vacation.

Correct. An appliance repair person told us that. Turn it down, but keep it on.

I would leave it on and empty all foodstuff, turn the ice maker off, and empty the ice bucket. Fill some gallon jugs and put them in the refrigerator and freezer so your not cooling air, the refrigerator will run less with something in it.

Brownouts are a lot more damaging to a fridge than sitting idle for an extended period of time.

We used to leave for 3-4 months and left the refrigerator on but turned off the ice water feature in the door. Also get a humidistat installed and set at 60% humidity and ac at 80 degrees.

Why do you put water bottles in the freezer?

If you are concerned that the toilets may go dry, you can seal the toilet bowls with saran wrap to prevent evaporation. Also, if you have the Kohler toilets that the builder installs, they are a two flush type. This means that if you press the handle down and release it immediately, you will only use about a half gallon of water. But, if you press the handle down and hold it for a few seconds, you will get a stronger flush that uses about 2 gallons. I would suggest giving each toilet a strong flush before leaving for vacation, as that will leave more water in the bowl, and also flush some of the dirt out of the tank.

Turn it iff
 

Florida Department of Agriculture has a class as well as a handbook titled, "Closing Your Florida Home" Good information that you can access online at their website. They strongly recommend turning fridge off, cleaning out and leaving doors open.

For the last 16 years, we have left ours on, when we go away for extended times. I Ioad up the fridge with soda, beer, and water. I also have large water bottles, that I freeze, and leave in the freezer. I feel all of this helps to keep the temp down in the unit and it won't run as often with the doors opening fewer times.

Never turn off the fridge but empty any perishables out of it and the freezer. Because no one is opening the door, it does not work as hard to stay cold. I have heard that shutting refrigerators off can shorten their life span. Getting a refrigerator back to the right temp can take a couple of days. Partially filled bottles of water in the freezer work to keep the unit working more efficiently and good to do all the time. Bleach in toilets keeps mold from growing (do not forget the tank). Water turned off to the house and water heater turned off at the circuit breaker. I have been doing this for over thirty years at beach houses and here. Works like a dream.

I wouldn't put bleach in the tank. It can damage the rubber parts.

Do you have a link? I did an extensive search on their website and Google and cannot find it.

We turn ours off. Have been for 25 years, it saves electricity $ and extends the life
 

We have been turning off our refrigerators for 25 years, save electricity $ and extends its life. No adverse problems. Doesn't ruin the seals.