[Bunny1]

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.

[FenneyFanatic]

We leave ours on..

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by Bunny1

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.

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.

[retiredguy123]

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.

[coffeebean]

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.

[Stu from NYC]

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

[retiredguy123]

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.

[bobdeb]

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.

[dewilson58]

Conflicting here too.

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

[tophcfa]

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.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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.

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.

[mepoole]

Leave it on.

[TStVillages]

Yes turn off water heater at breaker.

[La lamy]

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

[msilagy]

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.