Can You Move a Refrigerator on Its Side

Seven tips for moving a fridge

Feb 17th, 2012

Appliance Talk Fridges & Freezers

Moving house?  Taking your trusty appliances with you?  Here's a guide from Appliances Online to moving one of the biggest, almost awkward and most sensitive appliances around – the refrigerator.

Empty the refrigerator first

This should be a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised by how many people forget near information technology.  Eat up the nutrient you don't want to lose, and permit the residue go (mayhap store the good bits at a friend'due south house).  Your fridge volition be lighter, making it easier and safer to move, plus information technology'll be much cleaner upon inflow!

Defrost

Water and ice will not merely make things more difficult for your movers, but while the fridge is in transit, they could get into where they don't belong and damage your unit of measurement.  Before moving, leave the fridge/freezer off until all accumulated ice has melted, then wipe abroad all the leftover water.

Take the shelves out

While stable enough when the refrigerator is stationary, loose shelves will move around while in transit, resulting in damage.  If y'all can't remove the shelves, secure them firmly in place using tape.  Speaking of which…

Tape the door close

This keeps your fridge door from flapping about in your face – it'south much easier to move a large, solid box without having ane of its sides falling open up all the time.

Work as a team

Emptied out, fridges may experience deceptively lite (depending on your make and model), so you may feel that with a trolley handy, you tin can motility one all by yourself.  However, fridges are still large and bulky and crave a slap-up deal of careful handling when moving, so it'due south worth bringing a friend to help (effort promising them a few cold drinks out of the fridge once it's been set up upwards…).

If possible, keep information technology vertical

Old wives' tales say that older-model fridges should never be laid down flat in the back of truck during a motility, as this causes the oils, gases and coolants in their workings to flow out of position and badly damage the unit of measurement when it's started back up.  Those old wives were onto something, equally fifty-fifty new fridges tin can be wrecked by rough transportation.

Whether it'south new or erstwhile, laying a refrigerator on its side during a short movement (e.g. to the next suburb over) shouldn't be a major trouble, simply when taking one on a longer trip (e.g. from Sydney to Gosford), yous should make certain information technology stands upright to prevent damage.  If y'all do lay your fridge down to move it, you can lay it on its forepart or side, only it's not recommended that you lay information technology on its back – the weight of the fridge's trunk on its working parts could damage them, even if they're not exposed.

In any case, when you make it at your destination, you lot should leave the fridge standing upright and unplugged for at to the lowest degree two hours before starting information technology back up again, so that the oils, gases and coolants flow dorsum into their right positions.  If the compressor is very noisy when you lot starting time it back up, it may have been damaged in transit, or you could only have a faulty compressor.  At this betoken information technology's probably all-time to make a service phone call – Appliances Online tin can help you find the contact details of the manfacturer.

Be gentle

While a big, solid-looking person may be described as beingness 'built similar a fridge', fridges themselves can actually be rather delicate.  1 trick is to wrap the fridge in a blanket to help cushion whatever adventitious impacts it may rack up during the move, thus avoiding dings and dents to the outer surface and harm to the working parts at the back.

And recollect, no thing how tough you lot retrieve your fridge is, it will never be equally tough equally this 1:

Mark joined Appliances Online in November 2022 and has since learned more than than he e'er expected to know about appliances. He enjoys looking for new and unusual ways for to solve everyday problems using typical household appliances. When he's not toiling at the desks of Appliances Online and Large Chocolate-brown Box, he tries to find time to write the next big bestseller and draw satirical cartoons, just is likewise easily distracted by TV, music and video games. Mark's favourite apparatus is the Dyson Groom Tool, as he loves the concept of vacuuming your domestic dog. Google+

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Source: https://www.appliancesonline.com.au/academy/fridges-freezers/seven-tips-for-moving-a-fridge/

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