I’ve been looking at craigslist for a lightly used, fairly new, refrigerator to take to our summer cottage. Our cottage is quite a long distance from our home and the refrigerator will need to ride on it’s side in the back of the pick-up truck. Now, I think I’ve heard that fridges need to be in the upright position for a certain length of time before being plugged in. For how long and why? At least one ad on craigslist said that their fridge has always been in an upright position implying that permenant damage can result by laying a fridge on it’s side. That seems hard to believe. Is that true?
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It's true due to the oil draining from the compressor. If transporting requires that it be laid on its side, let it sit for 24 hrs or at least as long as the length of time it was on its side.
lay it on it side and then put a 2x under the top end, so the oil can drain back while riding and it wont be that bad
I've hauled a lot of fridges on their side, left them standing upright for 24 hours and everything was OK.
Take some ice with you for the first day!
Doug
The oil in a compressor is very light and runs easily. You can lay a fridge down on it's side or back or front then flip it up and use it right away (give a couple of minutes) because the oil immediately runs back to the compressor.
Now, what you shouldn't try to do is put the unit on it's back THEN turn it on its' side THEN turn it upsidedown. By doing any more than one move the oil will go into places that will not migrate back to the compressor regardless of how long you leave it before starting it up. Starting it up is the only way the oil will be pushed out of these low spots.Though the chances of anything happening of it running out of oil is pretty remote unless you maybe did some wierd movements with it.
As a compressor runs it always pumps a fine film of oil throughout the system and any pockets of oil that accumulate in any low spots will eventually get back to the compressor.
from a former lazy Maytag man
roger
Thank you to all who responded to my question. Sounds like the general consensus is that the fridge will be OK as long as I right the fridge and wait a period of time before plugging it in. The period of time was different with each reply but I won't need to use it right away so the length of time shouldn't be critical for me. Thanks again.