Turning OFF the refrigerator till the week or month would damage the device?

[Willen]

I live in village so we do not need to store vegetables in refrigerator. Most of the day we eat fresh vegetables from farms. We do not use more modern junk foods and drinks which need refrigerator to keep these. So we need to turn OFF the refrigerator for many days sometime.

Here, some non-engineer mechanics repairs refrigerator and some of the time he suggest to turn ON the refrigerator almost every 2 or three days few minutes to escape from probable damage.

Is it true? Maybe he want to save the device from compressor or piston jam. Or anything? Please!

 

[jpanhalt]

That is a tough question to get actual studies for support. In the days when home refrigerators had separate motors and compressors (>50 years ago), occasional running might be advisable as it was said to keep the seals (refrigerant system, lubrication, outside atmosphere) lubricated. Today, systems are totally sealed with the motor and pump inside the refrigerant. So, except for the non-moving electrical seal, there are no seals to keep lubricated. Thus, occasional running to keep seals lubricated seems unnecessary.

Here is a link to another forum that discusses leaving refrigerators in vacation homes turned off for long periods: https://www.refrigeration-engineer....n-we-turn-off-the-fridge-freezer-for-6-months It reaches the same conclusion.

Other considerations:
1) Is the period of being off sufficient to compensate for the almost continuous running that the refrigerator will experience for the first 24 hours or more to come down to temperature after being re-started?
2) Odors, mildew and such. Clean, take other precautions mentioned in the link, and prop the door open.
3) Danger to kids: In some areas, unused refrigerators must have the door removed so kids don't get trapped inside. You may not be subject to such laws, it it is still a risk worth considering.

John

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

We see a LOT of failures where people have left them unplugged for a few weeks, it never seems a good idea.

Same with washing machines, LOT'S fail when people come back off holiday

 

[jpanhalt]

It's not leaving them off that makes them fail. It is turning them back on. Any data or a third vote?

John

 

[Ian Rogers]

I would just turn it right down... Has the freezer an "ECO" switch...

 

[Willen]

When I heared this suggestion "term ON your freezer time to time" then I thought that it was just a myth. Eg- old people here think that storing TVs for months without turning them ON will damage the TV. I take it as a myth because I think pure electronics, (not mechanical/electrical) devices like semiconductors won't be damage like this way (keeping them OFF), except electrolytic caps after few decades.

It is amazing news for me that in such efficient modern life why engineers design such poor inefficient devices which damages itself if we turned OFF for few months and turned ON. Maybe refrigerators are working in the same technology when it was firstly discovered.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Maybe refrigerators are working in the same technology when it was firstly discovered.

They are working on poorer technology - the only real improvement is in the better insulation used these days, which greatly improves their efficiency.

 

[nsaspook]

It is amazing news for me that in such efficient modern life why engineers design such poor inefficient devices which damages itself if we turned OFF for few months and turned ON. Maybe refrigerators are working in the same technology when it was firstly discovered.

That is the nature of humans, machines and the universe in general. Imagine how your body would feel if you slept for a week and had to jump up in a instant and run a mile at full speed. The general physics of physical inertia means the most stress on a part will be when it quickly starts from it's lowest energy state or quickly stops from a high energy state. Want an incandescent light bulb to fail quickly, turn it off and on every few minutes. Robustness requires extra strength or reducing the stress by limiting the force. Opposing that is the requirement for cheapness , high efficiency and instant gratification that's normally obtained today by using poor quality parts that are stressed to the engineering limit to make things quick, use less energy and cost only a few dollars to make.

Anyone who has worked in a large industrial site in an engineering capacity has one great fear, the scheduled total shutdown for plant electrics. There is a almost exponential curve of what will fail on power-up as time passes. Anything with a motor or compressor is a prime suspect and the longer things have run perfectly before the power loss the more likely they are to fry during startup.

 

[jpanhalt]

Are you suggesting that people should run their furnaces all Summer to save on repair bills?

John

 

[MaxHeadRoom78]

Anyone who has worked in a large industrial site in an engineering capacity has one great fear, the scheduled total shutdown for plant electrics. There is a almost exponential curve of what will fail on power-up as time passes.

I found it mainly due to 'Preventative Maintenance' during the shut down period.
Max.

 

[nsaspook]

Are you suggesting that people should run their furnaces all Summer to save on repair bills?

John

No, that would be silly in a house but it's typical to keep motors running in a idle speed or lightly loaded in a industrial setting if it's rated for continuous duty..

 

[nsaspook]

I found it mainly due to 'Preventative Maintenance' during the shut down period.
Max.

I'm planning for one now, only critical work during the cold time, we have a warmup period for calibrations and PM's. We have to plan for all kinds of mundane things like 15yo BIOS batteries going dead causing brain-dead controllers that need to be reprogrammed, imaging hard drives in case of disk failures, UPS systems that stay running and need new batteries, fail-safe interfaces that need some spacial handshake to restart, what to place in local control, what to leave in remote, what critters are going to grow in baths or cooling lines, flashlights, radio batteries, spoiled food and no Internet (my top concern). The shutdown-restart checklist is the size of an encyclopedia.

 

[Tony Stewart]

Any contaminants in the compressed gas if there was a slow leak, might tend to oxidize. Shelf life without starts is a big unknown.

 

[alec_t]

and PM's.

Post mortems?

 

[nsaspook]

Post mortems?

That's on the checklist too next to HazMat procedures.

 

[jpanhalt]

Direct from Maytag (**broken link removed** ):

I am sure the "month" is arbitrary and was chosen to balance the inconvenience of restarting and cost of running. In Nepal, considering the same factors, the period might be shorter or longer. Note the recommendation to keep the "usual" settings, not warmer. Most important, there is no mention of periodically starting the refrigerator every few days for whatever reason.

John

 

[MaxHeadRoom78]

I'm planning for one now, only critical work during the cold time, we have a warmup period for calibrations and PM's. We have to plan for all kinds of mundane things like 15yo BIOS batteries going dead causing brain-dead controllers that need to be reprogrammed, .

I once was in charge of Technical maintenance in a large manufacturing plant that carried out P.M. during shut down, unfortunately it was carried out by the maintenance electricians and in spite of attempting to 'educate' them, they would do things like replace memory back up batteries, but did not leave the controller powered, thus resulting in the parameters lost and would have to be reloaded, usually discovered when production resumed!
One instance the guy on the night shift required batteries for his flash light and took them from a machine back up set.
Just a few of many horror stories.
Max.

 

[nsaspook]

I once was in charge of Technical maintenance in a large manufacturing plant that carried out P.M. during shut down, unfortunately it was carried out by the maintenance electricians and in spite of attempting to 'educate' them, they would do things like replace memory back up batteries, but did not leave the controller powered, thus resulting in the parameters lost and would have to be reloaded, usually discovered when production resumed!
One instance the guy on the night shift required batteries for his flash light and took them from a machine back up set.
Just a few of many horror stories.
Max.

That's why we will have an operations trailer on generator stocked with food, cold drinks, a nice TV/DVD player with lots of movies so people will have a nice place to do NOTHING while the power is off. I still need to talk to the IS people about wireless Internet for our group as we can't have booze or drugs but still need something to keep the young guys doped up and their minds numb. The old guys have cards or dominions with penny bets to keep us busy while babysitting the little darlings.

 

[large_ghostman]

No idea to the original question but, I have had two scopes that were not used for 6 months and both failed when I tried to use them again. I now try and switch on test gear like that every couple of weeks, with the scopes both were cap failures

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

If refrigerators fail due to somewhat long term shutdown, then how do we explain air conditioners which frequently stay off for months at a time during the fall and winter months here in the north east USA?

We would also have to explain how all these kinds of products are stored in warehouses long term.

If the refrigerator is a worry, then you'd still have to establish what is the right duty cycle anyway, which is also hard to do. Do you turn it on once a month, once a week, twice a week, or every day for an hour, or leave it on but turned way down? We would need some sort of data for that decision too.