Should you unplug your fridge when on holiday?

Yes, you should turn off and unplug your fridge while going on a long holiday. A long holiday according to me is for a couple of months.  

Are you going on a long holiday?

Great. Let us know where you are going. Have a great holiday. Spend a great time with your family or friends. Remember, No work, Ok.

Also, before we talk on this topic, I would like to draw your attention on the current best Refrigerators depending on their Star Rating.

Now, let us know which type will you like or already have., in the comment section.

Now, time to prepare for the holiday.

I am sure you have planned your holiday. You have already got your flight tickets or train tickets and also booked hotel rooms from your favorite travel website.

Also, you already have a list of places where you want to visit. Or if you are like me you will have already planned how not to do any work when on vacation.

But have you thought about what happens to your home when you are on holiday?

No, I am not talking about security, it is an important topic. And we will talk about that someday. But today I am talking about safety, about your bills, and the food.

Now I will let you know my experiences, and why I thought this topic is important to be discussed.

Read: Best Doube Door Fridge in India

My experiences.

We do travel a lot. So earlier when we used to leave home, my Mother will always tell us to switch off the fridge. I used to think about why. We will have some things in it. Not many. But still some things like a Tomato Ketchup, butter, etc.

So once I asked her why?

She had quick responses

1. To save electricity.
2. To be safe.

Now the first part did not bother me much. Because we have a modern fridge. So do they.

There one is better and bigger than ours. It has lots of food in it. But that’s not the point.

The point is that modern fridges are made up of smart inverter technology, not a Direct cooling system.

The Direct cooling system will consume equal amount of energy no matter what is inside and Smart inverter technology will consume energy as per requirements.

Which is how much stuff you got inside.

So, in any case our fridge has less stuff so the energy consumption will be less. But money is money. Saving money is GOOD.

But the 2^nd response bothered me a lot. Because safety is a big issue.

I am sure you know a fridge can catch fire and also can explode. If you want to know how it happens or what precautions, you need to take, you should read this article.

Also according to International Fire Investigation and Consultants Limited, if a fridge catches fire then the spread is fast and the effect is devastating.

So this is of great concern.

Furthermore, whenever we came back we found our fridge stink. Now we do switch it off and unplug it. But guess what it still stinks.

Less yes but it still does. But we found a smart way. Keep on reading.

So,

Why should you switch off and unplug your Fridge?

 The answer to this is very simple. As you already have read the above explanation.

1.  To keep your home safe from fire.
2.  To save your electricity bill.
3.  To keep your fridge clean.

Now that we know why. We should see know what to do?

Read: Best Triple Door Fridge in India.

What to do with the food?

Now that you are sure of switching off your fridge. You will need to focus on what to do with the already stored food items.

• Start buying less food and definitely start storing less food. For 2-3 days prior to the holiday.
• Start utilizing the stored food.
• If you think that you will not, be able to finish, then have a party call your friends and finish them.
• You don’t want to have a party or do not have time then give them to your family members or friends.
• You don’t have any friends or family, then distribute them to the people who need them.
• Just do not waste them.   

Well, these are some of the ideas which came in my mind. If you have any then do share with us all. These are some of the ways you can finish your stored food. Now once you have finished it how will you proceed.

Read: Best Mini Fridge in India.

What to do after finishing the food?

Now there is no food left in your refrigerator. Your freezers are empty and your cooling chamber is also empty.

Step 1

Now is the time to clean the refrigerator.

Minutely inspect and carefully and thoroughly clean the entire refrigerator. Do not leave any parts inside the refrigerator. Make sure that you have not left behind any stains or a corner.

Step 2

Now use a dry towel and wipe the entire refrigerator, so that there is no moisture left inside.

Step 3

Now bring down the temperature.

Step 4

Switch off the main power supply.

Step 5

Gently pull the plug out from the socket. Make sure that your hands are not wet.

How to clean and sanitize the fridge?

You can use multiple things. I will not go into details. I will just mention the names.

• Baking Soda
• Lemon.
• Detergent
• Disinfectant and refrigerator cleaning liquids.

Mix any one of them in warm water and dip a cloth in that water. Use that wet cloth to wipe the refrigerator.

Oh, by the way. Do not mix the lemon. Just use it to run around the inner surface of the refrigerator. Leave it for some time, then wipe it with a wet cloth. I call this lemon wash.

After these follow the above-mentioned steps.

Sometimes even after wiping of with a dry cloth, some moisture will remain.

To tackle that you can leave some moisture absorbers in your fridge. I will just name some of them

• Baking powder
• Coffee beans.
• Charcoal

These will be easy to get. You might already have them in your kitchen. Just pour them on a bowl and keep it inside the refrigerator.

Defrost the freezer.

Now, if you are using a single door older refrigerator, then please defrost it before switching off. If not, when you come back your fridge will be standing on a pool of water or worse there will a dirty patch on your floor where your fridge is located.

At this juncture you are ready. You can now happily and peacefully leave for your vacation.

But it is only obvious that you will need to clean the fridge one night before you leave. So for that night just Swiggy or Uber eat your food, whichever you like.

Shall you keep your fridge open after switching off?

 Yes, and No. It actually depends. If you keep your fridge open, then the air circulation will be there so there will not be less smell. But if you have rodents like rats in your home. Then they will find a good spot to stay and do the rat stuff.

If you keep the fridge close, then once you come back then you will find that your fridge stinks. This is due to decreased air circulation. An easy way to get rid of this will be to have a lemon wash. Just cut a lemon into pieces. Rub them gently on the inner surface of the refrigerator. Wait for some time and clean it. You might also need to clean it with detergent. It depends on the stink.

I had done both. But I ended up cleaning the fridge again with the lemon wash.

How to keep the refrigerator door open?

If you have decided to keep the door of the fridge open, then you can use the following options.

• Pull the chambers of the fridge a bit, these will automatically not allow the doors to close.
• You can put towels so that the doors do not tightly oppose the refrigerator.
• You can also put paper.

Try one of them. Or if you have some innovative DIY ideas then let us know. In case you are wondering what was the way. The way is to give a lemon wash to the fridge, after coming back from the vacation.

What happens if you keep your fridge switched on with food in it?

If you are leaving for a longer holiday, that is for more than 1 month. Then all the foods will be rotten. Even if the fridge is on.

The foodstuff inside the freezer will be hard as a stone.

Your vegetables and other stuff in the other chambers will rot because they are not in the freezer. The temperature in the freezer is below the melting pint of water.

If you are going for less than a week then they will be fine.

And also, in both cases, your fridge will consuming electricity and there will be chances of catching fire, even the slightest.

Conclusion

It is always better to empty the fridge, clean it, switch off and plug off the refrigerator before you go for a long vacation.  If you are leaving for less than week then, it is ok to keep it running.

Have a great holiday. Let us know what you did finally and also how was your holiday.