Forum Discussion

Sandy___Shirley's avatar
Sep 20, 2016

Constantly turn residential frig off and on

We have a residential frig in our Georgetown and usually turn it off if we are not going out again the next weekend. Beginning to wonder if that is the right thing to do?

What is the minimum time frame that every one else uses for turning the frig off and back on again.

Like we said, minimum is next weekend. We don’t do on 4, off 3, back on. We turn ours on 2 days before a trip, so our shortest time frame is On Wednesday night, Off Sunday night (4 days), then a minimum of 10 days off.

Is it a bad idea to turn a refrigerator on and off that often?
  • Ours is always on. Fridge has many things with long expo dates and freezer has food also. I used to turn off old Norcold unit after a trip and download contents of fridge & freezer. I don't miss that one bit.
  • Ivylog's avatar
    Ivylog
    Explorer III
    Do you turn the one in the house off? By turning it off you are saving about the same as a 100W light bulb that is on half the time. Now if it was a NoCold 1200, I turned mine off all the time but as a fire prevention measure. Since getting rid of it my new residential has not been turned off in a year.
  • Obviously, it's more convenient to leave the fridge on at all times but it is not necessary. For me, it would be having to take everything out and put everything back every time I wanted to shut it down and then start it up again.
    It's OK to shut the fridge down when not in use and it saves money on electricity (but not much) if shut down for short periods. There should be no negative effect on components buy shutting down any more than there is when the compressor and other components shut themselves down each time a cooling cycle ends.
  • Ours is on all the time. Things that are electrically powered tend to die during turn on or turn off. That is when they are stressed the most.
  • I turn ours off if we will not be using the MH for a month or longer...otherwise it stays on.
  • We turn ours on the 1st of May and never turn it off till middle of Oct when I winterize the coach. BTW we keep our coach plugged in 24/7/365.
  • No reason to turn off and on if you are plugged all the time. Even if just using batteries once it is cooled down uses very little power if door is not opened.