Leaving a fridge or freezer to stand after being transported

Do you need to leave a fridge or freezer to stand before plugging it in after it’s been delivered, or moved to another house? Yes, and failure to do so could damage your appliance. But if the following two conditions are true, then you shouldn’t need to leave it to stand more than 10 minutes –

1: It was delivered using a large van (where it has been kept upright). 2: It was transported from the van to your house using a sack barrow, so it wouldn’t have been laid too far over. In these circumstances, 10 minutes should be enough, but you might want to be cautious, and follow the advice in the appliance’s manual.

If you know it has been laid over, or you aren’t sure, then you need to leave it to stand for as long as advised in the appliance’s instruction manual. However, if it has been laid over on its back, or on the wrong side, it could suffer from complications or damage no matter how long it’s left to stand.

If your instruction manual says to leave it for 6 hours, then arguably you should do exactly that. That way, you can’t go wrong. However, if you really don’t want to leave it that long, and feel that the manufacturers are being overcautious, then you should take time to understand exactly what the issue is, and then make up your own mind.

Is there a safe way to lay a fridge or freezer down?

If you want to fully understand this issue, or you need to transport a fridge or freezer but have no option but to lay it over, then I have an extra article you need to read. Note that even two people carrying a tall fridge or freezer between them will need to lay it over quite far. Please read this follow up article – Can you lay a fridge or freezer on its side or back when moving it?