Why Can't You Lay Refrigerator Down??

Go online and check the owners manual. The better appliance manufacturers have detailed moving instructions. Some will advise you to transport on the left side, some right side. It all depends on how it's built.

If it's a cheap piece of Chinese crap with no info available, just stand it back up for 24 hours before you plug it in. If it pukes you're not out much anyway.

Reply to
Ed
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I've been watching this thread and I always recommend to anyone who must lay a residential refrigerator on its side to determine where the compressor is and make sure it is at the lowest point when you lay the fridge on its side. To be safe you can let it sit upright for

24 hours but I've never seen one damaged from being run after being laid on its side or run just right after being set upright. The oil will be blown back to the compressor anyway and the thermal overload on the compressor will click on and off until things stabilize. I think many of them have rotary compressors now and those darn things are hard to damage. I even saw a solid state dorm sized fridge one day a a retailer and it didn't have a compressor. You can run one of those upside down if you wished to, you may have a problem with condensate draining but college students don't care about things like that. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

You're right. That makes it all the worse.

Reply to
micky

I doubt very much this fridge is solid state or it would not have this warning on the box. And the OP would likely have told us.

Reply to
micky

You did notice "dorm sized" when I wrote about the solid state fridge? You pick those up and set them in your shopping cart then slide it into the back of your minivan. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Is it a GE?

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Reply to
Fred

That's funny, when they delivered my new side by side refrigerator, I looked in the semi box and ALL the refrigerators they had in the truck were on their side. I asked the guy about it and he said, that's they way they get them from the factory.

R
Reply to
Roanin

They seem to be concerned about interior shelves moving around as well as possible damage due to compressor oil sloshing around.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Isn't the OP"s fridge also dorm sized? Yes. At any rate, I didn't want to lose track of the OP's situation.

Reply to
micky

VEry interesting. So with GE, there is a difference with monogram, bottom-mount, compact, versus all the other models. And new compact are okay and even used if you take care of drain water!!

So that leaves Monogram and bottom mount which are somehow different from all the rest. And they must really be or they wouldn't go to the trouble of saying so.

Reply to
micky

Surely a friend has a pickup or SUV.

Reply to
Steve Barker

Using a wrench remove the bolts from the bottom of the compressor , because most of the connections are copper they are bendable. Very slowly turn the compressor to the back of the fridge thus causing the fluid to go to the b ottom of the canister. Then laying the refrigerator on it's back will not d amage anything! When you get home bend the compressor back to where it orig inally was and reinsert bots or leave it as it is and use it like a deep fr eeze cooler it will now sit on it's back and you may fill It with a lot more beverages than you would have been able to before!! " no te that you will have to buy some sort of pan if you leave ion it's back be cause the the compressor will condensate and drip water ' difference is tha t a refrigerator already has the drop pan

Reply to
bboytrue

se most of the connections are copper they are bendable. Very slowly turn t he compressor to the back of the fridge thus causing the fluid to go to the bottom of the canister. Then laying the refrigerator on it's back will not damage anything! When you get home bend the compressor back to where it or iginally was and reinsert bots or leave it as it is and use it like a deep freeze cooler it will now sit on it's back and you may fill

note that you will have to buy some sort of pan if you leave ion it's back because the the compressor will condensate and drip water ' difference is t hat a refrigerator already has the drop pan

I was interested in making a refrigerator into a "deep freeze" cooler. Wou ld you recommend doing this for permanent use? It would be outside, so the drip pan would not be a problem. I was trying to attach a picture. It is nice with wood covering and lift doors.

Reply to
momhultman

Reply to
aprilshowers2a2

I'm currently on third mini freezer so this post probably applies to small refrigerator as well as of late 2015. My first freezer was a GE, the second an Igloo, and the most recent an Avanti. It seems these China made boxes won't work if they are even transported at an angle. I have gone through three now that, despite the seemingly high odds against failure have all failed nonetheless. All three sound perfectly normal just no cold.

So why did I think the third time would be the charm? Stupid mistake! I should have researched it all first. So now it seems I won't be able to install a freezer in the basement at all because the entrances are just too small and the freezer would have to be tilted anyway to get it down there.

The local repair people won't touch these boxes; they consider these things to be disposable I guess.

Avanti CS will ship you a brand new freezer if you send them the receipt and the snipped off power cord. Trouble is, they consider this to be warranty coverage. So what happens to the defective freezer? You'll have to dispose of it yourself.

Reply to
Offred

I believe you can lay a refrigerator on its side if you then allow it to sit upright for several hours, maybe a day, afterwards, before plugging it in. Did you do that?

If yours still didnt' work, maybe there is something different about it from the rest.

Reply to
Micky

Because the compressor lubricating oil gets into the piston cylinder.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

is that why you must wait a day, or why you cannot turn it on its side period?

Reply to
taxed and spent

What I've heard, if the oil gets into the piston, the valve break when the compressor is turned on.

Ideally, waiting a day allows the oil to drain back to the base of the compressor. Where it belogns.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Also, laying down an abandoned refrigerator might make it harder for a trapped child to get out of - due to weight of the door. No one here thought of that. ;)

Reply to
thekmanrocks

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