What is in this guide 8 sections

Start 24 hours out: empty, defrost, dry

A fridge that gets unplugged on moving morning is a fridge that drips through your hallway, into the truck, and onto everything packed near it. Give it a full day.

1. Run the fridge down. Stop restocking about a week out and eat what is in there. Anything left over goes to a neighbour or an esky.
2. Switch it off at the wall 24 hours before. Prop both doors open so air can move through.
3. Catch the meltwater. Towels along the base and a shallow tray under the front. Freezers hold more ice than people expect.
4. Clean and dry it properly. Warm water with a little bicarb, then dry every surface. A sealed damp fridge grows mould and smells within a day.
5. Leave the doors ajar overnight so it finishes drying out.

If you are moving in a Sydney summer, bring the defrost forward rather than back. Ice melts faster, and a warm damp cabinet turns sour quickly.

Shelves, drawers and doors

Glass shelves crack in transit far more often than fridges break down. They are the fragile part, and they are usually the part nobody thinks about.

• Take out every glass shelf and crisper and wrap them like plates, on edge, in a box with paper between each one.
• Plastic shelves and door bins can stay if they clip firmly. If they rattle when you shake the door, take them out.
• Tape the doors shut with a moving strap or a low-tack painter’s tape. Avoid gaffer or duct tape on stainless steel, it leaves adhesive behind and a hot truck bakes it on.
• Coil the power lead and tape it to the back so it cannot catch on a doorframe or a trolley wheel.

If you would rather not deal with any of it, wrapping and boxing the fragile parts is exactly what a packing service is for.

Plumbed fridges and the water line

Fridges with an ice maker or a water dispenser are plumbed into the kitchen supply, and this is the step that causes actual damage to the house you are leaving.

1. Turn off the isolation tap behind or under the fridge, or at the sink.
2. Disconnect the line and drain it into a bucket. There is more water sitting in it than you would think.
3. Empty the ice bin and the internal reservoir. Some models hold water in the tank for days.
4. Tape the fitting so it does not drip in the truck.

Getting it out of the house

A family fridge is commonly 90 to 140kg. That is not a two-people-and-good-intentions job, particularly in the Inner West, where terrace hallways narrow at the front door and there is often a flight of sandstone steps between you and the street.

Measure before you lift

Measure the fridge with the doors on, then measure every doorway, hall turn and stair width on the route out. Compare the smallest of those to the fridge’s depth, not its width. If the gap is under about 25mm of clearance, the doors come off.

Removing fridge doors is model-specific and on plumbed units it can involve the water line, so check the manual first. If that reads like more than you want to take on, it is standard work for a removalist.

The lift itself

• Use an appliance trolley, the upright kind with a ratchet strap, not a flat furniture dolly.
• Strap it on at two heights so the top cannot pivot away from the frame.
• Two people minimum on stairs, one taking the weight from below, one steering. Never let the person below be the one walking backwards blind.
• Protect the floor. A loaded trolley wheel will mark polished boards and gouge vinyl.

Upright or on its side?

Upright. Always, if there is any way to manage it.

Inside the sealed system there is oil that lubricates the compressor. Tip the fridge over and that oil runs out of the compressor and into the refrigerant lines. Switch it on before the oil has drained back and the compressor runs dry, which is how a working fridge becomes a warm cupboard.

If the fridge genuinely will not fit upright in the vehicle:

• Keep the tilt under 45 degrees wherever you can. A lean is far better than flat.
• Lay it on its side, never on its back or front. On its back puts the full weight of the cabinet on the cooling lines.
• Note how long it was down. You need that number later, and nobody ever remembers it.
• Pad underneath it so the panel does not dent against the truck floor.

Securing it in the truck

A fridge that shifts in transit will dent itself, dent everything around it, and take a door skin with it.

• Load it upright against a side wall, near the front of the load where movement is least.
• Blanket it, then strap it. Blanket alone is padding, not restraint.
• Never stack anything heavy on top, even blanket-wrapped. The top panel is not structural.
• Do not let it travel next to anything with sharp corners. Stainless marks permanently.

Our own trucks were built with this in mind. They use a pull-out ramp rather than a hydraulic lift, so a heavy appliance goes up in one controlled push instead of waiting on a platform, and the floors are timber rather than metal, so trolley wheels and appliance feet do not catch and skid.

How long to wait before switching it on

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that actually breaks fridges.

Once the fridge is standing in its new spot, leave it unplugged. The oil that moved while it was tilted needs to drain back into the compressor before it runs.

• Travelled upright: two to four hours is plenty.
• Travelled tilted or on its side: at least as long as it spent that way. Most manufacturers give a minimum of around four hours, and some specify up to 24.
• Not sure how long it was down? Leave it overnight. Waiting costs nothing. A replacement compressor does not.

Check your model’s manual, because the figures genuinely differ between manufacturers. When it does go on, give it a few hours to come down to temperature before you load it up.

Doing it yourself, or not

Plenty of fridges get moved by two people and a borrowed ute, and most of them are fine. It is worth being honest about when that stops being sensible.

Reasonable to do yourself

• A bar fridge or small single-door unit.
• Ground floor to ground floor, no steps, wide doorways.
• You have an actual appliance trolley, not a flat dolly.
• You have a vehicle it fits in upright.

Worth having done

• Anything French door or side-by-side. They are wide, heavy and awkward to balance.
• Stairs of any kind, especially the narrow turn in a terrace.
• A plumbed fridge you would rather not disconnect.
• An apartment with a service lift and a booking window.
• The fridge is newer than the vehicle you were planning to move it in.

If the fridge is going into storage rather than straight into a new kitchen, it needs to go in upright, dry, and with the doors propped open, or it will smell when it comes out. Say that to the storage facility when you drop it off, because a fridge stored sealed and damp is a fridge you will not want back.

For what it is worth, a fridge on its own is rarely worth a call-out. It usually makes sense as part of a residential move, or added to an existing job as a speciality item. You can see how we price things on our moving prices page.

Common questions