Do modern fridge freezers still need to stand before plugging in?

oniongirl

We have made a terrible mistake. In our excitement to get a new fridge freezer with money our friends and family kindly gifted us for our wedding, we ordered one for delivery on Monday, with collection of our old one at the same time.

Except...our freezer is full. And it's going to be a scorcher.

I've downloaded the user manual for our model, and it doesn't mention anywhere leaving it to stand before turning it on, just that it should be left for 1 to 2 hours to reach the set temperatures.

I reckon with a bath of ice (if there's any ice left to buy on a scorching hot bank holiday Monday) and a duvet over the top, the food could survive one or two hours. It could not survive, I would guess, much more than that.

Does anyone have any hard facts on whether the new appliance will need to "settle" before use?

Thanks!

silvercar

General advice is to leave to stand for a few hours, if it has been turned on it’s side then 24 hours would be advisable.

Browntoa

Had one delivered by ao.com this week , was delivered upright in the van , the instructions said plug in straight away and run for 6 hours before loading it with food

Aylesbury_Duck

If you prepare properly you'll be fine if you have to leave it for hours.

Go and get some cardboard boxes today. Line them with duvets, pillows, jumpers, whatever. When the time comes, pack the frozen food as tightly as you can (Tetris style), cover it and close the boxes. Store them in the coolest room in the house. They'll last ages.

To be really safe, make sure you eat (today) anything particularly small or anything that might not be worth risking, e.g. fish.

cranford

I have the same problem but rather than pay £20 for the retailer to take the old one away I am getting the local council to do it a few days later. Although it will cost an extra £10 I think it is worth it to make sure the frozen food is ok. AO may not be too pleased if the old one is full of ice!

chrisw

Do you have any friends, family or neighbours with any space in their freezers for a few hours?

splishsplash

The usual advice is to leave the fridge freezer standing for as long as it was on its side to a max of 24 hours.

If it wasn't on its side you can plug it in straight away.

Could you ask friends or family to make some room in their freezers to help you out?

MovingForwards

What is the make / model of your new one?

I received purchased an upright freezer and had to leave it running for several hours before being able to fill it.

ashe

Cancel the collection, sell or give away the old freezer. We sold ours for £120, if it was urgent to get rid we would have had people snapping our hands off to collect it. Even if it’s broke ppl will take it to repair and sell on

neilmcl

Well if they're collecting your old one then this needs to be fully defrosted beforehand so you're going to have to remove the contents of the freezer today anyway no matter what you do. You'll then have to leave the new one for a few hours before switching it on, and then wait a number of hours before it's reached it's temperature before filling the freezer with food so you're probably looking at tomorrow evening at best before you can use it.

Aylesbury_Duck

neilmcl wrote: »

Well if they're collecting your old one then this needs to be fully defrosted beforehand so you're going to have to remove the contents of the freezer today anyway no matter what you do.

Indeed. They won't collect a freezer that'll defrost in the back of their van.