Occasional use fridge. Leave plugged in?

[Hutch]

Title says it all.  I have been outfitting a cargo trailer as an occasional use expedition trailer cum chuckwagon.  I inherited a 3-4 cu. ft. compressor fridge/freezer (dorm size, about 18"x18" by 4.5' tall.  It will be used  in the trailer, and it would be most convenient to store it in the trailer, which will experience higher than ambient summer temps, and cold (for AL) winter temps when not in use, which will be 90+% of the time.

Can I just plug it up a day before I need it and be good to go?  I recall what may be tribal knowledge (meaning, old wives' tales) that this would be death to the fridge in short order.  What is the wisdom of our people? 

[lupinus]

Make sure it's stored upright, or it's allowed to stand upright for a day before plugging in. Other than keeping  that in mind I'd say you're fine to proceed as planned.

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[Triphammer]

Leave the door open so you don't grow a stink monster.

[Hutch]

So, upright (check), doors open (check), good to go w/o being constantly powered on. Winning!

[230RN]

Leave the door open so you don't grow a stink monster.

Experience:  True, that. True, true.

[Firethorn]

Might seem stupid, but make sure you empty it out and thoroughly clean it first.

And very much prop it open!

[230RN]

Might seem stupid, but make sure you empty it out and thoroughly clean it first.

And very much prop it open!

Clean it, yes, but "thoroughly" is almost impossible. Food vapors floating around during normal use deposit themselves here and there, on coils, behind the freezer compartment, on the grillwork, on the little light bulb in there etc, etc.

It's sort of like trying to "thoroughly" clean a microwave oven:  "Yeah? In all the places hot air loaded with organic vapors gets moved around in them and then they condense onto everything?"

I almost always leave my µwave oven open to let it air out for this reason.

Amusingly, I had a sort of µwave oven door "duel" going on with someone at the office lunchroom.  They'd close it, I'd come by and open it, then they'd come by and close it again, like it was somehow unseemly and improper and bad housekeeping and sheer sloppy carelessness to leave it open.

What was especially bad was we had a "foreign national" on that floor who would heat up her fermented yak guts lunch and then close the door so the next person who tried to use it would have their lunch ruined by the residual stench.

That part of it wasn't very amusing at all.  So I retired.

Terry, 230RN

[K Frame]

 

Clean it thoroughly as in, get all standing water/moisture out of it, otherwise mold will grow.

Clean it thoroughly as in, make sure there's no food detritus in it that would fester or attract critters.

Clean it thoroughly as in, you don't have to be able to do surgery on it, but you don't want a disgusting mess when you next expect to store what you're going to eat in it.

It's not rocket science.

[Hutch]

Good coaching on the cleanliness.  Soft-Scrub with bleach after the last trip, including a toothbrush in the nooks and crannies.

Drifting my own thread, I've been camping, but never been much of a camper, if that makes sense.  That looks like it's going to change, as our adult kids are interested in it, and the parents of our twin grandsons are also interested in getting them out camping.  For the eclipse-viewing expedition, the whole clan camped on a pair of adjoining sites in a small county park.  It was a hoot.

I'm temperamentally unsuited to minimalist anything, so I reconfigured my utility/cargo trailer so that the Director and I could sleep off the ground, while we had 3 large to very large tents pitched, along with 2 EZ-Up canopies.  A few days before we left, I decided to swipe the portable A/C out of the garage and route the heat exhaust hose out thru the floor.  That worked very well indeed.  Bought a Camp Chef 3x30kBTU stove, which also got a detail "strip and clean" after the trip.  A great time was had by all, and I can imagine this being a 4-6 times a year happening.

My Ford Expedition had the fuel mileage cut in half, to about 9.5 mpg, towing the 14x7 v-nose trailer.  I thought it might give up 3-4 mpg, but didn't expect that.  Heretofore, I have pulled a trailer w/a diesel F250 w/ manual transmission.  Mileage fell, but not THAT much.

[K Frame]

Here you go. This *expletive deleted*it will thoroughly clean your fridge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4l56AfUTnQ