The part nobody tells you
Why a refrigerator has to ride standing up
There is a sealed compressor bolted to the bottom of your refrigerator and it has oil sitting inside it. Tip the fridge onto its side or its back and that oil runs out of the compressor and up into the refrigerant lines, where it was never supposed to go. Stand the fridge back up and the oil has to drain down out of those lines before power touches it. Plug it in too early and the compressor tries to pump oil instead of refrigerant, and that is how a brand new fridge quits in its first week. So it rides upright in the van, strapped to the wall, wrapped in blankets, every single time. If a fridge did get laid down before we ever saw it, the rule of thumb is simple: stand it up and leave it unplugged for at least as long as it was lying flat. Laid down for four hours, let it stand four hours. Costs you nothing but patience.
Upright means tall, and tall means doors. Interior doors around here run about 30 to 32 inches. A front entry is usually 36. A counter-depth French door fridge can measure near 36 inches across the body before you even count the handles, so the math stops working fast, especially in an Old Northeast bungalow in St. Pete where the original 1920s doorways were never built for this. When the numbers do not work, the doors come off: handles first, then hinge caps, then the top hinge, lift the door free, repeat on the other side, then rehang and realign at the destination. Before any of that the fridge gets defrosted and drained, because the drip pan underneath will empty itself onto your floor at the first speed bump on Gulf-to-Bay, and the doors get taped shut so they do not swing open on the hand truck halfway down your steps.
- Upright the whole trip, no exceptions. Strapped to the van wall with ratchet straps, blanketed at every corner and on the finish.
- If it already traveled on its side before we got there, it stands unplugged for roughly as long as it was laid down. We give you the number at your door and you can set a timer.
- Defrosted and drained before it moves, including the drip pan under the unit. A full pan finds your hallway floor, not the drain.
- Doors come off when the opening is tighter than the box: handles, hinge caps, top hinge, door. Then back on and realigned where it lands.
- A refrigerator is about our honest solo ceiling, right around 300 pounds. Heavier than that, or a real flight of stairs, and Matthew brings one helper. Two people is the max, so tell us the weight and the stairs when you text.