May it be a busy day or a veritable senior moment, there will be instances where you’ll accidentally leave your refrigerator door open for an extended period of time. It happens to the best of us. After you stop cussing yourself for your carelessness, you may stop and think about the two questions in your head: (1) what will happen to the food stored inside and (2) what will be the long-term effect to your fridge?
The most straight forward answer to this is: the refrigerator’s compartments will get warmer when you leave it open for too long – that’s mostly it. However, the side effects of a warmer fridge will vary depending on other factors like the time elapsed, the setting in use, and the ambient temperature.
In this article, I am going to give you a few scenarios on what might happen to your refrigerator if you forgot to close the door for a long period of time. We will also discuss how a refrigerator operates to help us understand better.
- How a refrigerator works
- What will happen when the refrigerator door is left open?
- Will food spoil if the refrigerator door is left open?
- What to do when you forget to close your refrigerator door
- Conclusion
- How a refrigerator works
- What will happen when the refrigerator door is left open?
- Will food spoil if the refrigerator door is left open?
- What to do when you forget to close your refrigerator door
- Conclusion
May it be a busy day or a veritable senior moment, there will be instances where you’ll accidentally leave your refrigerator door open for an extended period of time. It happens to the best of us. After you stop cussing yourself for your carelessness, you may stop and think about the two questions in your head: (1) what will happen to the food stored inside and (2) what will be the long-term effect to your fridge?
The most straight forward answer to this is: the refrigerator’s compartments will get warmer when you leave it open for too long – that’s mostly it. However, the side effects of a warmer fridge will vary depending on other factors like the time elapsed, the setting in use, and the ambient temperature.
In this article, I am going to give you a few scenarios on what might happen to your refrigerator if you forgot to close the door for a long period of time. We will also discuss how a refrigerator operates to help us understand better.
How a refrigerator works
Refrigerators work by continuously evaporating and condensing a refrigerant gas to produce a cooling effect inside the compartment. They do this with help of a compressor that pumps the refrigerant gas to the refrigerator’s coils.
To maintain the temperature inside the fridge, the refrigerator’s thermostat tells the compressor to either stop or start when it gets too cold or too warm.
So, how does leaving the refrigerator door open affect this operation?
What will happen when the refrigerator door is left open?
While leaving the refrigerator door open for a long period of time is certainlty a less than ideal goof up, it’s not that big of a problem at all. However, you may experience some side effects that will be annoying to deal with. The outcome will not be uniform for everyone; it will depend on factors such as:
- How big is the opening of the door?
- How long was it left open?
- What was the ambient temperature during that time?
While the outcome may not be set in stone, these may be the scenarios that you will encounter when you forget to close your refrigerator’s door:
1. Your refrigerator will “sweat”
Condensation happens when hot air touches a cold surface. When the refrigerator door is left open, it will introduce hot air inside the cold fridge; this will eventually form into water droplets that will make your fridge look like it’s sweating.
A sweating refrigerator means that it is having trouble maintaining its temperature. You should wipe down this sweat as it can contribute to the thick frost in your freezer and can also cause frost to appear in your fridge compartment.
2. The evaporator coil may be frozen over
This is a by-product of the sweating. When the condensation touches the extremely cold evaporator coils, it will develop into the thick frost that – rather counterintuitively – will make it harder for the freezer to actually freeze stuff. This is because the frost on the freezer walls will absorb most of the coldness that the evaporator coils will produce.
It’s not a totally insurmountable problem though, as you will only have to do a quick defrost to get your refrigerator ready for action again.
3. Your refrigerator may overheat
Because the thermostat is continuously getting a “it’s still hot” signal, it will keep telling the compressor to keep working. This will make the compressor overheat, which can cause some adverse effects later on.
4. Expect a higher electricity bill
Since the compressor is working harder than it should be, you should expect a higher electricity bill afterwards. Bummer right?
Oh, and this problem is worse if your have a no frost model. As you may know, no frost refrigerators have a heating element tucked in their freezers that melt away frost from time to time.
When the frost starts to build up (see #2), the heating elements will have to turn on more frequently, which makes it consume more electricity.
Will food spoil if the refrigerator door is left open?
Your fridge temperature should be kept at 2–3°C to keep spoilage at bay. Also, if it rises above 4°C, the bacterium Listeria (which causes foodborne illnesses) will have more chances to develop.
Leaving your refrigerator door open will make your fridge struggle to maintain this temperature, and the likely outcome is that your food items will get warm. Are they still safe though?
According to the USDA, if the door is left open for less than 4 hours, the food is generally safe to eat. However, the answer for this isn’t as clear-cut as always; it will depend on the type of the food in the fridge.
Milk, eggs, and food that contain either of the two are the most likely to spoil. Vegetables and fruit may lower in quality but otherwise edible. Meat in the freezer are more complicated though. Rely on your instinct!
Warning: throw out any food that seems a little funky to you. Better safe than sorry!
What to do when you forget to close your refrigerator door
If you accidentally left your refrigerator door open, do this immediately to prevent long-term damage to your fridge.
- Unplug your refrigerator
- Remove and check food for viability
- Manually defrost your fridge – even for no frost models.
- Wipe away the condensation inside the fridge
- After defrosting, plug the refrigerator back in and run at max for 6 hours without anything inside
- Check the temperature and return the food inside if the temperature is satisfactory
After that, it will be as if nothing has happened to your refrigerator.
Conclusion
Forgetting to close the refrigerator door will cause a great deal of anxiety to anyone. Luckily, the repercussions are not serious. And if the time elapsed is limited, the damage to the refrigerator is limited as well. Take this as a learning experience!
Miguel Mores worked for 5 years as a member of the product management team for a home appliance company in the Philippines. He started 101appliance to answer the most common customer questions that he has encountered during his time in the industry. He now works in the digital marketing field and manages a small online bookstore on the side.
My mother left the refrigerator door open I don’t how long but I shut the refrigerator door now the food tastes like freezer burn tastes like freon smell
Should i wait 24 hours after defrosting before i plug iin and run max the ref? Please reply.
Yes. Please wait 24 hours before you plug it in.
The freezer door stay open for a couple of hours and de fridge is humming at the back. What should I do?
I apparently leave the fridge open slightly for almost 12Hrs the frdige is just less than five years of age. does the compressor will got fry? damage? what are the chances
If you have an old fridge like myself, and occasionally forget to close the door, it can be devastating to know that you’ve left it open for hours, especially if you happen to leave it open overnight. That’s where this awesome little device comes in. You simply stick it onto your door the way that it explains in the instructions, and then any time you open the fridge door you get a little beep. After a minute of it being left open, a siren will go off. It’s nice and loud, and the product sticks to the fridge well. Overall I am happy with the purchase. I do wish there were a few more options for the timer, as far as when the beeps go off and how long the siren sounds off, but other than that, it works great and is worth the money!
How about opening the fridge door and leaving the door open for about 30 to 40 seconds every time you use it (frequently… about 10-15 times per day?)
This has gone on for many months, maybe years. The fridge and freezer have gotten warmer. It still cools but not very effectively.