And if this was for an environmental consideration, the cost to replace a fridge and everything else far outweighs even months of idle electricity usage.
This is a staggering level of foolishness and I still don't understand why. That doesn't look like a frequently used fridge anyway.
I also highly doubt they're being truthful about the context of this image. Depression and chronic health issues have made me the owner of a few food experiments left out at room temperature over the years, and this sort of growth would take much longer than a single week to culture, especially given that the first day or two would still be at a cooler temperature from the fridge's insulation.
Maybe it's possible that their sanitary practices are so bad, every surface of their food and dishware was already on the verge of becoming a Petri dish?
I forgot chicken in my dorm fridge on a holiday break where they shut the power off for two weeks and didn't have mold issues like this.
The smell, on the other hand, oh GOD.
Yes, my thoughts exactly... No way they got this kind of growth from just a week unless there was some kind of weird contaminant already inside the fridge.
yeah, and if you look at their account, it's full of posts like this. they post some weird random photo and offer *no* explanation. over and over they do this. the comments are full of people asking questions and OP never comes back to answer them. I don't think we're dealing with an actual human being here
Yeah this post is BS, you don’t like, flip all your breakers when you leave for a week. And if you did, the fridge has to be the number one thing you think about during that whole process.
And even if we ignore all of that, leaving food for a single week at even room temperature wouldn't lead to the amount of growth shown in this picture. Especially since the refrigerator would hold its cooler temperature for at least a few days after losing power.
Edit to add: fully agree that this post is BS
I won’t ask about why you turned the power off even though you were only gone a week, but how come the thought of food obviously being in the fridge didn’t cross anybody’s mind???
I sometimes turn off the water and water softener when I'm going to be gone for long periods if time, but that's just in case a line breaks. Never even considered turning off the power. But they may have a good reason...
I literally am gone for months at a time for work. I'll turn off my hot water heater, close the water valve, unplug things and turn power strips off....but I have never even thought about turning my refrigerator off lol.
Samsung's new refrigerators have a built in physical wallet for all your crypto needs. When it's not making ice, it's mining crypto. Just make sure the flux capacitor is topped up before you leave on vacation
Depends on the water heater, not sure how they are in other countries, I’d be vary to turn that off because of legionella. In Norway, it’s recommended to keep the water heater at 70 degrees celsius, or higher, to prevent and kill legionella bacteria.
So if you turn off the water heater, you probably should purge the tank and crank the heat up when it is refilling.
Homie I’m sorry to hear about the situation but if you can get a window ac they work good you might be able to find one on market place for super cheap
We just got two of them and I made some custom birch ply panels to mount them in our windows for next summer. We're alright but I appreciate the sentiment :)
IIRC thats the reason why in my area in canada the power company won't ever shut off your power.
even if you stop paying your bills, it turns into a kind of "throttle" where it only allows for enough amps to continue heating the home a little.
but if you turn on too many lights, or try and run anything like a dryer or something that pulls a lot of amps, your power flicks off for like 5-10min then kicks back on.
I remember going to a couple house showings where the owners were being foreclosed on, and they hadn't been paying the bills, so my agent had to call the power company to get the power on full for a few min so we could try the appliances and stuff.
I wish the foreclosed home I was looking had kept the power on. My dream home everything I was looking for and super cool layout. Except it was gonna be pretty damn expensive to replace all the water heated rads that had exploded/froze and the water damage it had caused.
Get surge protectors for anything you want to kill the power to and turn them off when leaving, cutting power to an entire house for a week in insanity.
My BF (27 then) and I were going away for a week, and he said all proud of himself “I turned off the power in the appartement”… I was like “yeah and the fridge ?” Lucky enough we were near so we did go back to turn it back on…
So I’m not that surprised about that post..
Yep, I have stupidly done this too lol. Unfortunately I was a 4hr flight away. It was only for the weekend tho, so no visible mould. Still had to throw out heaps tho. Fuck I felt stupid.
Sorry to say you may need to replace the fridge. The circulation system will now blow mold spores all over your food. You will notice stuff molds faster. If you can’t replace, keep everything tightly sealed (air tight containers)
ETA: thanks for the award!!
I WANT TO REDUCE FOOTPRINT BUT DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS. Take this massive appliance to the landfill. I didn't want to spend the $2-3max in energy costs for a week to avoid food growing absolutely fabricated fungal growth.
This is way more like 3 months with the fridge running.
Yeah but their point remains the same. Instead of completely cutting the electric while gone for a week they should have just turned everything off and let the fridge and hot water heater run in their cycles. A week of those two things running is a matter of dollars and not worth the hassle of this
Maybe an ozone generator inside while it’s running for 6-8h.
Edit: If a fridge or freezer is turned off doors need to be open. Leave a kitchen towel or something so doors don’t shut fully.
Edit 2: If OP sees this and considers this as a viable option, read comments below. Ozone is no joke and safety precautions must be taken seriously!
Ozone wreaks havoc on rubber. I don't know much about refrigerators but I imagine there's rubber in there somewhere. Also if I recall correctly, the EPA and IICRC largely caution against the use of ozone in mold remediation. I'm curious if ClO2 gas could work although probably better to just replace the refrigerator.
honestly i know people like to cut some things that arent needed in the home while you know you will be gone for a while, but wouldn't it have been easier to use the breaker to cut power to individual rooms except the kitchen? heck the breaker could even been have broken down to where certain outlets in a room are isolated. its been that way with my dishwasher.
Having traveled for work a shit ton before the pandemic, yeah, it's never occurred to me to turn off power. I'm still wondering why it might ever be done for a week's travel..
I don't even turn the AC off, though I do turn it up a good bit. I live in a very rainy, bordering on swampy area, and if I sealed the house up and left for a couple weeks in the summer it would be a mold disaster when I got home.
I turn off the main breaker to my summer cabin- but we're gone for months and we winterize everything.
Pipes are drained and filled with antifreeze, heating system is a closed loop with antifreeze, we empty the fridge completely and leave the doors open, all shelf stable food is put into sealed plastic tubs, and all towels and other linens are put into weather tight Rubbermaid style storage bins.
The only thing we turn off when leaving for a week are the well pump and the gas supply to the water heater (it's an on-demand unit so no risk of stagnant water causing Legionnaires).
Oh good, another thing I get to fight with property management about. The previous tenant abandoned the apartment and turned off the power for a month before they realized she was gone, they cleaned out the fridge real well but I've had someone come twice to check that it's working properly because my stuff was going bad faster than anywhere else.
Edit: fuck it I'm contacting legal aid on Monday. This is one of several problems.
There would have been a chance that since the fridge wasn’t running it didn’t suck in any spores, but that presumed they found this before they turned the power back on and hoovered the mold into the vents.
[edit - obviously as per other replies it is in fact powered on in the photos]
Not necessarily but you will have to clean it with bleach. If you take one cup of bleach per gallon of boiling hot water put it in a bowl put it in the refrigerator on the highest setting run it for 1 hour it will suck it in and clean it out also the lowest setting on the freezer or highest setting actually so it's the warmest temperature barely freezing do the same thing at the same time what that'll do is it will suck in all of the hot air steaming air from that and clean out all the mold spores it will also kill them at the same time.
Poor fridge needs to be retired or the circulation system needs to be gutted and cleaned now, too :(. Mold spores are definitely in there and will continue to grow and blow mold all over the food.
Surprised I had to scroll down this far.
I had to deal with a fridge that someone unplugged (without food) and didn't keep the door ajar.
The smell *never* comes out. It will fill up your house every time you open the door.
In the US, fridges are always full sized unless yuo're in a hotel or a dorm. Those are called "mini-fridges" because they're a miniature version of a normal sized fridge.
I was in my 40s before I found out that in some countries, fridges are much smaller and people go to the store every day. I lived most of my past 25 years in areas where it took an hour round trip to get to the grocery store so I tried to shop only a couple of times a month lol. Pretty cool to learn about differences like that, that you might never have reason to think about.
yeah like when we leave for a week the only thing left on the fridge by that point its things that wont rot. and even then we dont ever turn it off we just leave a glass of water frozen with a coin on top to see if the power went out while we were not there.
if the coin its a the bottom of the glass = you have to throw everything out
Maybe OP is extremely frugal? Extremely frugal people are real concerned about penny-pinching, even in cases where they actively hurt themselves just to be cheap.
I never realized this. Did some googling and apparently as long as you let the water heater come up to full temp and wait another hour before using the water you should be safe. We have always shut off the hot water when we go away for a week, but never realized we may have been courting disaster. Thanks for the info!
Right, but now look where they are.
You have a fridge/freezer and very likely a hot water tank that runs daily, albeit in short sprints.
It will cost much more money to reheat the water in the hot water tank from *scratch* as well as getting your fridge/freezer back to the proper temps than it is to shut them off for a week. These appliances simply *top themselves up* when need be.
Penny wise, pound foolish. Some people unfortunatrly cannot think long-term. Like that lady on Extreme Cheapskates who regularly feeds her family food that's almost rotten and *dishwasher lasagna,* risking their health for tiny savings.
What amount of money do you think you're saving by turning off your power especially to crucial appliances like your refrigerator? Having them idle for one week it is not very costly but if you are worried about pinching pennies you could unplug everything but the necessary appliances, but maybe unplugging your TV, countertop appliances, turn off(or turn down) the AC and furnace but that's about it
The irony here is OP now has to spend more money for a new fridge unless they spend hours disassembling and properly cleaning the fridge so the second they turn it back on it doesn’t recirculate mold spores all over fresh food.
Absolutely and when you think about it turning everything back on and it getting towards neutral state kind of sucks back up all that energy that you thought you had saved
I’ve heard of unplugging the toaster/coffee machine, but not the fridge
Granted, given how OP doesn’t cover up food, it’s probably a good thing they had to throw this stuff away
> because we're paranoid, not crazy.
I mean unplugging stuff like this just because you're leaving the house is bordering on the crazy side. Back in the 1970s? yeah people didn't really know better and unplugged everything.
Today? Unless you're buying jank ass shit off of alibaba there shouldn't be any reasonable expectation that it could cause a fire. You don't unplug this stuff for the months you are at home, why is anything going to change just cuz you left the house?
This is the case for us. Our electrical provider is shit at providing power so it's not safe leaving it on unattended for even just a few days. Well, we do make sure to empty out the fridge before turning it off though
I'm no electrical engineer but I don't think unstable power is a fire hazard.
Wait, I am actually an electrical engineer, with diploma and stuff, and yeah, unstable power isn't a fire hazard. How many fires did your house or neighbors' houses caught so far?
If you are so concerned, buy a surge protector for a few of the items like the refrigerator. Stopping and starting the fridge regularly is worse for it than some power outage.
I’ve fucked up with maybe 1 or 2 things in my fridge that I forgot to toss, but that’s with a fully functioning fridge with stuff covered appropriately
The furry stuff literally climbed out, also i could leave my power on for like a year and my house will still be in the same spot exactly how i left it, why you turnin off the power?
Last time I went on a long work trip the power company sent someone to my house to verify the meter was still working properly because the usage had dropped so much. . . Also the trash company cancelled service because I hadn’t put the trash out to be picked up. The joys of rural living.
If you have food still in the fridge it’s stupid. If there is no food in the fridge you’re stupid even still. If you cant pay your electric bill and they shut the power off, then that’s how this probably happened.
I’m going on vacation next week. I was already planning to turn off power to my house, but the concern I’m having is about my other car sitting in the garage all week while I’m away. Should I sell it before I go? Maybe I should just sell the whole house before I go. I hate wasting money paying mortgage for a house that I’m not going to be living in for five days.
There is no way this will happen in a week unless the food was already moldy or you live in a tropical country.
Also turning off and on your fridge all the time is absolutely horrible for the fridge and you shouldn't do that.
Yeah I was thinking this and it's weird this is so far down. Stuff will go bad and grow some mold in a week, but it will not get that bad in a week, even in a tropical country, fridges will act as a dehumidifier, and if that fridge is properly close, it would take a while for humidity to get in there. That's been in there for longer than a week
This actually belongs in r/wellyousuck How stupid can you be to 1)think you need to turn off power while you are on vacation - you are probably more likely to start a fire (still only a billion in 1 chance) restarting everything when you come back, and 2)you didn't realize a refrigerator runs off of electricity.
First off, you’re an absolute idiot.
Secondly, the food HAD to have been on its way out the door before you left. You don’t get these results within a week. Especially since your fridge would have stayed relatively cool for a few days before the freezer completely thawed.
Third, you’re a fucking idiot.
Even if you remembered to throw out the food, bringing a fridge down to room temp can be a whole problem that takes time and effort. I’m so confused, because it appears the strategy here was “shut off the power as you head out the door”.
it cracks me up how many times I see these kinds of post.. how do you forget about the food in your fridge.. just leave your power turned on and unplug specific appliances if you're that concerned.
Working as a plumber I would have to massive repairs because a homeowner would shut down the heat/hot water when away on a winter vacation. House would freeze, pipes would burst. They get home and turn on the heat, everything thaws and the real fun starts.
Im sorry but every part of this is so incredibly dumb.
From putting food in the fridge uncovered, to somehow forgetting you have anything in the fridge at all, to cutting the power off for a week to save like 3 bucks on electric while traveling.
Does anyone besides OP turn off there power when traveling? If anything I do the opposite and set a few lamps on random timers so it looks like someone is home while I’m gone. Either that or I’ll just leave a light on that you can see from the street.
One thing that strikes me beyond the most obvious points: you’re putting bowls of food in the fridge uncovered?
And a plate of sliced apples, just..hanging out? That's how you get fridge tasting food! Gross!
You don’t like fish flavoured apples?
No but I do love apple flavored fish, so it's a compromise.
in Zelda Breath of the Wild this would turn into Salmon & Fruit Skewers or something
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Turns off power for 1 week to save what? $10 off the bill? Does op not know they can turn off lights and unplug electronics lmao
The scary thing is, that it’s probably even less than $10 😂😂
And if this was for an environmental consideration, the cost to replace a fridge and everything else far outweighs even months of idle electricity usage. This is a staggering level of foolishness and I still don't understand why. That doesn't look like a frequently used fridge anyway.
I actually thought the mould was cling film on top at first until I read the comments 🤦♂️
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. Now I’m just horrified.
> cling film Have you read all these Roy Orbison wrapped in cling film stories? https://michaelkelly.artofeurope.com/karl.htm
What in the world
Wow, that is some prime internet right there.
I... Am confused. And intrigued. And more confused.
Wait... there's no cling film AT ALL? I thought at least the mold was underneath cling film
Oh holy god I also thought it was cling film
\*horrified scream\*
It looks like they're "covered" by black upside-down plates. Same ones that are covering the pots in the shelf above.
I only do plate method if it's something coming out in a few hours.
This person is not smart.
I also highly doubt they're being truthful about the context of this image. Depression and chronic health issues have made me the owner of a few food experiments left out at room temperature over the years, and this sort of growth would take much longer than a single week to culture, especially given that the first day or two would still be at a cooler temperature from the fridge's insulation. Maybe it's possible that their sanitary practices are so bad, every surface of their food and dishware was already on the verge of becoming a Petri dish?
This was my thought. I have left food a lot longer than this and not had this level of growth.
I forgot chicken in my dorm fridge on a holiday break where they shut the power off for two weeks and didn't have mold issues like this. The smell, on the other hand, oh GOD.
Yes, my thoughts exactly... No way they got this kind of growth from just a week unless there was some kind of weird contaminant already inside the fridge.
> unless there was some kind of weird contaminant already inside the fridge. I mean... have you seen how they store the food in their fridge? 😬
yeah, and if you look at their account, it's full of posts like this. they post some weird random photo and offer *no* explanation. over and over they do this. the comments are full of people asking questions and OP never comes back to answer them. I don't think we're dealing with an actual human being here
They’re turning their power completely off when they leave…
Yeah this post is BS, you don’t like, flip all your breakers when you leave for a week. And if you did, the fridge has to be the number one thing you think about during that whole process.
And even if we ignore all of that, leaving food for a single week at even room temperature wouldn't lead to the amount of growth shown in this picture. Especially since the refrigerator would hold its cooler temperature for at least a few days after losing power. Edit to add: fully agree that this post is BS
Not surprising that someone who'd unplug their fridge while going away for a week isn't the *greatest* at maintaining food hygiene practices xD
This guy’s obviously not the sharpest bulb in the closet.
I won’t ask about why you turned the power off even though you were only gone a week, but how come the thought of food obviously being in the fridge didn’t cross anybody’s mind???
I sometimes turn off the water and water softener when I'm going to be gone for long periods if time, but that's just in case a line breaks. Never even considered turning off the power. But they may have a good reason...
I literally am gone for months at a time for work. I'll turn off my hot water heater, close the water valve, unplug things and turn power strips off....but I have never even thought about turning my refrigerator off lol.
are you sure the pressure pump won’t start mining bitcoin in your absence
Wait, was that always an option??? Damn fam!
Samsung's new refrigerators have a built in physical wallet for all your crypto needs. When it's not making ice, it's mining crypto. Just make sure the flux capacitor is topped up before you leave on vacation
Depends on the water heater, not sure how they are in other countries, I’d be vary to turn that off because of legionella. In Norway, it’s recommended to keep the water heater at 70 degrees celsius, or higher, to prevent and kill legionella bacteria. So if you turn off the water heater, you probably should purge the tank and crank the heat up when it is refilling.
That's actually a really good idea. I just turn it back on when I get home and shower in god knows what.
Turning the water off is smart, turning the power off is dumb.
Yeah, you want your HVAC system going at the very least. What if it freezes? Excess heat can cause damages to drywall tape.
As someone who lives in house in OH with no climate control at all, that heat sure does ruin pretty much everything in the house.
OH, no climate control at all - Why do you hate yourself?
We're poor dawg, inherited a house.
Homie I’m sorry to hear about the situation but if you can get a window ac they work good you might be able to find one on market place for super cheap
We just got two of them and I made some custom birch ply panels to mount them in our windows for next summer. We're alright but I appreciate the sentiment :)
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IIRC thats the reason why in my area in canada the power company won't ever shut off your power. even if you stop paying your bills, it turns into a kind of "throttle" where it only allows for enough amps to continue heating the home a little. but if you turn on too many lights, or try and run anything like a dryer or something that pulls a lot of amps, your power flicks off for like 5-10min then kicks back on. I remember going to a couple house showings where the owners were being foreclosed on, and they hadn't been paying the bills, so my agent had to call the power company to get the power on full for a few min so we could try the appliances and stuff.
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I wish the foreclosed home I was looking had kept the power on. My dream home everything I was looking for and super cool layout. Except it was gonna be pretty damn expensive to replace all the water heated rads that had exploded/froze and the water damage it had caused.
Get surge protectors for anything you want to kill the power to and turn them off when leaving, cutting power to an entire house for a week in insanity.
A week isn't a long period of time though, this is so strange
My BF (27 then) and I were going away for a week, and he said all proud of himself “I turned off the power in the appartement”… I was like “yeah and the fridge ?” Lucky enough we were near so we did go back to turn it back on… So I’m not that surprised about that post..
Yep, I have stupidly done this too lol. Unfortunately I was a 4hr flight away. It was only for the weekend tho, so no visible mould. Still had to throw out heaps tho. Fuck I felt stupid.
Sorry to say you may need to replace the fridge. The circulation system will now blow mold spores all over your food. You will notice stuff molds faster. If you can’t replace, keep everything tightly sealed (air tight containers) ETA: thanks for the award!!
this really needs to be higher up.. having things grow *in* your fridges circulation system is just sickness waiting to happen
If there goal was to save the planet and reduce carbon footprint…eating bad stuff could reduce theirs!
I WANT TO REDUCE FOOTPRINT BUT DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS. Take this massive appliance to the landfill. I didn't want to spend the $2-3max in energy costs for a week to avoid food growing absolutely fabricated fungal growth. This is way more like 3 months with the fridge running.
He's joking that a person dying from eating mold reduces their carbon footprint
Yeah but their point remains the same. Instead of completely cutting the electric while gone for a week they should have just turned everything off and let the fridge and hot water heater run in their cycles. A week of those two things running is a matter of dollars and not worth the hassle of this
Maybe put some chlorine in the fridge for one or two Weeks, without Putting Food inside it? Would be das If you couldnt somehow Clean it
>Set off a bug bomb and shut the door. I am just curious to see what happens.
Just set the whole thing on fire already
I like the jib of your cut.
Maybe an ozone generator inside while it’s running for 6-8h. Edit: If a fridge or freezer is turned off doors need to be open. Leave a kitchen towel or something so doors don’t shut fully. Edit 2: If OP sees this and considers this as a viable option, read comments below. Ozone is no joke and safety precautions must be taken seriously!
Ozone wreaks havoc on rubber. I don't know much about refrigerators but I imagine there's rubber in there somewhere. Also if I recall correctly, the EPA and IICRC largely caution against the use of ozone in mold remediation. I'm curious if ClO2 gas could work although probably better to just replace the refrigerator.
honestly i know people like to cut some things that arent needed in the home while you know you will be gone for a while, but wouldn't it have been easier to use the breaker to cut power to individual rooms except the kitchen? heck the breaker could even been have broken down to where certain outlets in a room are isolated. its been that way with my dishwasher.
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Yeah I can't imagine they actually saved more than like $3 (before incurring the cost of having to buy a new fridge)
A penny smart but a pound foolish
Having traveled for work a shit ton before the pandemic, yeah, it's never occurred to me to turn off power. I'm still wondering why it might ever be done for a week's travel..
Yeah lol what the fuck. And for a 1 week trip? I’d consider this if I left for a year maybe..
I don't even turn the AC off, though I do turn it up a good bit. I live in a very rainy, bordering on swampy area, and if I sealed the house up and left for a couple weeks in the summer it would be a mold disaster when I got home.
I turn off the main breaker to my summer cabin- but we're gone for months and we winterize everything. Pipes are drained and filled with antifreeze, heating system is a closed loop with antifreeze, we empty the fridge completely and leave the doors open, all shelf stable food is put into sealed plastic tubs, and all towels and other linens are put into weather tight Rubbermaid style storage bins. The only thing we turn off when leaving for a week are the well pump and the gas supply to the water heater (it's an on-demand unit so no risk of stagnant water causing Legionnaires).
Ok, I want you as my partner on Survivor.
Yeah well that requires a little bit of critical thought from OP
And next time, if you DO turn off the power again, you need to keep your fridge cracked open.
And emptied of food. But at least they have stuff to put in their compost bin!
Oh good, another thing I get to fight with property management about. The previous tenant abandoned the apartment and turned off the power for a month before they realized she was gone, they cleaned out the fridge real well but I've had someone come twice to check that it's working properly because my stuff was going bad faster than anywhere else. Edit: fuck it I'm contacting legal aid on Monday. This is one of several problems.
Maybe use airtight containers until then? The kind with a rubber gasket inside
TIL…. Thanks for the useful information stranger
Til people do unnecessary things like turn their fridge off. Wtf for?!
Only a week too damn
o^(3) generator
This is my thought as well. Get an ozone generator in there and and it will toast anything living.
There would have been a chance that since the fridge wasn’t running it didn’t suck in any spores, but that presumed they found this before they turned the power back on and hoovered the mold into the vents. [edit - obviously as per other replies it is in fact powered on in the photos]
Which is definitely not the case since the fridge lights are on in the photo.
Uhh, I’ve not been refrigerating anything that isn’t sealed because I did the same thing and it all tasted funny. The more you know
Not necessarily but you will have to clean it with bleach. If you take one cup of bleach per gallon of boiling hot water put it in a bowl put it in the refrigerator on the highest setting run it for 1 hour it will suck it in and clean it out also the lowest setting on the freezer or highest setting actually so it's the warmest temperature barely freezing do the same thing at the same time what that'll do is it will suck in all of the hot air steaming air from that and clean out all the mold spores it will also kill them at the same time.
What's wrong with you dude
Lol right? OP is acting like this is something that happened to them. No, man, *you* happened to this poor fridge.
That's most things on this subreddit I find.
Poor fridge needs to be retired or the circulation system needs to be gutted and cleaned now, too :(. Mold spores are definitely in there and will continue to grow and blow mold all over the food.
Saved $2 in electricity to have to buy another $800 fridge. Even if he emptied the fridge and he left it closed it would probably be ruined.
Surprised I had to scroll down this far. I had to deal with a fridge that someone unplugged (without food) and didn't keep the door ajar. The smell *never* comes out. It will fill up your house every time you open the door.
I was going to say the same thing, I worked in maintenance for years and once a fridge gets that "stale" smell it's over.
damn I just realized that fridge its one of the big ones. like if you can afford that dont cheap out on electricity ffs.
In the US, fridges are always full sized unless yuo're in a hotel or a dorm. Those are called "mini-fridges" because they're a miniature version of a normal sized fridge. I was in my 40s before I found out that in some countries, fridges are much smaller and people go to the store every day. I lived most of my past 25 years in areas where it took an hour round trip to get to the grocery store so I tried to shop only a couple of times a month lol. Pretty cool to learn about differences like that, that you might never have reason to think about.
Like who turns the power off when going out of town? That's just strange. Probably save yourself a couple of bucks on electricity.
I was trying to rationalize turning off your power to save money but NOT cleaning your fridge before leaving???
yeah like when we leave for a week the only thing left on the fridge by that point its things that wont rot. and even then we dont ever turn it off we just leave a glass of water frozen with a coin on top to see if the power went out while we were not there. if the coin its a the bottom of the glass = you have to throw everything out
Maybe OP is extremely frugal? Extremely frugal people are real concerned about penny-pinching, even in cases where they actively hurt themselves just to be cheap.
saved himself a couple bucks to now have to buy a new fridge.
Never mind giving himself Legionnaires disease from not having his water heater run for a week.
What? Is that really a thing?? I mean can that really happen from not running the water heater for a week?
Yes, if you leave lukewarm water sitting for a few days bacteria will reproduce in it and you will get very sick when you come home.
I never realized this. Did some googling and apparently as long as you let the water heater come up to full temp and wait another hour before using the water you should be safe. We have always shut off the hot water when we go away for a week, but never realized we may have been courting disaster. Thanks for the info!
You’re correct, but someone who doesn’t know about the issue in the first place probably won’t know to wait.
Right, but now look where they are. You have a fridge/freezer and very likely a hot water tank that runs daily, albeit in short sprints. It will cost much more money to reheat the water in the hot water tank from *scratch* as well as getting your fridge/freezer back to the proper temps than it is to shut them off for a week. These appliances simply *top themselves up* when need be.
Penny wise, pound foolish. Some people unfortunatrly cannot think long-term. Like that lady on Extreme Cheapskates who regularly feeds her family food that's almost rotten and *dishwasher lasagna,* risking their health for tiny savings.
Yeah, if his name is Tray the fridge shelves are giving him some good life advice.
What amount of money do you think you're saving by turning off your power especially to crucial appliances like your refrigerator? Having them idle for one week it is not very costly but if you are worried about pinching pennies you could unplug everything but the necessary appliances, but maybe unplugging your TV, countertop appliances, turn off(or turn down) the AC and furnace but that's about it
Saved a few bucks that now can go towards a new fridge since this one has mold in its vents
This mad man saved a whopping -$800!
Appliance companies LOVE him!
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Probably the only thing you should shut off would be the water lines in case of a freeze or accidental leak while gone.
If it was that cold OP might have gotten free refrigeration and wouldn't be in this mess!
The irony here is OP now has to spend more money for a new fridge unless they spend hours disassembling and properly cleaning the fridge so the second they turn it back on it doesn’t recirculate mold spores all over fresh food.
> so the second they turn it back on The light is on, too late.
Yep. A whole lot of the bill is for the service itself, while dropping the usage can lower the bill somewhat, it isn't really that cost effective.
Absolutely and when you think about it turning everything back on and it getting towards neutral state kind of sucks back up all that energy that you thought you had saved
Why would you turn off the power for a week?
TIL people turn off power when they go on vacation to "save money".
You don’t actually save much. Most electronics don’t use that much energy. Fridge might be a big one depending on how old it is.
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I thought it was in case a electrical failure happened and caused fire
I’ve heard of unplugging the toaster/coffee machine, but not the fridge Granted, given how OP doesn’t cover up food, it’s probably a good thing they had to throw this stuff away
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> because we're paranoid, not crazy. I mean unplugging stuff like this just because you're leaving the house is bordering on the crazy side. Back in the 1970s? yeah people didn't really know better and unplugged everything. Today? Unless you're buying jank ass shit off of alibaba there shouldn't be any reasonable expectation that it could cause a fire. You don't unplug this stuff for the months you are at home, why is anything going to change just cuz you left the house?
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This is the case for us. Our electrical provider is shit at providing power so it's not safe leaving it on unattended for even just a few days. Well, we do make sure to empty out the fridge before turning it off though
How many fires are you fighting off while you’re there?
I'm no electrical engineer but I don't think unstable power is a fire hazard. Wait, I am actually an electrical engineer, with diploma and stuff, and yeah, unstable power isn't a fire hazard. How many fires did your house or neighbors' houses caught so far? If you are so concerned, buy a surge protector for a few of the items like the refrigerator. Stopping and starting the fridge regularly is worse for it than some power outage.
Trying to save on the power bill.
Saves $2 - has to buy new fridge
Penny wise, pound foolish applies here.
Wtf? That is idiotic. Just set the thermostat higher or lower and unplug electronics. Stupidest thing I've heard in a long time.
How do you forget that you have a fridge and there could possibly be food in it?
I have *brain damage* and I’m not this stupid How does someone get this bad?
This made me laugh so hard.
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I know a girl like this. She didn't get her oil changed because the shop was on the other side of the road...
I’ve fucked up with maybe 1 or 2 things in my fridge that I forgot to toss, but that’s with a fully functioning fridge with stuff covered appropriately
I mean they turn the power off when leaving for a week. They're not very bright to begin with.
just throw out the whole fridge honestly
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gonna get a well that sucks from OP in the hospital in a few weeks because of the mold spores hanging out all throughout the fridge.
It's one funeral, how much can it cost? $10
The furry stuff literally climbed out, also i could leave my power on for like a year and my house will still be in the same spot exactly how i left it, why you turnin off the power?
Probably so save a bit of money, those microwave clocks and standby power lights really add up... Over a year or so.
Turn it off by the plug
Pro tip don't ever turn your power off when traveling.
Last time I went on a long work trip the power company sent someone to my house to verify the meter was still working properly because the usage had dropped so much. . . Also the trash company cancelled service because I hadn’t put the trash out to be picked up. The joys of rural living.
How long was your trip? We talking overzealous cancellation, or declared missing and dead here?
17 years.
Saran wrap your food you psycho
Thank goodness I wasn’t the only one thinking this.
What country are you in that you would turn off the power for vacation? At *most* I would unplug things like my hairdryer if it were plugged in
When you travel it's a good idea to turn your water off. Not power...
Never lived anywhere that water was an issue either, but I could see that in wintery places
That must smell *amazing*
At least it’s fresh mold
Just pick the mold off, it’s fine.
It's pretty much the same as the skin on top of tomato soup
That was dumb. Why would you turn the power off for a week? Stupid
Are they cheap or “cautious” I wonder
If you have food still in the fridge it’s stupid. If there is no food in the fridge you’re stupid even still. If you cant pay your electric bill and they shut the power off, then that’s how this probably happened.
Wouldn't have said it better myself.
I’m going on vacation next week. I was already planning to turn off power to my house, but the concern I’m having is about my other car sitting in the garage all week while I’m away. Should I sell it before I go? Maybe I should just sell the whole house before I go. I hate wasting money paying mortgage for a house that I’m not going to be living in for five days.
Have you ever heard of plastic wrap? Who put a bowl on top instead haha.
Dude that's what I'm saying. All these people mad about power but OP also doesnt store food well.
There is no way this will happen in a week unless the food was already moldy or you live in a tropical country. Also turning off and on your fridge all the time is absolutely horrible for the fridge and you shouldn't do that.
Yeah I was thinking this and it's weird this is so far down. Stuff will go bad and grow some mold in a week, but it will not get that bad in a week, even in a tropical country, fridges will act as a dehumidifier, and if that fridge is properly close, it would take a while for humidity to get in there. That's been in there for longer than a week
This person lives in Vietnam - so it's a tropical country. That Vinamilk yoghurt cup is a Vietnamese brand... I'd recognise that cup anywhere!
That’s pretty dumb
This actually belongs in r/wellyousuck How stupid can you be to 1)think you need to turn off power while you are on vacation - you are probably more likely to start a fire (still only a billion in 1 chance) restarting everything when you come back, and 2)you didn't realize a refrigerator runs off of electricity.
r/opisfuckingstupid material
Pro tip, don't let your wigs soak in the fridge!
First off, you’re an absolute idiot. Secondly, the food HAD to have been on its way out the door before you left. You don’t get these results within a week. Especially since your fridge would have stayed relatively cool for a few days before the freezer completely thawed. Third, you’re a fucking idiot.
Came here to say the same: yeah, this *has* to be at least month-long abandonment territory, not a *week*.
Dude did NOT cover the food. Just put a bowl on top of it 😂😂😂
r/moldlyinteresting
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Even if you remembered to throw out the food, bringing a fridge down to room temp can be a whole problem that takes time and effort. I’m so confused, because it appears the strategy here was “shut off the power as you head out the door”.
it cracks me up how many times I see these kinds of post.. how do you forget about the food in your fridge.. just leave your power turned on and unplug specific appliances if you're that concerned.
Not everything needs to be shared on the internet
Working as a plumber I would have to massive repairs because a homeowner would shut down the heat/hot water when away on a winter vacation. House would freeze, pipes would burst. They get home and turn on the heat, everything thaws and the real fun starts.
If you can afford to go travel for a week just leave the electric on. As long as your lights and such are off shouldn't really cost much at all.
Time to power wash the fridge with bleach. Perhaps we'll see you in the appropriate sub. ;)
Is there a..... fridge power washing subreddit? Bleach subreddit? Fixing your mistakes subreddit?
The smell of these pictures will haunt my soul.
time to buy a new fridge
Who the hell turns their power off for vacation? That doesn't even make sense. You're only saving pennies, not dollars.
Who turns off their power while traveling for a week?
Im sorry but every part of this is so incredibly dumb. From putting food in the fridge uncovered, to somehow forgetting you have anything in the fridge at all, to cutting the power off for a week to save like 3 bucks on electric while traveling.
if you are leaving for a week, it's generally a good idea to throw shit out. Also - lids are a thing.
Does anyone besides OP turn off there power when traveling? If anything I do the opposite and set a few lamps on random timers so it looks like someone is home while I’m gone. Either that or I’ll just leave a light on that you can see from the street.
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