Unused fridge outside

[IAmKerplunk]

I have recently got a new fridge so the old one is outside until I arrange disposal. Obviously it isn’t plugged in but would there be anything wrong in storing food in there in the run up to Christmas? Drinks I know will be fine - but in the week before what about cheeses/quiches etc? If it would be fine then I will hang onto it until after Christmas.

Do you mean keeping stuff in it just as a storage box whilst it's not plugged in, or do you intend to somehow plug it in by running the lead inside to a socket? If the latter, I wouldn't risk it with electrics and rain. I wouldn't put cheese or quiches in it either.

Round our way if you put a an old fridge etc. on your driveway, the scrap metal man will take it away for free. Although personally, I wouldn't leave it on the driveway unattended, unless the door was removed as a child might decide it a good place to play hide and seek in and then not be able o breathe.

No it’s outside by my back door in my secure enclosed back garden. I am mainly thinking of using it as a storage (ice blocks in it?? In the week before or 10 days run up to Christmas for food that we can’t fit in our kitchen fridge. Outdoor fridge won’t be plugged in - it is just literally sitting outside in my back garden.

I think that would work, why not? It would be like a mega ice box that's used for outdoor drinks and other stuff in Summer with ice blocks. Fine for beers, wines and soft drinks. Not sure about perishable stuff for more than a day though.

If you have tons of food to store, I'd try and find a corner in some room downstairs and just plug it in for the few days needed.

Dress it up as a pineapple, add ice blocks, and you’ve got a big ice bucket.

Have you ever seen the inside of an unplugged fridge after a bit OP?

The mould and smell is pretty brutal.

It’s some perishable stuff I was hoping I could put in it 🙈

I will keep it clean as it has only just gone outside. Should I hope we have very cold snap in the lead up to Christmas?
Nowhere to plug it indoors sadly. It’s only once a year I need extra fridge space or I would have bought a bigger new fridge

If you do decide to do that, I would put the ice on the top shelf and the things to be kept cold as low as possible (but off the floor at the bottom). As the “hot air rises, cold air falls” thing does work and the bottom is a lot cooler than the top. (I had a very inefficient fridge and was using bags of ice on top to keep the bottom cool-ish).

I would think things like hard cheese, carrots and other root veg, etc would be ok. And possibly ham joint before it’s cooked (for a day or so when you have max “Christmas fridge” inside). But I would keep soft cheeses and quiches indoors in the proper fridge.

It has a title. It’s your beer fridge. It should live on your back veranda. Very Australian. Very common. Very handy.

After Christmas, unplug it and plug in again when you need it again.

Oh, and start with a good scrub and first couple of bags of ice to chill it down a couple of days before you want to use it.

And have anything going into it already cold when it goes in - so only needing to stay cold rather than needing to be chilled first.

(I am thinking about how I plan my cool box for camping). Although cool air stays in that better as it does “fall out” the front door of the fridge, so keep that closed as much as possible. The outdoor fridge could also be a good place to put anything needing to thaw out from frozen.

We've got a plastic garden box with a padlock that we tend to use for surplus food/drink storage at Christmas.

So veg, alcohol, hard cheese and any defrosting meat? Ice on the top shelf and food on lowest shelf with drinks on bottom and in the door?

That’s a good idea - don’t really want to keep the fridge in the garden just to use it once a year!

Lay the fridge on its side, like a giant coolbox/chest freezer. It won't be plugged in so the elements on the back won't mind!

Go on, tell us what food you'll have to store for Christmas. A lot of stuff doesn't need refrigeration like root veg, spuds, that kind of thing.

It's handy in the Summer too, to keep BBQ tools/coal etc and then we move them to the loft in the Winter if we need extra room in the box 👍

It could prove useful as somewhere to defrost a frozen turkey I suppose.

We have a large storage box in our garden and before Christmas we use it for vegetables and drinks so the main fridge is empty for meat, dairy and anything which needs proper cooling.

You could keep some ice blocks in the freezer and add them and move some things in there, keep a thermometer to measure the inside temperature.

Unless we have 15 degrees at Christmas you should be absolutely fine.

It might depend on the scrappies, but in my experience they don't touch fridges because of the refrigerant gases inside of them. It would be better to have it collected by a waste disposal service, or even the council will do it for a fee.

@YorkshireGoldDrinker we don’t get scrappies where I live so it was always going to be a paying the council job - I was just thinking I could wait till the new year and make use out of it before I ordered its disposal

Are you a 70s kid by any chance the public information film about disused fridges scared me silly.

I am a 70s kid and I wouldn’t leave it out the front unless there was a pre arranged collection! It is right outside my back door in a secure back garden

If it is unplugged and with the door closed, put a little dish of ground coffee (unused) on one of the shelves. It will stop it going mouldy, but be careful that any food is securely wrapped so it doesn't smell of coffee!

I was born in the 50's, so a bit older than you.

Takes me back to my childhood, where my grandma used to put a jelly on the wall outside the kitchen door to set, with a plate over it, in winter. I still do that on Christmas Eve myself.