Refrigerators look sturdy and almost indestructible… but they are not. During a move, they can get damaged far too easily.
Moving a refrigerator to another home requires meticulous preparation and impeccable planning.
Unless it’s a mini fridge, refrigerators are too big and too heavy to be handled by one person.
If you must take your fridge with you, these detailed steps will show you the best way to move a refrigerator by yourself – that is, without hiring movers.
Moving a refrigerator by yourself will let you save money – the same amount of money you would give professional movers to do it for you.
But is it a task for a person without substantial experience in moving refrigerators between homes? Yes, it’s a feasible task as long as you follow the right steps to moving a refrigerator the right way.
Fridges are not only huge, but they usually weigh A LOT. How heavy is a refrigerator? Older refrigerators – usually around 15 years old or more – can weigh as much as 250 lbs., while newer fridges, made from much lighter materials, can weigh around 170-180 lbs.
Depending on your specific house moving situation, it may be better to leave the dangerous refrigerator moving task to the pros simply because the risk of property damage or personal injury is too high and cannot possibly be justified in the end.
However, if hiring movers to move your refrigerator is not a viable option for you, then this Refrigerator Moving Guide is exactly what you need.
Read on to learn how to move a refrigerator by yourself.
What you’ll need to move a refrigerator by yourself
Moving a fridge by yourself is not a joke, so here is what you’ll need to complete the task safely:
Furniture sliders or plywood panels (see below for details)
An appliance dolly with straps
Furniture blankets
Rope
Packing tape
Measuring tape
Comfortable shoes
Work gloves for a better grip
At least two reliable people to help you out
Do not initiate the fridge moving task unless you are ready with the required tools and supplies, and feel confident that you can manage it. It’s a mistake to rush the preparation stage or worse – the actual fridge relocation phase. What you need to do is plan each step carefully and patiently and remember that if things get tough, and they probably will at some point, you can always get in touch with professional refrigerator movers.
It looks like your fridge preparation phase is going according to plan.
Moving a fridge properly includes a number of preliminary tasks that will help you prepare your kitchen appliance for moving.
Follow these steps to make sure your refrigerator is thoroughly ready to be wheeled out of your home and loaded safely into the moving vehicle.
Step 1: Emptyyour fridge of its contents several days prior to the day of the move.
Step 2: Decidewhat to do with all the food you just removed from your unit – use it up, store it in a cooler, give it away, or discard it. Your best bet is to plan ahead of time and use up all or most of your perishables in the weeks and days leading up to Moving day.
Step 3: Turn offthe fridge and disconnect it from the electric network. If your refrigerator is equipped with a water dispenser or an ice dispenser, then stop the water supply as well.
Step 4: Defrost the fridge by letting it sit with its door open for several hours. The defrosting time will depend on the room temperature and the amount of ice in the freezer compartment. How to defrost a refrigerator for moving if you happen to be in a hurry? It’s simple – use a hair dryer to melt the ice faster.
Step 5: Gather the water produced by the defrosting process in suitable containers. Then, pour that water into the sink and clean up any remaining wet spots inside the kitchen unit.
Step 6: Clean all surfaces inside the refrigerator using a non-abrasive sponge and a cleaning mixture of water and baking soda. Then, use a soft cloth to dry up the inside of the appliance.
Step 7: Take out all removable elements of your fridge – drawers, shelves, lids, and so on – and wrap them up in packing paper or even bubble wrap if they seem fragile. Pack those fridge parts separately in a large cardboard box.
Step 8: Leave the fridge door open to prevent the growth of mildew. If you can pick up any unpleasant odors coming from the inside of your already empty and clean refrigerator, then leave it inside a container with baking soda to hopefully neutralize the bad smell.
The above 8 steps for preparing a refrigerator for a move will get your large electric appliance ready to be packed properly – that is, protected on the outside.
Now that your refrigerator is ready to be moved out of the home, it’s time to plan its move-out route so that you don’t get stuck in the middle of the fridge-moving operation.
That’s right: you’re going to need a good plan and a clear path.
Step 1: Measure up your fridge and write down its dimensions (height, width, and depth) on a notepad.
Step 2: Measure the height and width of all the doors and hallways along the route, starting from the room where your fridge is positioned now (usually the kitchen) and ending with the front door of your house or the front entrance of your apartment building.
Step 3: Compare all measurements to see if your fridge will pass comfortably through the doorways and hallways along its escape path. If yes, then you can move on to the task of protecting the floor. If not, then see Step #4.
Step 4: Remove any problematic doors off their hinges to guarantee a safe passage. You definitely don’t want to get stuck in a doorway with the huge and heavy fridge already loaded onto the appliance dolly.
Step 5: Clear the exit pathways by removing any obstacles along the way such as pieces of furniture, full or empty packing boxes, or anything else that is standing in your way. In other words, the path between your fridge and the moving truck should be completely clear and unobstructed.
How to protect the floor when moving a refrigerator
Overconfidence in your skills to move your refrigerator on your own may hurt your chances of having a damage-free move.
Protecting the floors is very important when transporting a refrigerator between two homes. As mentioned above, fridges are super heavy (they reach up to 250 pounds for older models), so it’s relatively easy to damage your floors if you fail to provide proper floor protection.
You want to make sure you’re using a good floor protection technique so that you can move a refrigerator without scratching the floor – hardwood, vinyl, tiled, or carpet flooring.
The reason is more than clear – any type of damage on the floor caused by the moving appliance will cost you money for repair. And money is usually tight during a house move, so be on your guard.
The bad news is that floor damage can be costly. The good news is that it’s easily preventable with some basic floor protection methods.
Here are the 3 major ways to protect floors when you’re moving a fridge by yourself – that is, without professional assistance.
Floor protection technique #1: Appliance dolly
The first and most important method of protecting the floors from damage is to use an appliance dolly with rubber wheels for the actual transportation of your fridge. Keep in mind that this Fridge Moving Guide describes ONLY how to move a refrigerator with a dolly because that is the safest way to move a fridge by yourself.
This is why you must get hold of an appliance dolly – it can be called a refrigerator dolly in your particular case. You can rent this extremely useful piece of moving equipment from a local moving company, or purchase it from a home depot store. The L-shaped lever on wheels will often turn out to be a good investment should you decide to own it.
As a result, the clean rubber wheels of the appliance dolly will keep your floors perfectly safe when moving a fridge on your own.
Floor protection technique #2: Furniture sliders
In order to be able to get the heavy kitchen appliance onto the moving dolly, you’re going to have to move the fridge out of its current spot, usually pressed tightly against the wall and squeezed among kitchen furniture pieces and other appliances.
So, how to move a refrigerator out of a tight space without damaging the floor underneath it? Use furniture sliders – pieces of durable plastic and hard rubber that provide a low-friction type of across-the-room sliding for heavy items.
Step 1: Have one of your helperstilt gently the refrigerator to one side.
Step 2: Place a slider under each castor or foot of your fridge.
Step 3: Pull slowly the bulky appliance and it will start to slide effortlessly toward you without causing any damage to the floor.
You can purchase furniture sliders from a local home depot store, buy them online or get them from a local move. Those sliders will do a great job if you want to move a refrigerator to clean behind it.
Floor protection technique #3: Plywood panels
Over time, refrigerators tend to sink into the floor due to their extreme weight. This is why you’ll most likely cause floor damage if you try to move the heavy kitchen appliance without providing some sort of floor protector first.
Besides sliders, you can also choose to use a couple of quarter-inch plywood panels to facilitate the initial sliding.
Step 1: Get one of your assistants totilt gently the fridge to one side.
Step 2: Slide a plywood sub-floor panel under the front wheel or under the entire side row of castors or feet of the appliance. Do the same with the other side of the fridge.
Step 3: Grab the front of the fridge – do this as low as possible – and pull the heavyweight appliance onto the plywood sheets. Watch this YouTube video to see how to move a refrigerator without damage to your kitchen floor.
Luckily, refrigerator packing is pretty simple and the main idea here is to add extra protection for your large, heavy, and expensive appliance while you’re taking it out of your home in the direction of the moving van.
Here are the 3 basic steps to packing a fridge for moving:
Step 1: Close the fridge door, wrap the entire length of the appliance with furniture blankets, then secure the protective wrapping using pieces of tape. Ordinary household blankets will also do, but you need to make sure they are soft – that is not coarse and abrasive. After all, you’re trying to protect the surface of your refrigerator, not damage it.
Step 2: Fold up the power cord of the appliance, and fix it in place using zip ties or strong rubber bands. Finally, tape it to the back of the fridge so that you or any of your helpers won’t accidentally trip on the cable during the fridge transportation. Remember that SAFETY IS YOUR TOP PRIORITY when moving a refrigerator to another home.
Step 3: Secure the refrigerator door with a piece of rope or strong cord to make sure it won’t open when you’re moving the bulky appliance out of the home. Similar to securing the power cord, this is another injury and damage prevention technique you must use to stay on the safe side of things.
An appliance dolly is a must when moving and loading a refrigerator in a moving truck.
Moving a refrigerator with a dolly is the only way to complete this potentially dangerous task with satisfactory results.
Professional movers with many years of experience will also use an appliance dolly for wheeling a fridge and loading it into the moving truck.
Here are the steps that describe how to use a dolly to move your fridge quickly and safely:
Step 1: Slide the refrigerator some distance away from the wall by either using furniture sliders or plywood boards (see above).
Step 2: Wrap the refrigerator in moving blankets and secure its power cord as described in detail above.
Step 3: Have a helper tip the fridge slightly and then slide the appliance dolly underneath the huge kitchen appliance.
Step 4: Tilt the dolly back until the refrigerator gets well-balanced on the wheels. Get somebody to push the appliance towards you as you’re tilting back the U-Haul appliance dolly.
Step 5: Use the straps of the moving dolly to secure the load onto the two-wheeler. Consider using rope in addition to the straps for extra immobilization and increased safety.
Step 6: Do NOT tilt the loaded and strapped fridge at an angle greater than 45 degrees or you’ll risk losing the right balance.
Step 7. Do NOT lay the fridge on its side because that action may damage the appliance. Read on for more details about this safety measure.
Step 8: Start wheeling your fridge out of your home. Do this very slowly and very carefully. Pull the loaded moving dolly along the pre-determined exit pathway instead of pushing it. Pushing an appliance dolly usually means tougher and riskier maneuvering.
Step 9: Be extra careful when going through a doorway or along a long narrow corridor with the loaded fridge. Go only one step at a time, and have both helpers keep the refrigerator balanced at all times. Consider removing temporarily any door that proves to be just a bit narrower for the fridge to squeeze through it.
Step 10: Take extra precautions if you have to move the refrigerator downstairs. How to move a refrigerator downstairs by yourself? You should guide the fridge strapped to the dolly while another person should be below the appliance dolly, helping it go one single step at a time. Make sure you pull the moving dolly back toward you and resist the temptation to push it down the stairs. Keep the fridge tilted at a 45-degree angle at all times to keep complete control of the situation.
Step 11: Proceed to the rented vehicle and then start loading the refrigerator in the moving van using the loading ramp. Slowly, pull the kitchen appliance up the ramp while one of your assistants pushes the load from behind. See this YouTube video for the best way to load a refrigerator along a ramp and into a rental truck.
How to load a refrigerator in a pickup truck? Make sure the pickup truck has a loading ramp as well and then you just follow the same loading operation as with a rental truck.
Step 12: Secure the loaded fridge to the side of the rental truck using ratchet straps or rope along the top and sides of the appliance. Transport your fridge in an upright position, do NOT lay the refrigerator on its side during transport – read on to learn why. At that point, it’s better to leave the fridge on the appliance dolly during the actual relocation instead of having to secure it once more when you reach the new home. Watch this YouTube clip to learn how to secure a refrigerator on a pickup truck.
Safety tips for moving a refrigerator by yourself
Finally, let’s take a look at a couple of super important safety tips you must follow when moving a refrigerator on your own – that is to say, without professional assistance.
Safety tip #1: Can you lay down a refrigerator when moving it?
No, it’s not ok to lay down a fridge while transporting it because that may damage its cooling mechanism. Refrigerators may look sort of indestructible, but in reality, those huge kitchen appliances are rather sensitive and even fragile.
If a fridge is placed on its side or tipped over too much, the oil in the compressor unit will go into the cooling lines, and that alone could damage the cooling mechanism of your unit.
So, do your best to keep your refrigerator in an upright position throughout the move.
Safety tip #2: How long do you let a refrigerator sit after moving?
Hopefully, this Refrigerator Moving Guide will have helped you move your fridge safely to the new home kitchen.
When you position your fridge inside the new home kitchen, you will need to wait at least 3 hours before you plug it in and turn it on.
You have to leave your refrigerator unplugged after moving because, as soon as you place the kitchen appliance in its normal upright position, the oil will start making its slow way toward the unit compressor.
Do not plug in and turn on your fridge right away because some of the oil will have still remained in the cooling lines and that could damage the appliance.
WARNING: Moving a refrigerator on your own can be a risky job: it may see your expensive kitchen appliance damaged or it could lead to personal injury, or even both. What’s more, property damage is not out of the question either.
Therefore, if this is the very first time you’re moving a fridge by yourself, then do the right thing and get a price quote from experienced refrigerator movers.
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