What Vacation Mode Means On A Refrigerator – And When To Use It

It's been a few centuries since humans discovered that keeping food cold extends its shelf life. But no matter how fancy refrigerators get — including smart, app-connected fridges – owners will invariably end up in a bit of a quandary when it's time for a vacation. Keeping the refrigerator powered on during a trip is simpler but will lead to unnecessary power consumption. On the other hand, turning the fridge off requires careful planning to ensure it is empty before leaving. Understanding this issue, and to make life simpler for consumers, manufacturers began offering "vacation mode" on select refrigerator models. 

For all practical purposes, refrigerator vacation mode is just a fancy name for a power saving mode. It works by increasing the set temperature of the fridge compartment (not the freezer) from the standard 39 degrees to anywhere between 53 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit (this can vary between brands). The only section of the refrigerator that continues to function normally in vacation mode is the freezer compartment. Given that using vacation mode almost always requires consumers to empty the fridge, manufacturers only recommend turning the feature on if the period of absence lasts longer than 3, 4 weeks.

The increased set temperature of the fridge in vacation mode is high enough for anything stored there to spoil, but low enough to limit the formation of odor and mold. This is why manufacturers recommend emptying the fridge section before activating vacation mode. Because the refrigerator needs less energy to maintain a higher refrigerator temperature, the overall power consumption drops.

Before activating vacation mode, the entire fridge section should be emptied out and nothing perishable should remain there. Items that need to be stored anyway can be moved to the freezer section — after ascertaining that they can be safely frozen. If the refrigerator has an automatic water dispensing system, shut off the valve that supplies water to the refrigerator. It is also a good idea to clean and dry the fridge compartment before switching on vacation mode. This further reduces the chances of odor and mold build-up.

On older refrigerators that do not have a vacation mode, manufacturers recommend turning off the refrigerator entirely only if the planned vacation is expected to last a month or longer. In this instance, however, the freezer section needs to be emptied as well. For shorter trips that are just a few days or a couple of weeks long, multiple companies say it is just simpler to keep the refrigerator powered on for the entire duration. Even on refrigerators that have a vacation mode, shorter trips (typically lasting less than 3 weeks) do not warrant the usage of the feature.

If you are in the U.S. and using a relatively new refrigerator, chances are it may not feature a dedicated vacation mode. This is because newer models from major refrigerator brands use a newer adaptive defrost system that extends the time between defrost cycles. These newer refrigerators can detect the number of times the door is opened and if it detects low usage, the defrost cycle lasts longer, leading to lower power consumption.