Power goes out here for all kinds of reasons. A summer afternoon storm drops a limb on a line. A transformer fails on a hot evening when every air conditioner on the street is running. A tropical system knocks out service across the region for days; after Hurricane Milton in 2024, Tampa Electric had about 600,000 customers in the dark, the largest outage in its history.
The cause hardly matters to your refrigerator. What matters is how long the power stays off, what you do while it's out, and how you bring things back. This guide covers outages of any kind. For getting ready before a named storm and checking appliances afterward, see the separate hurricane season checklist.
The first hour: keep the cold in
A refrigerator and freezer are insulated boxes. Without power they warm slowly, as long as the doors stay shut. Every opening lets cold air pour out the bottom and warm, humid air in.
- •Keep both doors closed. Decide what you need before you open one, and be quick about it.
- •If you have appliance thermometers, put one in each compartment now so you will know the real temperature later.
- •Turn off or unplug sensitive electronics and appliances you aren't using. When power comes back it can flicker or surge, and electronic control boards are the parts most likely to suffer.
- •Turn every range and oven knob to off. If the power returns while you're out, you don't want a burner you forgot about coming back on.
- •Leave one lamp switched on so you know when power returns.
How long food stays safe
The USDA guidance is simple, and it is the rule to follow. A closed refrigerator keeps food safe for about 4 hours. A full freezer holds a safe temperature for about 48 hours, and a half-full one for about 24, provided the door stays closed.
Once the refrigerator has been without power for more than 4 hours, throw out perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, soft cheese and leftovers. The same goes for any of it that sat above 40°F for more than two hours. Hard cheeses, butter, whole fruit, condiments and bread are more forgiving; FoodSafety.gov publishes a full chart.
For the freezer, food that still has ice crystals or reads 40°F or below can be refrozen, though quality may suffer. Never taste food to decide whether it is safe. When in doubt, throw it out.
A Tampa kitchen without air conditioning warms up fast in summer, and so does everything in it. The 4-hour figure assumes the door stayed shut. Don't stretch it because the house feels cool at first.
Running a generator without hurting anyone
A portable generator can keep a refrigerator and freezer going through a long outage, but generators kill people every storm season through carbon monoxide. The rules are not negotiable:
- •Run it outdoors only, well away from doors, windows and vents. Never in the house, the garage (even with the door open) or a screened lanai.
- •Use a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm inside the home.
- •Plug the refrigerator into the generator with a heavy-duty, outdoor-rated extension cord sized for the load.
- •Never plug a generator into a wall outlet to "backfeed" the house. It can electrocute utility workers on the line and damage your wiring. A permanent connection needs a transfer switch installed by an electrician.
- •Let the generator cool before refueling.
A refrigerator needs extra current at the moment its compressor starts. Check the generator's rating against the appliance's needs, and don't load it up with other things at the same time.
When the power comes back
Resist the urge to switch everything on at once.
- Wait a few minutes after power returns. Early restoration can flicker.
- Plug in or switch on the refrigerator and freezer first. Check that the controls kept their settings; some electronic models reset to defaults after a long outage.
- Leave the doors closed and give them time. A warm refrigerator can take many hours to pull back down to temperature, longer if it is full of warm food.
- Check the thermometers before deciding what to keep.
- Bring other appliances back one at a time.
A washer or dishwasher that was mid-cycle may sit with water in it and the door locked. Most will resume or show a code once power returns. If the door stays locked, follow the manual's procedure for canceling the cycle and draining. Don't force the latch.
Signs that something didn't come through
Most appliances shrug off an ordinary outage. These are signs one didn't:
- •A dead display with power confirmed at the outlet. A surge when power was restored can damage a control board.
- •A refrigerator that hums and clicks but never cools. The compressor may be trying to start and failing, sometimes because of a damaged start relay.
- •A compressor that runs but the freezer stays soft after a full day. See freezer not freezing for what to check next.
- •An error code that won't clear. Many can be cleared by unplugging the appliance, or switching off its breaker, for a minute or two. If the code comes back, write it down.
- •A burning or electrical smell. Unplug the appliance or switch off the breaker and leave it off until it is checked.
If an appliance sat in water during the outage, from a flooded garage or a storm, don't power it up to test it. Wet controls and motors can short or shock. Have it inspected first.
Reducing the damage next time
- •Keep thermometers in the refrigerator and freezer all the time, not just during storms.
- •A plug-in surge protector suited to the appliance, or a whole-house surge device installed by an electrician, adds protection for electronic controls.
- •Keep frozen water bottles in the freezer. They fill empty space, which helps it stay cold longer, and they can go in the refrigerator during an outage.
If an appliance won't come back properly, a technician can diagnose it at your home and quote the repair before any work starts. See our refrigerator repair page, or book online.