What happens if you keep your refrigerator door open

Between meals or in the middle of the night, all of us have rushed to the fridge to find something to snack on at some point. While healthy snacking is great, keeping the refrigerator door open for a long time while you choose what to eat is not so great for your refrigerator. What’s more? It can also be pretty harmful for the environment. Here’s why:

Even though you don’t think much of it, leaving the refrigerator door open for a prolonged duration does have some negative impacts. There are basically three to four main drawbacks to leaving refrigerator doors open. All of these work in tandem and combine to create a cumulative negative effect on your stored food and beverages as well as your refrigerator itself and your energy bills.

1. Impact on electricity bill: The direct and more obvious impact is on the electricity bill. Leaving the door open will cause the refrigerator to consume more energy to maintain the temperature inside the fridge. It will increase your electricity bill.

2. Environmental impact/energy wastage: Since leaving the fridge door will cause the refrigerator to consume more energy to maintain the inside temperature, the excess energy it is consuming is simply waste that could have been avoided. This further harms the environment due to increased energy consumption.

ALSO READ: Things you should never store on top of your refrigerator

3. Reduced lifespan of stored goods: Due to the influx of warm air as the result of leaving the refrigerator door open, it causes the temperature to rise inside the fridge. These random temperature fluctuations potentially accelerate the decomposition phenomenon in the stored goods.

4. Impact on the refrigerator: Leaving the refrigerator door open also impacts the lifespan of the refrigerator too. Since the compressor has to work harder to maintain the temperature inside the fridge, it puts extra load and pressure. This leads to increased wear and tear on the compressor. This is potentially detrimental to the overall lifespan of the refrigerator leading to frequent breakdowns.

Another relevant but less likely yet plausible impact is the safety hazard it can be if you leave your refrigerator doors open for a longer duration. It is likely that the condensation can form on the floor or shelves making them slippery. Thus, it is essential that you don’t keep your refrigerator doors open for a long duration. You should close it as soon as you are finished using it.

हिंदी में पढ़ें: यदि आप अपने रेफ्रिजरेटर का दरवाज़ा खुला रखें तो क्या होगा