Hurricane appliance prep Orlando homeowners actually need
Every June, the forecasts roll in. Category predictions, cone maps, spaghetti models. You stock up on water and batteries, maybe board a window or two. Nobody thinks about the appliances. The fridge full of groceries, the oven with a $300 control board, the washer sitting in your garage six inches off the ground. After Hurricane Ian, we replaced more control boards in two weeks than we normally do in six months. Almost all of that damage was preventable.
We've been repairing appliances across Orlando, Winter Park, and Kissimmee long enough to know what storm damage actually looks like up close. This is the hurricane appliance prep checklist we wish every homeowner had before the season starts.
Before the storm: the week-of checklist
Set your fridge and freezer to their coldest settings. Do this a full day before the storm is expected. If you lose power, that extra cold buys you real time. A fridge at 34°F holds safe temps longer than one sitting at 40°F. It sounds obvious once you hear it, but almost nobody does it.
Next: fill your freezer with water bottles. A full freezer stays frozen far longer than a half-empty one because the frozen bottles act as thermal mass. If your freezer is only half full, toss in as many sealed water bottles as you can fit. You'll use them for drinking water after the storm anyway.
Unplug anything with a digital control board. This is the big one. Microwaves, ovens with electronic displays, dishwashers with touchpads, washing machines with circuit boards. Power surges when the grid comes back don't blow fuses. They fry control boards. A $15 surge protector power strip is not enough protection for a $400 oven control board. Unplug them from the wall.
If you want real protection, talk to an electrician about a whole-house surge protector. They run $200 to $400 installed, and they sit at your breaker panel. After one storm season, they've usually paid for themselves.
This one people skip, and it costs them later: write down your appliance model numbers and take photos of the stickers. Every appliance has a model and serial number plate somewhere. Photograph each one. If you end up filing an insurance claim or calling us for parts, having that info on hand saves days. Email the photos to yourself so they're backed up off your phone.
If you have a gas range, gas dryer, or gas water heater, know exactly where your shutoff valve is and how to turn it. If you smell gas after a storm, shut it off and leave the house. Don't test it, don't wait.
During the power outage
This is where most food loss happens, and it's almost always because someone opened the fridge too many times.
A closed refrigerator holds safe temperatures for about 4 hours. A full freezer stays frozen for roughly 48 hours. Half full? Closer to 24 hours. Every time you open the door, you lose cold air you can't get back. Decide what you need, open once, close it.
If you're running a generator, never run it inside. Not in the garage, not under a carport with the door open. Carbon monoxide kills people every hurricane season in Florida. Outside, away from windows, every time.
One more generator mistake we see constantly: plugging your refrigerator into a long extension cord. Refrigerators pull a heavy starting surge when the compressor kicks on. Most household extension cords can't handle it. You end up with a melted cord or a burned-out compressor. Use a heavy-gauge cord rated for the wattage, or plug directly into the generator if it's close enough.
After the storm: don't rush it
Power comes back and the instinct is to flip everything on at once. Don't. Stagger it. Turn on the fridge first, wait ten minutes, then the freezer. Give it an hour before you start running the washer and dryer. Turning everything on simultaneously can trip breakers or cause a mini surge on your home's circuits.
Once you've got power back, check around and behind every appliance for water. Pull the fridge out from the wall. Look behind the washer and dryer, and get a flashlight under the dishwasher. Water damage doesn't always announce itself. Check out our guide on humidity damage to appliances. Sometimes it's just a damp baseboard or a small puddle behind the unit that you don't notice for two days, and by then mold is already starting.
If any appliance was sitting in standing water or flood water, do not plug it in. Don't test it. The motor windings, wiring, and control boards absorb water, and energizing them can cause a short, a fire, or just permanently destroy the appliance. Check out our guide on filing a home warranty claim. Call a technician first.
Recognizing surge damage after the fact
Not all surge damage is obvious. Sometimes your appliance turns on but acts strange. The display flickers or shows garbage characters. It starts a cycle but quits halfway through. Buttons work sometimes and ignore you other times. You hear clicking or buzzing that wasn't there before the storm.
We see all of these in our shop every hurricane season, and the cause is almost always the same: a fried control board. Check out our guide on what's repairable after power surge damage.
Running an appliance in that state can cause more damage to other components. Shut it off and get it looked at before you make a $150 problem into a $500 one.
We do post-storm diagnostics
After every major storm, QLAMA runs post-storm diagnostic specials for homeowners in Orlando, Winter Park, Kissimmee, and surrounding Central Florida areas. Check out our guide on snowbird appliance checklist. We know what surge damage looks like versus flood damage versus normal wear that just happened to coincide with a hurricane. And we'll be honest about whether it's worth repairing or if you're better off replacing.
If a storm rolls through and something isn't working right, call us at 561-320-7695 or book an appointment online. We'd rather check it and tell you it's fine than have you find out the hard way that a $90 diagnostic could have saved a much larger repair bill.