Leaving appliances on holiday, or switching them off, is a question almost every household wrestles with before a summer trip, and the answers people pass around are often contradictory. Some leave everything running, some switch it all off at the wall, and most simply do whatever they did last year without much thought. As a team offering reliable appliance repair in Ormskirk and across the surrounding towns, we deal with the consequences of both choices every summer, so it is worth setting out what actually matters.
The Case for Switching Things Off
For most appliances that do not need to keep running, switching off at the socket before a holiday is the safer choice. An appliance left on standby for two weeks is exposed to the summer storms and power surges that can damage its electronics, and it draws a small amount of power doing nothing useful. More importantly, an appliance that is switched off cannot develop a fault that floods your kitchen or overheats while no one is home. The washing machine, dishwasher, oven and small appliances all sit perfectly happily switched off and unplugged while you are away, and doing so removes a whole category of risk.
Water Is the Real Danger
The faults that cause the most damage in an empty house all involve water. A perished fill hose on a washing machine or dishwasher that lets go while you are away can leak for days, and the damage to floors, ceilings and cabinets dwarfs the cost of any appliance. This is why turning off the water supply to these machines at the tap behind them, as well as switching off the power, is such sound practice before a long trip. It is a two-minute job that removes the worst-case scenario entirely.
What About Leaving Machines On for a Cycle
There is no benefit to leaving a washing machine, dishwasher or oven powered up while you are away, and several risks. These are not appliances that need to keep working in your absence, so the safest state for them is off at the wall with the water isolated. The only real exception in the kitchen is cooling appliances that must keep running to protect their contents, which is a separate consideration from the machines covered here.
Preparing Each Machine Before You Go
Switching off is not quite the whole story, because how you leave a machine matters as much as whether it is powered. A washing machine or dishwasher left sealed shut on a warm, damp interior will greet you with a sour smell and possibly mould after two weeks. Running a hot maintenance wash before you go and leaving the door and detergent drawer open lets the interior dry out completely. An empty, dry, switched-off machine is exactly how you want to leave it. Much of this overlaps with the care needed when a machine is moved or stored, and our guide on how to protect your appliances when moving house covers the same principles of draining and drying.
The Small Risk of Coming Back to a Fault
Even with everything switched off, occasionally a household returns to an appliance that will not start, usually because a marginal component finally gave up or because the power coming back on after a cut caused a spike. This is far less common than the problems caused by leaving machines running, and it is far easier to deal with calmly when you are home than to discover a leak that has been spreading for a fortnight. The trade-off strongly favours switching off.
Standby Power and a Final Walk Round
There is a smaller, quieter argument for switching off that has nothing to do with floods or storms, and that is the standby power a houseful of appliances draws while doing absolutely nothing. A modern kitchen is full of machines that sip electricity around the clock through their displays, clocks and standby circuits, and over a two-week holiday that adds up to money spent powering empty rooms. Switching off at the wall trims that waste to nothing and gives a little peace of mind into the bargain. The habit worth building is a final walk round the house on the morning you leave, working through the kitchen and utility room socket by socket. Turn off and unplug the washing machine, the dishwasher, the oven at its isolating switch where one is fitted, the microwave and the small countertop appliances, and close the isolating valves on anything plumbed in. Check that nothing has been left resting on a hob and that no charger is left plugged in unattended in a warm room. The whole circuit takes only a few minutes, and doing it the same way every time means nothing is forgotten in the last-minute rush to get out of the door. Households that make this a fixed part of their leaving routine simply never come home to the kind of appliance disaster that turns the end of a good holiday into an expensive headache, and the few minutes it costs are repaid many times over in avoided trouble.
If You Come Home to a Problem
Should an appliance refuse to cooperate on your return, resist the urge to keep cycling the power in the hope it rights itself, and have it looked at properly instead. Our engineers cover the whole region, including domestic appliance repairs Ormskirk and domestic appliance repair Burscough, and a post-holiday fault is usually a straightforward diagnosis once we can test the machine.
The Sensible Summer Approach
For a summer holiday, switch the washing machine, dishwasher and other non-essential appliances off at the wall, isolate the water to anything plumbed in, and leave the machines clean, empty and open to dry. It is the choice that removes the most risk for the least effort, and it means the only thing waiting for you at home is the post. If you do return to a misbehaving appliance, call our team on 01695 768 738 and we will sort it out.
