I bought a mini fridge today and the guy said not to put it on its side or If I do, not to turn it on for 24 hours, something about the refrigerant I think. I was trying to fit it in my car and I put it on its side for a second but it wouldn’t fit so I rented a truck and put it upright not sideways and took it home. When I got it home I turned it on right away. It is very loud, enough that I hope it doesn’t stop me from sleeping tonight since it’s in my bedroom. Is this because I put it on its side for a few seconds? The fridge I have is the Vissani 3.1 cu. ft. Mini Refrigerator from home depot which has pretty good reviews and no one mentioned it was loud.
The only issue AFAIK is, as the guy said, that the fridge should be left to stand upright and stable after moving it (preferably in the location you’ll use it) for a day or so before turning it on, to allow the coolant to resettle into where it should be. But I doubt you’ll have caused any real damage by moving it on its side. The noise could be caused by a lack of coolant in the right place, so the fridge is working extra hard to keep the inside cool, but actually fridges are always quite loud, it’s just you don’t happen to notice quite so much when they are in a busy kitchen.
Or perhaps the oil in the refrigerant.
This. those little “ball” shaped compressors rely on splash oiling to keep the compressor lubricated which means the oil has to be in the right place inside the housing for that to work. thus why they tell you to set it upright for some amount of time before turning it on.
I don’t know if you CAN damage a fridge like that, but I’ve certainly moved a handful of mini fridges by putting them on their side, and they all worked fine afterwards. I did leave them standing for a day or so before plugging them in.