Santa Ana Winds and Power Shutoffs: An Appliance Checklist

Fall in San Diego often brings the opposite of what the calendar suggests: hot, bone-dry Santa Ana winds, dust in every window track and, in high fire-risk backcountry areas, the possibility that SDG&E will turn off power as a precaution. Even in neighborhoods far from those shutoff zones, wind events bring outages from downed lines and voltage swings when power returns. Refrigerators, freezers and anything with a control board take the brunt.

This checklist runs in three stages: before the wind arrives, while the power is out, and the first hour after it comes back.

Before the wind: prepare when the forecast turns

1. Sign up for alerts. SDG&E sends outage and public safety power shutoff notifications by text, call or email to customers who register. Make sure the contact details on your account are current.
2. Put thermometers in the fridge and freezer. An inexpensive appliance thermometer in each is the only way to know later whether food stayed safe.
3. Turn both to their coldest normal setting a day ahead if a shutoff is likely, so you start with a cold reserve.
4. Fill the gaps. Freeze jugs or containers of water to fill empty freezer space. A full freezer holds temperature much longer than a half-empty one.
5. Know which foods you'll need first. Move them to one shelf so you can grab them without holding the door open.
6. Protect electronics. Plug countertop appliances, and any wine cooler or beverage fridge with a digital display, into quality surge protectors. For built-in appliances on dedicated circuits, ask an electrician about whole-home surge protection.
7. Clean the dust off. Santa Ana dust packs condenser coils fast. A quick vacuum of the coils before a heat event means less strain when everything is running hard.
8. If you use a generator, make sure it can sit outdoors, well away from doors and windows, and that you have heavy-duty outdoor cords long enough to reach. Never run one in a garage, even with the door open.

During the outage: keep the doors shut

1. Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. According to FoodSafety.gov, an unopened refrigerator keeps food safe for about four hours, a full freezer about 48 hours, and a half-full freezer about 24 hours.
2. Unplug or switch off appliances with electronic controls, such as the dishwasher, microwave, range, washer and dryer, so the surge on restoration doesn't hit them all at once. Leave one light switched on so you know when power returns.
3. If the outage will run long, a cooler with ice for the items you need most saves opening the fridge repeatedly.
4. If you're running a generator, it stays outside. Carbon monoxide from a generator in a garage can reach the house. Make sure your CO alarms have working batteries.

After power returns: the first hour

1. Wait a few minutes before plugging appliances back in. Voltage can bounce right after restoration.
2. Check thermometers before you check food. The fridge should be at or below 40°F; frozen food that still has ice crystals or is at 40°F or below can be refrozen. When in doubt, throw it out.
3. Restart one appliance at a time, refrigerator and freezer first.
4. Listen and watch. The compressor should start within a few minutes, and the cabinet should be noticeably cooler within a few hours. Many refrigerators delay compressor restart on purpose, so a short wait is normal.
5. Reset clocks and controls on the range and microwave, and run a short cycle on the dishwasher and washer to confirm they fill, drain and finish.
6. Empty and reset the ice maker. Toss the first batch made after an outage, since the bin may have partially melted and refrozen into a block.

Signs the outage did damage

Some problems only show up a day or two later. Pay attention to a fridge that runs but never gets cold, a display that is blank or flickering, a burning smell from the back of an appliance, a breaker that trips each time a unit is plugged in, or error codes that weren't there before. Any burning smell or tripping breaker means unplug it and leave it off.

A control board that took a surge is a common outcome. Before a board is replaced, it's worth testing the supply voltage and the components around it, because the visible symptom isn't always the failed part. Our refrigerator repair technicians do that testing first, and if a garage unit was already working hard in the heat, the garage freezer heat checklist is worth a look too.

Keep this list where you'll see it

Santa Ana events tend to arrive in clusters through fall and early winter. Tape the before-and-after steps inside a kitchen cabinet door, and replace the thermometer batteries, if they use them, at the start of each season. If an appliance hasn't recovered by the next morning, call us and we'll set up a diagnostic visit.