Yes, there is significant difference in browser reload and browser refresh. What exactly it is? we will see in this post. This post also shows how to reload instead of deleting temporary files and cookies and lost of stuff from your browser settings.

Browser Reload VS Refresh.

To reload the page you need to right click on the Page opened in Firefox browser. When you hit reload browser will give you new copy of the page including CSS, JavaScript and images. So, you really don't need to delete temporary internet files or cookies to ensure the changes are working fine. In case of refresh by pressing F5 key, you are only getting contents from server. The CSS, JavaScript and images are still getting referred from browser cache.

In case of IE the name used is Refresh. When you hit refresh button by right clicking on web page, it gives you entirely new copy of page including updated images,java scripts,CSS and other resources from server. Otherwise, you get cashed copy of those resources.