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Standard depth fridge in recess -problem opening doors?

16 years ago

I have the perfect opportunity to push the wall behind my fridge back to get the standard fridge flush with counters. Standard depth Fridges seem to be around 31" deep and we are planning 24" counter depth- so a 7" pushback seems to make sense. Now my kitchen designer has warned me that the fridge doors will likely not open properly . Any experience with this? Special hinges? Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

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Comments (8)

john_com
16 years ago
Sounds like you have a good KD. We have a standard french door fridge and sunk it into an old closet area. when we installed the fridge we discovered the doors would open properly only if the fridge sat about 1.5" past the opening. Otherwise the doors would only open 90 degrees. I thought it would ruin the built in look by having it stick out but as it turns out, a lot of people comment on how nice it looks. NBD. Gotta go but I'll try my hand at posting a pic latter.
jeri
16 years ago
We recessed ours as well and like John need to have it stick out about 1.5 ". I didnÂt even know there was a difference. You will see the fridge Â not the 1.5 inches of the door on the sides.

Now I want to go find one that is truly counter depth installed to see the difference Â it doesnÂt stick out at all??? The handles do Â right? So it really isnÂt flush and I really have a hard time thinking it matters. But I suppose it will to some. I just had a hard time spending more $$ for less space. I never have enough room in the fridge as it is!
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Definitely add the extra 1/2" with even a little extra at the back. Although asthetically, we want it to look built in, your refrigerator will function better if it can move air around it. In my kitchen I did last summer, I have a pantry, then a deep 36" over the fridge and then a wall panel with a 1.5" face and a thin panel. With the side of the pantry being inset slightly from the face and the panel being inset to its face, my 36" wide fridge has almost an extra inch of clearance inside its opening. BUT, the opening on the face of the cabinets is exactly 36". My brand new counter depth fridge was not completely square! It would not slide in the opening! I had to roll one side of it up on luan plywood to square it up so it slides in and out of the opening. In the kitchen I am doing right now, I have a solid 3/4" end panel, a deep 36" over the fridge and I added a 3/4" cherry spacer board between the drywall wall and the over the fridge cabinet. So my opening is 36 3/4" wide. If you go into the manufacturer's info for the fridge you are looking at, they generally have the installation info clickable which will detail their clearance requirements.
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Fori
16 years ago
Counter depth fridges ALSO have to have the doors sticking out (except for the built-ins and I think--not sure--the Liebherr). Gotta have the whole door sticking out whether it's a counter depth or standard depth. They have the same hinges on the standards as CDs.
john_com
16 years ago
h
here is a shot of the fridge edge.
john_com
16 years ago

Another shot

Where the fridge is used to be a closet that opened from the hallway right around the corner.
steve_o
16 years ago
You may find out that, even though you can open the doors wide enough to get around on the shelves, the motion of pull-out shelves and crisper drawers will be limited. We almost found that out the hard way with an Amana standard-depth which would have opened against a wall but not quite far enough because the handle wouldn't let the door open 90 degrees.
sanborn5
16 years ago
We have done this several times. Only the door area will be beyond the cabinet frame. As is with the cabinet depth. It would be impossible to have the front flush because the door would not open. THe only truly built in is a built in. The reason we did this is to have it cabinet depth with the regular depth fridge. It may not be exactly like a built in but I would call it a custom look, rather then seeing the sides of the fridge.
bermyrose
Original Author
16 years ago
Many thanks for your replies. Especially John for photos. Nice kitchen.
It seems that door thickness varies quite a bit and the thinner the door the less needs to protrude past counter depth. I'll need to recalculate how much to move the wall back.

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