We are putting ours side-by-side, but I understand your concern. I felt the side of our current oven cabinet and it never felt warm. Can't tell you yet how the new layout will work for us as we are about a month away from install.

Door handle conflict is something to think about, but many people put the 2 appliances next to each other.

Ours are side by side. Hasn't been an issue at all.

I've got oven and refrigerator side by side with no problem.
Sue

Great, thanks for your reassurance. =)

Hi,

It is recommended that you have a landing space next to your refrigerator and next to your oven @ 15' minimum for each. As long as you have ample counter top space on each side, you should be fine. Or if you have an island directly across from these 2 appliances, you will also be fine. If you don't have enough counter space, you will find it rather inconvenient when taking things out of the ovens/ref. and putting things in.

Ellen

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Plans Drafting

IMPORTNAT: If your fridge is not a built-in, be safe and put in a 3" filler between the two cabinets. This is to allow the fridge door to open more than 90 degrees so you can open fruit & veggie compartments, meat drawers, etc. Built-ins have a different hinge system that usually doesn't require the extra space.

dredpir8,

I missed it if you said it, but I would think it would make a difference whether you have SD or CD fridge. We got two bits of info about this, which we are planning to do as well, but we will have SD. WHen the cabinet guy showed us how much he allows for ovens against the side of our current fridge (also SD), he demonstrated that there would be no conflict. He typically builds a fridge surround 30" and oven surround 25". Of course if you have CD it will not be 30" out. They would be the same depth, as nhbaskets showed us.

THe other thing was what the appliance salesman (builders' direct supply, not big box) told us, which was to allow 3" between fridge and WO. He didn't say whether this was for clearance or heat issues (except DH asked the question from a heat standpoint).

However, I've seen it elsewhere on here that since the oven vents out the top, the sides don't get hot.

The fridge doors need clearances to the sides in order to swing open fully. Some more than others. This is also an issue with the counter tops themselves.

bump

1 1/2" fillers here.

Patrick, never had an issue with fridge door hitting oven.

Patrick, this was in our former house, so I don't have access to measurement. The door did open >90 degrees. ETA: Fridge was counter-depth.

The counter depth Kitchenaid in my pic is able to open well past 90 as you can see. Regular depth, counter depth, and built ins will all have different math.

What did the architects say?

The architect pushed back hard saying theres no problem.
I refused to only put 1 1/2” between the fridge and oven. I put 3” between them an the architect added a stainless steel strip glued to the filler to make it look like 1 1/2” filler. The 3” worked with out doors hitting oven 1 1/2” would have been a problem.glad I stood my ground. Zoom in on picture the strip either side of the fridge is an applied strip of stainless steel .

Specs were checked and presented to the architect
She wouldn’t accept the document’s info. Wanted only 1 1/2” filler for symmetry over function.
Calls to GE were long and useless. I sent them drawing of lay out with model numbers and their own rendering.

Also oven was reused from previous kitchen. And the correct handle you speak of was” out of the question “ by the people in charge of design. Yes ,now that you mentioned it I remember the 2 different handles.