Mine did this same thing-and I see it every time I clean...however no one else can see it! I too would love to know if I can fix it though! Mine used a screw that I left on the counter from hardware going in! ARGH!

Mine did the same thing with a hot wheel. I've often wondered if a really fine steel wool would help or hurt the problem but haven't been brave enough to try.

Reminds me of when we had a new tile floor installed and put up a gate to keep the toddler out. She threw a hammer over the gate. I really hated to tell the installer he had to replace one of his newly grouted tiles. Daddy was in trouble for leaving his tools where she could get them!

Ouch, I'm feeling for you! My Tibetan Spaniel did that to our last fridge the week after we got it. I never did get them out either. I couldn't wait to get rid of it (the fridge, not my furbaby). My new fridge has cabinet door covers on it.

Is the stainless a brushed finish

If so i can tell you what my appliance store gave me to use to buff out scratch

take it from me it does all kinds of scratches as well as gouges and an occasional small dent

let me know

I don't know WHY things always seem to happen when they are new! I recall my son (then 13) melting a candle or something in the BRAND NEW microwave - it blew up inside and I had wave in places that never came off. Good Luck!

I suppose this doesn't help, but here goes: Try to look at it as a badge of honor...A little memento from your budding chef! The first mark is the hardest. My dh goes nuts about our new floor and I've threatened to drag something across it so he can get over it and stop lecturing the kids! Our stainless counter got scratches immediately, so we got used to it fast. I do feel for you, but these things will happen, and 2 yr olds are good at making sure of that. :-) Keep smiling and loving the hugs 2 yr olds are good at, too. In a blink of an eye, she'll be 16 and the scratches might be on the car, and the hugs will be much fewer and far between...

I can't even blame my child, I did it myself. I was standing on a stool to put a bread machine away in the cabinet over the fridge and put a ding in it. Drives me nuts every time I see it. Anyone know of a way of getting dings out of fridges?

after dropping the brand new range hood on the brand ny range i had to deal with a few small scratches quite a few small scratches and a couple of dings

I had been given SandBlaster pads by 3M in 180 and 400 grit by the appliance dealer

with a lot of patience and some rubbing first with the 180 then the 400 i got all of the scratches out and after press from the reverse side to push out the small dings they polished out also

You can get the pads in the big box stores they are a pink/purple color and work really well just polished out scratch on a friends new wolf range that was from a belt buckle

I scratched/dented our freezer drawers all by myself.

I'm very bad about opening drawers, etc., and shoving them closed with my foot, or bumping them shut with my rear while my hands are full.

I turned and pushed the bottom freezer drawer shut with the heel of a cowboy boot. Yee HAW.

At least I didn't dent it with my butt. That would be embarassing.

My new stainless steel refrigerator was installed three weeks ago and we already have a scratch/dent right in front courtesy of my 24 year old son - hardly a toddler! I've been told that a product called Scratch-B-Gone might help.
http://www.scratch-b-gone.com/. It's a bit expensive at about $50 and I haven't tried it yet, but you might check it out.

Mine is a brushed stainless-what do you use?

Oh boy, this makes me wonder if my silly little dog could scratch a stainless fridge? I haven't had it delivered yet. She will jump up on it wanting me to get her some cheese!

What do you think? She'd have it a mess in no time flat! I may have to do the stainless look instead? It doesn't show prints, so might not scratch as easy?

It reminds me of my penultimate car. I loved that car. Months after I bought it I parked as far away from the entrance to any store / office I visited so as to avoid the other cars: I didn't want any dings / scratches.

In a way, the first ding I did get was a blessing -- I stopped treating my car as a precious object and instead just used it as transportation. (still didn't let my husband drive it, though -- I'm not insane!)

It is totally understandable that anything new we want to keep pristine for as long as possible. Now your freezer will need to earn its keep and work for your family, inc. your toddler. But I'll bet that just you see the scratch -- will your friends who come over to visit you notice a scratch on your freezer door, or will they just be a) happy to spend time with you and b) happy for you you're redoing your kitchen?

Good luck!

debbie 2008, if that's something she's in the habit of doing, I'd definitely rethink getting the stainless fridge. Maybe there's some kind of clear acrylic clingy stuff you could put on it to protect it? Like the blue film stuff they put on for shipping...why does that stuff have to be blue? My MIL still has that blue stuff on the chrome sides of her white dishwasher and they've lived in that house 15 years!

I didn't realize this post would generate so many responses. I'm sorry that so many of you have experience similar pains.

But like rhome410 said, "Try to look at it as a badge of honor...A little memento from your budding chef!" My little darling was just trying to be like her Mommy, cooking in the kitchen. Now I'm feeling guilty for scaring her (and making her cry) by being so distraught over something so unimportant as an appliance.
It's true, those hugs from my little angel can heal a lot of things.

And because she's so young (MEANING SHORT), the scratches are way low, and not in the middle of the freezer or at adult eye-level.
I know, no one else would even notice these scratches. Especially when my other toddler (DS - nickname the Tornado) gets to leave his 'mark' on it. :)

(Note: the door of this freezer was JUST replaced last night, due to the fact that when it was delivered last week, there was a 'flaw' on the VERY bottom of the door that I just couldn't live with.)

You can replace just the freezer door if you want. Probably not cheap, but might be better than living with it for 10 years. Call the salesman at the store, might even give you the dented one, which may be better if you can't see it on the bottom and they can take the scratched one and send it back to mfg.

I feel your pain.

My 22 yr old sometimes not so DD scatched, chipped and dented my SS fridge within the first week by just being careless. I feel your ARGH!

"Now I'm feeling guilty for scaring her (and making her cry) by being so distraught over something so unimportant as an appliance."

We are all guilty of such things, and just have to apologize and do better next time --while also reminding them to stir fry with a rubber spatula on the fridge next time. :-)

The following is what our oldest baby did last year. Her first tearful words on the phone were, "You're going to kill me...I flipped the truck 3 times and I'm going to make our insurance rates go up." I felt TERRIBLE that those were the first thoughts she believed we'd have! Like you wish for your dd, I wanted to make sure that she knew that her safety/well-being/our love for her was our first concern, but the fact that she felt some responsibility and learned a lesson was a good thing.

The scratches they accomplish CAN get worse...And as long as they're on things and not them, we'll survive and be grateful. (But we'll still yell about it occasionally)

Oh, rhome, did your heart skip a few beats?

I'm not there yet, kids are only 12 and 10. However, close friends here have kids 16 and 18, and we're watching. You're right - the scratches get bigger and the hugs are fewer. Sigh.

Glad your DD was okay after that flip!

Sorry. Didn't mean to hijack this thread. No doubt you'll hear from me sometime in mid May, early June about some gash a boy (either one of the kids or, just as likely, DH) has made in our new kitchen. It's inevitable.

We recently got a scratch on our new fridge and while trying to find a solution, my mom's friend suggested using the green scotchbrite pad......so like a scrubbing fool I started scrubbing IN ALL DIRECTIONS!! That made it worse, so I googled and read that if you have BRUSHED SS you can use the scotchpad BUT IN THE SAME DIRECTION OF THE GRAIN/BRUSH strokes. So I did go over it again and it has removed the scratch but it is kind of dull in the area. It also said to polish the area and it will disappear. I haven't gotten to the polish part yet but it is better than with the long scratch on the door. BTW, it seems like the IDUNNO ppl did this again........whenever something goes missing/breaks no one ever seems to know how it happened in my house : (
On the other topic, so far with my teen we have an agreement.......ANYTIME he needs a ride from a place at night (driver left, uncomfortable situation, no sober driver etc) I will come to get him 'no questions' until the next morning when we can discuss/listen about the situation. I hope this works for us, since I'm fairly new at this party & having a license part of parenting.
rhome410...glad to hear your DD was able to call you to let you know about the accident and she was OK.

Hi...speaking from experience with getting dents in metal: I would go buy from your local automotive store a box called "Pops-A-Dent". It has several different sizes of little "plungers" that will stick to the metal. The plunger fits into the dent and is pulled out by another gizmo that you use to help lift out the plunger. I just found it online below.

I've used this to pull out numerous unsightly dents in metal before. My car, the side of a desk, and the front of a refrigerator in my garage that was hit with a basketball.

Last week, I had a service call on my brand new U-Line undercounter fridge. The service guy hit the top front corner of the fridge door with the corner of his metal tool box. You know, I just look at the dime size ding and then at the face of this brand new service guy working for a company that has been just terrific and I decided to let it go. I told him I'll try my pops a dent on it. I truly do believe that the tiniest plunger will pull out that ding.

FWIW, this kit below is the best $20 you will spend. With multiple drivers, it's GREAT at getting out shopping car dings, elbow dings, palm dings from pushing down the van back door from loading too much in the van during a move. You can use it over and over again.

PS: I bought my kit about 8 years ago. It had several sizes of plungers depending on your dent size. I noticed online that it shows only two sizes of those plungers now.
AND the 'glue' that they refer to in the box is really a melted glue stick. The glue gun and a few sticks of glue come in the box. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pops A Dent

thanks sherilynn, I may have to try that. I had a friend who bought a dent popping kit for his car once but you had to actually drill a hole in the car and then pull out the dent, then putty the hole and paint...what a pain and it looked worse than it did with the dent. So I was scared to go that route. This looks like it might work.

rhome, how terrifying! Thank God she was okay! I can't imagine! Obviously she was wearing a seatbelt if she survived something like that
so you must have taught her well. My kids are 12, 10 and 7 so I've got a few years yet but wow, that scares the *%#@ outta me!

I'm going to look for Pops a Dent, too. Thanks for sharing all the tips.

In our case, the carpet installers must have been swinging a tool and put a big dent in the side edge of brand new SS refrigerator. Either they didn't know their act or were scared to tell us. Discovered it a day after they were gone.

This was my point of wanting to yell "Get all these workers out of here!" Also, felt that way when workers accidentially damaged finished work (paint surfaces, dry wall, installed cabinet). Things like this (in addition to $$$) will keep me from wanting to remodel soon.

oh my God, rhome... i could cry over that picture. i'm so glad your precious baby is ok. i'm never allowing my kids to drive ...or even leave the house for that matter. i get to leave, just not them. ;*)

Sorry to have taken everyone off topic. What happened is that my daughter hit a patch of black ice on her way to work. Inexperience and an empty pickup were a bad combo.

There were several things to be thankful for. My dh had tools in the truck and she had text books...all flying around her head as she turned over and over. She said she had visions of being killed by a wrench or her own math book! (So what you carry loose in the car can be a big problem) The side of the road she was traveling on has a big drop-off on one side, but she crossed the road and ended up upside down in someone's driveway. It was early Sat. morning, so there were no other cars around to be involved. That big crunch in the truck was from a brick lamppost she hit while flipping. Even though it was solid, about 2 x 2 ft and planted 4 ft into the ground with concrete, it was completely pulled out. Just thankful the box of the truck hit it instead of the cab. She ended up with bruises from her seatbelt and a new respect for cold mornings. (There was no frost or anything to indicate ice should be a problem that day, but there were so many accidents no policemen even made it to hers, since it was 1 car, no injuries.) God apparently had more things for her to accomplish, and we're glad of that.

My heart flips and my stomach turns every time the phone rings when I know the kids are on the road. Our 3rd is just about ready for her license. The driving thing does add a whole new, scarier dimension to parenting!

Now, back to scratched fridges, from before I got so dramatic!...

I'm glad your daughter was okay, Rhome. How scary that must have been for her! I totaled my car a couple of years ago and my husband (who was out of town) sent me flowers. He said he was just glad I was okay and cars can be replaced.

That dent popper looks interesting. My white fridge got a ding in it when it was moved from one house to another. I'm going to look for it. Thanks.

I didn't read this entire thread, so forgive me if this is redundant:

When I joined this forum over a year ago, one of the very first posts I read was about a new, newly scratched stainless appliance. Someone responded with a rave about a 3M stainless steel scratch repair kit. Do a search for it online. Someone else said another appliance installer happened to notice the scratch on the appliance someone else had installed and kindly offered to "take care of it" for her. He did so with a lot of WD-40 and very fine grit sand paper. Have you searched the appliance and the kitchen forums? In any case, there is a cure for this problem, so do not fret.

Well, rhome, thank you for the picture- certainly puts things in perspective. Glad DD is OK.

rhome, just a side note concerning your Dear, Dear DD's "inexperience" with black ice making her crash: black ice is one of my nightmares. Learned about it first when a colleague at a conference was suddenly called back home to NC because most of her family was being airlifted to various hospitals after a HUGE horrible black ice crash. The father of the family was driving a minivan--grew up in NC, experienced on the road in all conditions, etc. Even the most experienced drivers can mess up on black ice.

On a happier topic: I'm going to try some of these on my sink sometime soon--great, useful ideas here--thanks everyone :)

(and to the OP: I went ballistic-Mommy once when my then-2 y.o. DD experimented with the wide-edge sharpie all over our desk and walls...I mean *all* over. I felt *horrible* about it later--she was just experimenting and I had forgotten about KILZ and paint, and I was able to get it off the desk in time...but the image of me being furious can't be erased from my memory :( So it happens; hope your misery is somewhat eased by company.)

Flyleft, I do realize that and have no idea why I included her inexperience as a factor. The number of accidents that day prove your point.

Also, I want to assure you, Huango, that I wasn't trying at all to belittle your angst over the fridge, since I'm sure you already know that in the scheme of things, it's not a life and death matter...Just identifying with making our kids feel like *things* are more important than they are. I will freak out with the first big scratch on our fridges, too...But now I have this thread to save for advice. Some really great tips here!

kitchen detective

I was the one with the 3m pads

they have become a gift for friends each time they have purchased new SS appliances

Twoyur,
Thanks for reaffirming!