It depends on the refrig. Check the manufactures specs and it will tell you exactly how much space there must be. 6 1/2" is probably way more than you need.

I don't have the fridge yet. I was planning on getting one with a handle, although maybe not. I have an extra 4" of space in the back, so the fridge might be close to being flush with the counter.

Just went through this. The front of the fridge should be flush with the front of the adjacent wall. Reason is, most fridges need to open wider than 90 degrees to you can get stuff in and out -- crispers etc.

I have one 24" deep with a very shallow door and the handle would clear the wall (so no banging). Even still I had to pull it forward rather and build a side panel rather than push it back so it would be flush with the counter.

It's about door swing as well as space from the wall. Tired and hope I'm making sense.

It depends on the fridge, and you can usually find this in the specs. I just did a kitchen with (slightly under) 3" because it can open with the handle into a doorway. The door does not swing to its full capability, but it doesnt really need to. The contractor insisted it wasnt going open at all:(

If you flung it open, I suppose you could damage the door with this setup since the middle of the door can contact the corner of the doorway into the kitchen.

We used a full length filler to cover the gap on that side of the fridge. It is a counter depth fridge so it gives it a good finished appearance.

I also did a full depth fridge right against a wall where the fridge is 33" and the total opening is 37", most of that --3+ inches of space on the hinge side. It opens to 90+ degrees but there is no handle on the fridge.

A lot of people will disagree with putting it too close to the wall because the door only opens to about 90 degrees, not fully, and sometimes pulling something out for cleaning is a pain. (But the fridges are on wheels and can be moved for this as necessary).

I do it because I tend to do small kitchens and I put the bulk of fridge at the end of a run, which tends to be against a wall.

... in any case, once you start shaving off space down to the thickness of a couple fingers, what really counts is air circulation, heat and humidity in the air (A/C on all the time or not), and where the heat pipes are underneath the metal cladding of Your Chosen fridge.

To get fresh air to flow around it and to give the air an exit path too, it would make sense to put a mini fan (the size of what you see inside a PC) somewhere under the cabinets, without any kickplate either.

The manufacturers won't help you because they don't want to discuss how close is just barely close enough and not too much -- and they wouldn't want to start saying that arid climate dwellers have a bit more freedom to squeeze the fridge and humid climate dwellers have to leave more space...

If you build the fridge into an airtight plastic bag, it will fail as a fridge because its heat will be retained in the bag surrounding it. Same thing for a smaller and smaller space, you just end up heating the material surrounding it.

I know the small LG has a lot of its heat pipes in the front sides near the door gasket, adn this is mentioned in its online PDF. Someone posted here how it still manages to work even after he built it into a tight space and had it practically "plug" the space. It's a 24" wide fridge.

HTH

I wouldn't want to have to pull a fridge out of its location if I wanted to take out a produce drawer to rinse it at the sink. Past the handle hitting the wall concern, the problem is when a fridge drawer can't open all the way because the door racks block it if you can't open the door widely enough. The location of drawers and racks are different in different brands and models...Some not in the way at all, others have a major blocking issue. Best to check the one you plan to install. I checked certain fridges when we were planning our kitchen that would need about a foot between it and a wall if that wall extended past the face of the fridge.

We were just in this situation! The Jenn-Air french door pro model only needed about 3" to open doors all the way, and the bottom crisper drawer opened all the way when the doors were opened just 90 degrees (wouldn't have needed to swing all the way open to get them out). It was our top choice because of this.

All of the fridge specs will give you that minimum clearance, but I'd go check them out in person to see which models (there are very few) will allow the crisper drawer open fully with the doors open just 90 degrees.

Wheels...Today's refrigerators have "anti-tip" devices so it isn't as easy as to just pull them out as it used to be. Also, if you have a vinyl floor, you will need to be very careful pulling out a refrigerator...they can easily tear the flooring.

How much filler...It depends on how much wall there is next to the refrigerator...when the refrigerator is open, will the entire door still be against a wall or will it be opening into a doorway? That will make a difference. My wall wasn't as deep as my refrigerator carcass so I didn't need any filler....I have a 24" deep wall next to a 26" deep refrigerator carcass + air space behind it.

If your wall is the at least as deep as the refrigerator carcass + door, then you will need enough filler to open the doors wide enough to remove drawers for cleaning (shelves usually aren't a problem as you can angle them up/down & out).

As others have said, check the specs and go to see one in person. While there, mock it up by using a panel or something to hold against the refrigerator and see how much space you need b/w the panel & refrigerator to allow full opening of the door & the easy removal and replacement of drawers. (Putting a drawer back in is often more difficult than removing one!)

I have a deep side wall on the refrigerator run and I gave up 15 inches of precious counterspace to put a pantry against the wall so the refrigerator would be fully usable. Moving a refrigerator to remove drawers for cleaning can be hard on floors and water lines.