It's our practice to keep the refrigerator and the oven separated from a functional standpoint.

Yep. I know someone where this happened at their housewarming party.

And several years later when the house was sold as the result of a divorce, the dented fridge was a negotiating point.

The adjacency can work if it is an over under refrigerator where the ovens are on the handle side and the door swings away from the oven.

That thing is right at eye level. Apparently the body shop dent removal guys are powerless against stainless steel.

The same designer that recessed the refer into the wall or is that a counter depth?

Our SxS counter-depth fridge is right next to the dishwasher. It was never a problem, but the current DW is a Bosch with very sharp corners at top of door, that seem like a hazard all around. I make sure the DW is closed before opening the fridge door.

I wonder if the other door hits the cabinet knob. People need to understand the limitations of their appliances and layout. Many people want a double oven rather than a range. And many kitchens are not large enough to accommodate them in an ideal location. So in situations like these, they need to weigh the need for a separate wall oven vs. the understanding they need to be careful when opening the refrigerator door. Or they need to invest in a refrigerator like Sub Zero that offers a 90 degree hinge stop.

"People need to understand the limitations of their appliances and layout."

It's the designer's job to explain those. We wouldn't see all the scorched backsplashes if it were done more often. If you're designing it yourself, that doesn't absolve you of responsibility.

We have our fridge right beside the oven. Never once in almost four years has it been an issue. The location of appliances works beautifully in our space. Perhaps our friends pay more attention.

My ex-wife and I opened the refrigerator and a pantry door simultaneously. The fridge door hit her hand and she damn near dropped to the floor in pain.

The house we rented while building had the same appliance layout and the same dent in the fridge! In the photo it looks like they tried to avoid it with a decent sized spacer, but obviously not enough. In the rental house the fridge and oven/MW were even closer.

The flaw was in choosing a side by side refrigerator instead of a bottom freezer model. With a left-hand hinge on the door you'd avoid smacking into the ovens.

(This is why the drawings should show the door swings on the appliances, IMO.)

The house we rented had the bottom freezer model, but they bough a fridge with a right-hand hinge! I don't think most people think it through, until it is too late and they get a dent.

We have this set up in two homes and have had for 30 years. It has never been a problem for me nor for my husband and 3 children!

Thanks for this! I was a little annoyed when our designer inserted a bank of drawers between our fridge and DW--it pushed the fridge further into the dining nook than we'd hoped. Glad we trusted her and rolled with it. Our family would definitely have had that kind of accident.

telesaps:

You can depend upon luck or good design.

Which oven door do you think caused the damage? I can't see how either did. Both doors opened don't seem to line up with the dent.

When the top door is lowered, it lines up with the dent.

And not only height, but the distance from the hinge to the dent lines up with the open door corner too.

I have the exact same layout-- the side-by-side fridge is to the right of the ovens. However we don't have a problem because the freezer door doesn't open wide enough to hit the oven handles. It's a Subzero--as Kristen Petro stated, there's a 90 degree stop to avoid this type of collision.

Is this a design issue or a too many cooks in the kitchen at once issue.

Donald:

It's a design issue. A fundamental flaw as a matter of fact. Like missing a filler and now the dishwasher door won't open after the cabinet handles have been installed.

@Donald, so you're saying that it wouldn't be a problem if only one person used the kitchen at a time? How impractical is that? And you don't know it could be a problem until after the fact. If something can be prevented, but isn't planned for, that's a design flaw.