I have an old under-counter fridge and want to replace it. Unfortunately, my hand-made kitchen was built around this rubbishy old appliance and it is only a very small fridge. Newer ones seem to be a lot larger.
At the moment, there is a 32mm gap between the top of the fridge and the worktop. The fridge would fit flush to the wooden cabinets either side of it (although behind the front wooden fascia, there are large gaps to the left and right side of the fridge).
What I would like to know is what is the MINIMUM amount of gap I need at the top of the fridge to allow for air flow. The fridge I would like to have would probably only allow a 4 to 5mm gap at the top, and that doesn’t really seem enough to me.
2 Responses to “Under counter larder fridge and air flow.”
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I don’t think there is any problem because any heat is dissipated at the rear
The new fridge you are looking at should tell you what it needs in clearance to operate efficiently. I’d recommend checking that first.
It sounds like you have a piece of fascia trim to either side of the opening, for the fridge. These pieces of trim could be trimmed down on a table saw, to allow for greater air flow around the sides of the unit. I’d recommend you call in a cabinet installer to make this minor adjustment to the cabinets. Sometimes this trim is held in place by a bracket from behind, but more often than not, it is simply screwed in from the side, to the cabinet adjacent to it. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to remove them, and trim them down. (I’d trim them down where they fit up against the adjacent cabinet, so that you’d not need to sand and refinish the visible edge, facing the fridge). This is an ‘easy fix’ for someone who installs, or builds, cabinets for a living.
Again, to find the minimum gap, you need to check the paperwork on the new unit itself.
Just off the top of my head, most full size units require about 2 inches clearance all the way around, minimum. I’m not sure what it will be for a small unit like this. so check the paperwork. If you haven’t bought it yet, the store will be more than happy to open up the paperwork package for you, so you can see what is needed.
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