Integrated Fridge Freezer Against Wall?

[reginaldo]

Hi,

I'm looking to take out an existing base unit (with no wall unit above it) and replace it with a larder unit for an integrated fridge freezer. The unit is up against a wall, so I would have the door opening restricted to 90 degrees, minus a few degrees as the handle will hit the wall if fully opened.

Does anybody know if that would cause any issues? I'm thinking I might need a spacer between the wall and the new unit of a few centimetres to ensure it can open the full 90 degrees or maybe a bit more. If I have to add a spacer it throws the measurements out as this is a modification my kitchen rather than me starting from scratch and being able to factor it in easily.

Will doing it without a spacer cause any issues?

Thanks

[wine~o]

Can't you just put the hinges on the other side (The fridge will have reversible doors)

[dewaltdisney]

If I understand you correctly are you installing the fridge/freezer in a larder unit with doors? The problem you have is mounting the doors on the hinge plates on the unit and you can get around this using clip on hinges where you snap the mounting arms on to the plates.

If you can get the fridge to fit in do not worry too much about not being able to fully open the doors, as you rarely do in use. The only problem you have is whether you can get the drawers out for the occasional defrost of the freezer.

Clearly you need to measure and work this out first and it might be an idea to do a dry run with the fridge and the unit before it is installed to understand it better. You may wish to build a platform from scrap so that you can pop the fridge on it to perfectly align with the unit base as it makes it easy to slide it in and out when getting it set up. Also if you have to pull it out to defrost then it will be easier to pull out when necessary.

Good luck

DWD

[reginaldo]

I know what you mean about opening the door the other way wine-o; that would solve the problem, but I don't think I want to spend the rest of the life of the kitchen having to walk around the fridge door to get into it while I'm cooking. We only have a galley kitchen with an 80cm gap between the work surfaces - not ideal, but it's what I've got to work with. If I can get it to open the 'right' way, I'll be really happy

dewaltdisney - really sorry, but I'm not fully sure I understand what you mean about the hinges. I think I need to know as it sounds like it could be a deal-breaker! I have done an integrated fridge/freezer for my Mum but can't remember how the two sets of doors attached, apart from them being sliding. Are you talking about attaching the larder doors to the fridge/freezer doors? If I'm right, I think you're saying I need it open more than 90 degrees to get them attached. For the scrap platform, are you saying I should get the larder unit and fridge set up on a platform and then slide the whole lot into place?

Sorry I didn't understand first time

[ayjay]

The door should open within the footprint of the cupboard, (if the footprint was extended perpendicular to the wall), as you've already spotted, the handle will protrude outside of that.

Any skirting is hopefully below the plinth height.

[wine~o]

I know what you mean about opening the door the other way wine-o; that would solve the problem, but I don't think I want to spend the rest of the life of the kitchen having to walk around the fridge door to get into it while I'm cooking. We only have a galley kitchen
:

Better than banging your knuckles on the wall every time you open the fridge..

[reginaldo]

Hadn't thought about knuckle banging! Hopefully that will only happen once, maybe twice...

[dewaltdisney]

Just to clarify what I was talking of was the hinges for the decorative unit doors and using these clip on hinges is the only way to fit the doors in a confined space. See http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/prod ... 110_degree

There is a sliding mechanism that will come with the fridge that fixes the fridge door to the decorative door so as you open it the doors move together and the slider deals with the offset angle of the two arcs of the doors.

Hope that helps

DWD

[reginaldo]

I get you now! My head went off on a massive detour from what you were talking about. Nice to know they exist

[Loosenup]

Hi reg
Usually , most integrated fridges freezers and fridge freezers will only require 90 degree opening .. the drawers are usually able to pull out with the doors at that angle.. ideally you should have as much space as possible on the hinge side. but if you are up against a wall ( so to speak ) then 20 mm filler down that side of unit would be sufficient to make everything work .. not ideal but ok .. there are two ways that the doors attach to an int fridge .. first is that the doors of the unit attach in the normal way just like any other base or larder, then you slide the machine in the space and attach the doors to the machine on the handle side of the door with plastic or metal sliders which will be supplied with the machine .. the other method is that the doors are attached to fridge and not the carcase.. this is getting rarer thank god . hope this helps

[ayjay]

.. first is that the doors of the unit attach in the normal way just like any other base or larder, then you slide the machine in the space and attach the doors to the machine

Not quite like any other base unit - the hinges for integrated fridges have a slightly slimmer profile.

Easy enough to spot the difference if you check them out before you start fitting any hinges.