Electricity should be pretty easy and cheap to move, but moving heat ducts and cold air returns can be VERY expensive and sometimes impossible. It would probably be much cheaper to just order a counter-depth refrigerator.

Just a question about the recess. Most walls are 2x4 or 2x6. Does that mean that the refrigerator gets pushed back 4" or 6". Is the price of opening up a wall, putting up a header and moving it back only this amount worth it? I ask because our designer messed up and our wall was 4x6 not 2x4. We have a wrap around end cap going into the pantry. We had to have the carpenter take apart the 2x6 wall and put it back in as a 2x4 wall so the end cap fit correctly. Our wall was a bathroom wall (we're retaining a lavette and making the rest of the bath a pantry). The lavette still has the 2x6 wall for the toilet. I'm upset about the extra cost because it wasn't easy ripping out a wall and re-building it. And it wasn't all that long either - about 4 feet. We had only some electricity in the wall so it wasn't a problem. We have forced hot air so some other walls contain heating ducts which would have been almost impossible to move. We recessed the beverage refrigerator and a spice drawer filler while we were at it giving us more space to enter the kitchen from the dining room.

A 2 x 4 is actually 1.5 x 3.5 and with two sheets of 5/8" dry wall it brings wall thickness to 4-3/4". (With 1/2" drywall 4-1/2"). So recessing a refrigerator in a standard cavity wall only gains 4 inches if you recess all the way back to the layer of drywall on the other wall surface. This recess is built like a doorway that is sheathed over on one side. This leaves a ~ 3 foot expanse of drywall unsupported, so generally it is beefed up with another layer of drywall-or- a backer of plywood,-or- narrow "studs" turned sideways and in turn sheathed with a layer of drywall or plywood, all of which take back some of this four inches, so you may, in a 2x4 wall gain as little as 2" or a maximum of 4, and usuallyh somewhere in between.

If there is wiring, its usually easy to reroute, a water supply line is a pain and an expense but not impossible, ductwork would generally be a deal breaker.

Before you make any plans I would do some investigating (remove some drywall).

When we were looking at recessing ours, we were only going to get 2" max because we were going to have to turn the studs sideways as palimsest mentioned above. We decided it wasn't worth it - it didn't recess far enough. (Plus, I LOVE my CD now that I am using it so I am so happy we didn't recess a FD).

If you don't know what is in the wall and don't have any access to original house blueprints, then the only way you can find out is to cut some of the sheetrock to take a peek.

We put a hole or two in our ceiling before we ordered cabinets -- started inside a dropped light box and not seen, but we were able to verify the direction and location of the joists so we could make sure we could relocate the cooktop and vent.

You (or a contractor) can tell a lot by looking at the space, the adjoining rooms, the attic and rooms above. You should be able to get a pretty good degree of certainty from some investigating, but I wouldn't hesitate to put a hole in the sheetrock to verify anything that could put an upset into the plan. If you recess the space, the sheetrock's all coming down. If you find you can't, a drywall repair is one of the least expensive fixes.

Agreed to all of the above. If you have a basement, with either an unfinished ceiling or a drop ceiling you can also get a pretty good idea by looking down there to see where the ducts and lines run. I definitely wouldn't (and didn't) hesitate to make lots of holes in my drywall before my reno so there were no big surprises. Like lascatx said, it's a pretty cheap fix to patch the holes if necessary and worth it, IMO, to have a good idea what's going on back there.

If you decide to go that route, just try and make sure you cut out the drywall in even rectangles or squares so patching later is easier.

We are recessing our frig. We couldn't get enough room with a simple recess so we're taking out some of the 4' staircase behind the wall (that will go to the guest suite). Our contractor then had to reframe the staircase, reroute water pipes and a waste pipe. Not a cheap job. The way I look at it though is a CD frig is $2k more than a regular frig with less space. We plan to stay here until they have to wheel us out so we will make back the money after 2 or 3 frig.

thank you ~ thank you ~ one & all ~ i was able to glean so much info from all your responses! ~

we did as suggested & cut a rectangle ~ (or two) ~ out of the drywall & it looks like there is a heat duct going up the very. very outer edge of where we would have to cut the recess ~ damnation ~

it's hard to get an absolutely *perfect & exact* measurement with existing stuff still on that wall (which backs up to stairs to the basement) but it appears that it will bethisclose ~~

thanks, phyl

p.s. *IF* we find we can do it, does the new, reenforced opening need a stud going right, smack up against the heat duct? ~ or could the header be wider & go *past the heat duct ~~ does that make sense?

If the heat duct is running vertically up your wall and is in the wall right beside where you will have to put the header, you'll need to place a support beam there and one on the other side to distribute the weight. I don't know how you could put the support beam past the heat duct, as the heat duct will obstruct your ability to do that. Unless I'm not understanding correctly.

My counter depth 36" fridge was $2500 total. I don't think that's terribly unreasonable for a fridge, so I wouldn't rule them out if the ducting is an issue and you really don't want a fridge that sticks out.

I don't know what your storage needs are, mind you, so that will definitely factor into the equation. I think the CD fridge is just fine for my storage needs, but yours may be wildly different. Plus, I've always had a second freezer in the basement to hold freezer overflow.

Is there a specific reason you're against CD fridges? I'm just tryin' to get a feel for the cost-benefit analysis of each scenario :)

Sometimes, the issue is maximum cubic footage within a certain width. So, if you want a larger 36" wide fridge, you are going to have to get a deeper one. So in some cases it doesn't matter whether it is more expensive to move the wall or get the counter-depth fridge: if you want the larger fridge you are going to have to recess the wall and go deeper. With counter depth, you can only go wider or taller.

I totally get that, I'm just trying to get a feel for the OP's motivations. Then we can do the cost-benefit analysis based on priorities :)

My CD was also $2500, which I found wasn't terribly more expensive than most of the full depths. And I would have never guessed how much I would end up loving my CD, even with a family of 4. I thought for sure it would be cramped, but shockingly it's not.