The “zero clearance” fridge that wasn’t

3 days ago

Last week someone on a forum posted a photo of their kitchen and a simple wish.

Their fridge sits in a tight opening with a wall on the right, and the wall runs past the front of the fridge. Every day the right-hand door stops just short of fully open. To get anything out of the back, they have to reach around the door and past the freezer handle. They’d had enough, and they had a plan: buy a new fridge with “zero clearance” hinges, so the door could swing all the way open against the wall.

It sounded like the perfect fix, and the phrase is right there in the marketing. Two of the biggest brands use it on their spec sheets.

Then you read further down the same sheets. One asks for a couple of inches beside the door for the handle. The other says to allow 3 3/4 inches when the fridge goes next to a wall. “Zero clearance” turned out to mean the door doesn’t swing out much past the side of the fridge. The handle still needs somewhere to go, and in their opening there was barely a quarter inch.

We went through every model of that width we could find. None of them would open fully with so little room.

In the end the poster solved it themselves, and it was simpler than any hinge. Don’t fight the wall: choose a fridge whose door opens away from it. A single-door model hinged on the left would swing open freely, and many of those doors can be reversed at home.

So if your fridge sits next to a wall, ask two questions before you shop: which way does the door open, and can it be switched? It matters more than any phrase on the box.

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Comments (4)

chispa
2 days ago
last modified: 2 days ago
The easy way to do this, is to go to a good/large appliance store that has floor models of the units you are considering. Bring a large piece of cardboard and a tape measure. You can put the pretend wall (cardboard) next to the floor model fridge and then try to open the doors and drawers. Write down the measurements of your experiment. Seeing something in person usually beats reading specs online.

If you buy a badly designed kitchen and don't plan on remodeling, then buying a fridge with a single door with hinges on the opposite side of the wall will usually work.
musti
Original Author
yesterday
Great tip, thank you. The cardboard test is the best check there is. One thing worth trying while you're at the store: open the door past 90°, not just to 90°. On many fridges the crisper drawers only slide out with the door opened further, and that needs a lot more room beside the wall. One Samsung French-door model asks for 3 3/4" at 90° but 11 3/8" at its full 125° swing. And agreed: a single door hinged away from the wall avoids the problem completely.
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The Kitchen Place
22 hours ago
As a longtime KD, I am shocked that MANY appliance manufacturers have stopped supplying specs on "against wall" situations. It's like they don't want any liability for this. Lately, I've had to tell my clients to see the make/model in person and let me know how much space they need against the wall.
musti
Original Author
17 hours ago
Same experience here. I've been going through install docs for a lot of current fridges and maybe a third don't say anything about the door next to a wall. Kenmore and Frigidaire Gallery don't give it at all from what I've seen. Monogram, JennAir and F&P are good about it. Seeing it in person is honestly the safest bet for the rest.