refrigerator cabinet build advice....

[Justin Jump]

Any advice on this one is appreciated.

I want to build a cabinet that surrounds the refrigerator, not just a cabinet above, and not just plywood sides.

My plan is to build it as shown on the .pdf, but not sure how to keep the sides from "moving" around until install.

I show my drawing with removable supports, hoping this helps control that until the unit is installed.

My plan is to make this cabinet 29" deep and the others 24" deep to cover more of the sides of the refrigerator. That will hide some of the side of the frig, and give my crown molding some depth, instead of just a straight run across all 3 cabinets.

How have others built these? Did you run a back panel all the way to the floor?

THX

316851316852

[David Nelson1]

I saw no need for a cabinet. I built partitions, a long for the end of the counter and a shorter one for the other side. My frig is already boxed in due to the hall and kitchen being one of the same. I did add a box on top and left room for a taller frig at a later date. I used AM plywood

[Jamie Buxton]

You seem to have a full 3/4 back panel. That's overkill. Most fridge cabinets have no back. That way, the fridge doesn't get pushed out into the room by the back. Yeah, the sides flop around a bit when you're moving it from the shop to the kitchen, but the cabinet will survive.

One consideration when "shrink-wrapping" a cabinet around a fridge is where the hot air goes. Reefers produce warm air. That's a fact of physics. You have to provide a way for that hot air to escape. Some fridges blow it out in the toe kick. Some expect it to escape up the back and out the top. Most reefers nowadays have installation drawings that will tell you how much ventilation area they need and where.

[Jamie Buxton]

One more thought...
If you shrink wrap the cabinet around a particular fridge, what will happen when it needs replacement? Fridge sizes have not stayed constant. Ten years from now, you may need a new fridge, but you don't likely want to rip out the cabinetry. Many folks just make an oversize hole and put the fridge in it. It looks a bit sloppy, but it is versatile.

[Justin Jump]

@ Dave.....so your skin is just a panel with a long stile?

@ Jamie...my back panel is not the entire length, just the section where the cabinet above is located. I have all clearances covered according to the manufacturer of the refrigerator I bought. As far as replacement goes, I kept a standard size, so there should always be something out there. It's a 33" wide, most are 36" but 33" is fairly common also, I kept the height of the opening 72".

[Jerry Miner]

Justin--- I build cabinets for a living. Your proposed method is pretty much what we do in our shop. I leave the back cleats in place--locating them to avoid conflict with the electrical outlet on the back wall--- so they can be used to help secure the cabinet to the wall.

In my own house, I set the shelf above the refr. on cleats screwed on from underneath so I could "upgrade" the regr. to a taller unit later without tearing out the cab. but just moving the shelf and making two new doors.

Make sure you have room to A] get this unit into the room, and B] stand it up vertically after it enters the room.

[Max Neu]

Justin,
I have done them both way's (completely built at the shop,or separate side panels).Lately I have done more with separate side panels (like Daves)because a lot of the kitchens we do have the cabinets all the way to the ceiling,so it makes it easier to get the cabinet in place.My side panels are stiles that run all the way up.I make narrow stiles on the cabinet portion,and have the doors overlay the seam where the stile of the panel meets the stile of the cabinet,so it's not noticeable the they are separate pcs.If we build the cabinet complete in the shop,we brace it up good so it doesn't get tweeked and break joints apart on the face frame.I would also cut a spacer that keeps the opening at the bottom the same width as the as the top during install.

[Peter Quinn]

We usually make them deeper than 29", closer to 33" interior. I guess it depends on the fridge, many of the new ones are pretty deep door to clearance at the back for plug/ water, but I guess you can match all that to the unit if it's already chosen. We usually do a full 1/2" back, not really sure why. What is the flooring? I've put pocket screws along the bottom of the two side walls and screwed them right to the floor from the inside, one side is usually attached to the adjacent cabinet for strength but the other tends to float if the end is open. We usually just run stringers along the bottom edge to keep the side walls in place while the FF gets attached and to get it through construction/finishing/ delivery. You could do the same to the back. At some point it has to be attached to the wall, if this is a gut it may be wise to include blocking to attach the side walls at a few elevations at the back, particularly if you will have no back behind the fridge. You could also remove some drywall at a few elevations, like 3" horizontal bands across several studs, fill these with 1/2" plywood and screw to those, not quite as good as blocking but workable. Personally I'd just make the cabinet 1/2" deeper, throw a piece of shop grade back on the thing and make your life easy. It's maybe $45 worth of plywood, pretty much pennies on the cost of a whole kitchen, makes install very easy. Just make sure you can actually stand the box you design up in the room! How you handle the back depends also on where the fridge is in the room. If it is on an end and has an exposed end we usually do rabbited backs with a scribe, same if it's flanked by upper and lowers but then everything jogs around those if it's paneled ends that butt into a backsplash. It's really one of the potentially trickier boxes to deal with.

[Mike Schuch]

The number one killer of refrigerator compressors is lack of ventilation. They way your cabinet is designed I bet you will be replacing the compressor in your refrigerator or your entire refrigerator every two to three years. You need a LOT more ventilation than what you are showing!

Guess how I know!?!?!?!?

[David Nelson1]

@ Dave.....so your skin is just a panel with a long stile?.

Yes! For that application I ran a groove the width of the plywood on the face frame with a 3/16 overhang on both side. On the wall side it hides the ugly corner bead of the wall. For the upper cabinet I simply screwed it to the upper and lower cabinets and studs in the hall wall and shimmed accordingly. I then closed the top off with a valence panel. The fridge is the largest I could find and it still has about 12 inches of room behind it so circulation will not be a problem.

[Justin Jump]

Thanks Dave, I got the same appliances as you, Kenmore Elite.....

Thanks to Jerry for reminding me to check my heights - at 24" deep, I am OK, at 30" deep, I am not......

Maybe assemblt the cabinet "in place"?

[Lee Schierer]

The number one killer of refrigerator compressors is lack of ventilation. They way your cabinet is designed I bet you will be replacing the compressor in your refrigerator or your entire refrigerator every two to three years. You need a LOT more ventilation than what you are showing!

Guess how I know!?!?!?!?

I was going to advise the same thing. You need to leave lots of space for the heat to get out or your electric bill will be high and your fridge life will be pretty low.

[David Nelson1]

Assemble in place is a better option than wrestling a cabinet that large inside and trying to stand it up. Even easier was the panel option I took and it was less expense that building a whole cabinet 36 deep. My top cabinet is only 24 deep since it would be to hard to grab stuff all the way in the back. I did plan on adding 2 sliders to help with that. To offset the size of the refrig cabinet I'm planning a pantry 36 wide by 30 deep with swinging shelves. Looking forward to see how your kitchen turns out. I'm fight with cabinet door right now................

[David Nelson1]

I was going to advise the same thing. You need to leave lots of space for the heat to get out or your electric bill will be high and your fridge life will be pretty low.

How much room is enough IYO Lee? I left 12 behind the frig and the upper cabinet
So far the frig operates the same as it did when it was sitting in the corner for 6 months.

[mark mcfarlane]

How much room is enough IYO Lee? I left 12 behind the frig and the upper cabinet
So far the frig operates the same as it did when it was sitting in the corner for 6 months.

David, The air needs to come in from the kitchen, pass around the back of the fridge, and then vent out into the kitchen. Just having a sealed 12" pocket behind the fridge won't do the trick, you need air flow, driven by either convection or a fan. The fridge manual should tell you the direction of air flow, i.e. does the air need to come in at the floor and return at the top, or vice versa? And it should (hopefully) also tell you how many square inches of inlet and outlet 'port size' are required.

Think of the fridge like a heater, because it is. Air needs to come in (cold air return) and air needs to come out (registers). Otherwise the compressor is running in a hot space, and will die prematurely. It might work fine for a year, or 3 years or 5 years, but it will die earlier than if it was properly vented (maybe 20+ years, my fridge is 25 years old and works like new).

My next door neighbor has already replaced a small wine fridge (kitchen island) twice in the last 2 years because it wasn't properly vented. He's going to install 2 vents, floor, and high, to allow convection to happen unobstructed.

[Myk Rian]

You need room air coming in the bottom, and passing out the top. That is a fact you cannot avoid.
A refrigerator in an inclosed space WILL die.

[David Nelson1]

Thanks for the heads up Mark. Only thing the manual talks about is 2 inches from the back wall and not to exceed 110 degree F. Fridge vents out the front and none of my cabinet go the ceiling so its open. i did leave a space over the sink for make up air but that is a long ways away. 48 cuft of space behind the frig should be ok.

[Jim Becker]

Use temporary spacers at the bottom while you do your assembly and any finishing in the shop, but consider making the piece "break down" for easier installation.

[Peter Quinn]

I'm looking closely at David Nelson's fridge cabinet, it's a really interesting way to do it. Problem with fridge cabs is they are always bigger than the fridge they surround, and many of those fridges barely make it in the door as is. Not to be critical but the double stiles and additional filler strip between fridge and upper would never be accepted in my end of the industry. Designers with keen eyes want clean uninterrupted lines that look like they were built for the purpose. I'm thinking you could achieve the same functionality and maintain the custom look. Make the outer partition walls with the stiles attached. Make the upper cabinet so the plywood verticals tuck behind the stiles on the partitions, no double stile on stile construction. Attach the rails and mid stiles to the upper cabinet box once everything is screwed together in the shop. Mark for a field joint like a dowel or domino at the two stile intersection. Sand it together as a unit once the joinery is in but not glued, you might do a slight ease at that joint if you don't mind the line. I've always though it makes sense to build the upper shallow, like say 15-18" deep max. It's a black hole of death cabinet anyway, who can reach the back of an upper over a fridge anyway? Keeping it shallow lets the fridge vent out the back if you don't run to the ceiling, if you do you could make a wooden vent in one or both of the partitions. I had to build a cabinet for Lieberher fridge similarly, the vent was on the top in front. The specs required convection flow for cooking, the unit sucked cool air in through the front and needed a certain square inches of clear vent space out the top back.

[David Nelson1]

I'm looking closely at David Nelson's fridge cabinet, it's a really interesting way to do it. Problem with fridge cabs is they are always bigger than the fridge they surround, and many of those fridges barely make it in the door as is. Not to be critical but the double stiles and additional filler strip between fridge and upper would never be accepted in my end of the industry. Designers with keen eyes want clean uninterrupted lines that look like they were built for the purpose. I'm thinking you could achieve the same functionality and maintain the custom look. Make the outer partition walls with the stiles attached. Make the upper cabinet so the plywood verticals tuck behind the stiles on the partitions, no double stile on stile construction. Attach the rails and mid stiles to the upper cabinet box once everything is screwed together in the shop. Mark for a field joint like a dowel or domino at the two stile intersection. Sand it together as a unit once the joinery is in but not glued, you might do a slight ease at that joint if you don't mind the line. I've always though it makes sense to build the upper shallow, like say 15-18" deep max. It's a black hole of death cabinet anyway, who can reach the back of an upper over a fridge anyway? Keeping it shallow lets the fridge vent out the back if you don't run to the ceiling, if you do you could make a wooden vent in one or both of the partitions. I had to build a cabinet for Lieberher fridge similarly, the vent was on the top in front. The specs required convection flow for cooking, the unit sucked cool air in through the front and needed a certain square inches of clear vent space out the top back.

LOL Peter the design folks here didn't know the difference since it was their first rodeo. Your suggestion is a good one, but I never thought of it. I can guarantee this will not be the only time someone will point something out that I didn't think of. Appreciate it believe it out not.

[Matt Meiser]

You need room air coming in the bottom, and passing out the top. That is a fact you cannot avoid.
A refrigerator in an inclosed space WILL die.

Some are now designed for a tight fit. The counter-depth Frigidaire we bought for our previous house was that way. IIRC, only 1" of clearance above, which was hidden by the doors when closed, was required. Cool air was drawn in at the toekick. I did mine pretty similar to David's. Of course I only stuck around about a year after.

If you need more airflow and had an open soffit above the fridge, you could put a false back in the cabinet and create a channel for air to flow up through the top. Would make mounting fun but doable.

[Jim Becker]

We also have counter-depth refrigeration and the fit is "tight". Like the larger "professional" refrigeration systems that incorporate air flow venting, our counter-depth LG brings air in front to back by design. The GE that preceded it was the same.