Where can I put a fridge and how much ventilation does it need?

A fridge does not create cold. It moves heat from inside the cabinet to the condenser coils outside it, and if that heat cannot escape into the room, the appliance runs longer and longer trying to shed it. Almost every complaint about a fridge running constantly, running hot, or costing too much comes back to where it is standing and what is around it.

Safety

Step by step

1. Check the manual for the clearances your specific model wants.They vary. As a general guide, 50mm behind, 50mm each side and 100mm above the appliance, with an unobstructed path for warm air to rise away from the back. Some models with a base-mounted condenser and fan need less at the back and more underneath.
2. Leave the spacers on the back if the appliance came with them.Those small plastic feet or brackets at the top rear exist to hold the appliance off the wall by the correct distance. People remove them to gain 40mm of worktop depth and then wonder why the appliance runs constantly.
3. Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources.Not next to a cooker, an oven, a boiler, a radiator or a south-facing window. A fridge standing beside an oven works hardest exactly when the kitchen is hottest. If it cannot be moved, an insulating panel between the two is worth fitting.
4. Check the room stays inside the appliance's climate class range.N class needs +16 to +32°C, SN needs +10 to +32°C. A conservatory, a porch, an unheated utility room or a garage will fall outside those limits, and outside them the appliance stops holding temperature reliably in either direction.
5. Get it level, front to back and side to side.A spirit level across the top. Most appliances are designed to sit very slightly tilted back so the doors self-close, and the front feet usually screw up and down. A fridge that is out of level has doors that swing open and a drain that does not run to its hole.
6. Leave the doors room to open fully.Not just to 90 degrees — far enough to pull the salad drawers and freezer baskets right out. A wall or an island 100mm too close makes the bottom drawer permanently awkward.
7. Check the socket, and never use an extension lead.A continuously running appliance belongs in a fixed socket. If the socket ends up behind the appliance where you cannot reach it, fit a switched fused spur or a switched socket in the adjacent cupboard so you can isolate it. Adding a new socket is fixed electrical work for an electrician.
8. Understand how an integrated housing ventilates.Air enters through a vent in the plinth, rises up the gap behind the appliance, and leaves through a gap at the top of the housing, usually behind the worktop or through a vented panel. Every part of that path must be clear. A solid plinth or a sealed cabinet top turns the housing into an oven.
9. Do not store anything on top of or immediately behind it.Cereal boxes on top of a freestanding fridge block the rising warm air, and boxes shoved down the back sit against the condenser. Both raise the running cost immediately and neither is obvious.
10. Clean the condenser coils annually once it is in place.Unplug it, pull it out, and brush or vacuum the dust off the coils at the back or the grille underneath. Dust is an insulator, and this is the single most neglected maintenance job on any cold appliance.

Tips

• If the sides of the appliance feel warm, that is normal — many modern appliances run condenser tubing inside the side walls instead of a visible black grille. Warm is fine; hot with no air movement is not.
• A fridge in a garage or outbuilding is a different question and needs a climate class chosen for it, not just clearances.
• If you must put a fridge next to an oven, a 15-20mm insulated void or a purpose-made heat shield between them makes a measurable difference.

Common mistakes

• Pushing a freestanding fridge hard back against the wall — The condenser coils are on the back. Flat against plaster they cannot shed heat into moving air, the compressor runs far longer, the running cost rises and the appliance's life shortens.
• Fitting a solid plinth across an integrated fridge housing — The plinth vent is the air inlet for the entire housing. Blocking it for a cleaner look is the commonest installation fault on integrated cold appliances and it causes constant running and early failure.

Questions people ask