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We bought this house 4 years ago and the kitchen was updated by the prior owner about 7-8 years ago. The Fridge is about 12-13 years old and has been acting up. I started looking at replacements and measuring out our current fridge and its 36" x 36".

The two exits to the kitchen are 32" and 31.5" respectively. Meaning they remodeled the kitchen with the fridge in place and added cabinetry and a countertop that essentially imprison the fridge. Even with the doors off. the fridge only drops to 33" x 36"

My inclination was to just take a reciprocating saw to the fridge and curse the prior owner for making me have to get smaller fridge. But, then googling seems to say that's a bad idea (saw is going to bounce around a lot/likely to puncture something with the refrigerant and have it blast off into the house). So I'm at a bit of a loss about how to best handle such a predicament.

Rohit Gupta
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D_D
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4 Answers4

23

Assuming cased openings, temporary removal of your door jamb should get you there. It's often a matter of removing the casing and detaching one or more sides of the jamb. If you're careful it'll all go back on with little indication that it was ever off.

For more detail, give us more detail.

isherwood
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14

Repair the refrigerator and then forget about the door problem for another several years.

The idea that newer appliances use less power than the older ones is overblown, if not outright false. Recycling the old fridge costs energy and it probably won't be fully recycled anyway, meaning landfill. The manufacture of the new fridge also costs energy, meaning pollution. And newer appliances have a reputation of not lasting as long, costing you more money in the future. Happy Earth Day. I'd repair it until it can't be.

Source: I have repaired appliances for ~40 years.

Toby Speight
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kackle123
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Call a fridge serviceman to come and degas it first. Unless you have a very strong reciprocating saw, it is liable to jump or get stuck as go through varying hardness of materials. Some options

  1. Dismantle it by removing all parts systematically until you are left with a shell. Then you can use a hammer to fold the outer body
  2. Remove all glass and plastic bits, protect your floor with a sheet of particle board and use a sledge hammer carefully.

I would go for 1.

Rohit Gupta
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Depending on the space available in the kitchen itself, and if you have a reasonably large double glazed window, you may find it possible to remove the window pane then manoeuvre the fridge through the window. Obviously this has a lot of caveats and you would probably need a few strong helpers on either side of the window but as a last resort may be possible.

Please note, this would be for removal only. You shouldn't tip a new fridge onto it's side like this.

Tragamor
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