Which way to hang fridge door

[OutbackQueen]

I’ve just had a new kitchen fitted and the fridge is on the left right next to the wall. It opens from left to right and I was thinking of switching it but realise now that doing that would mean that the door wouldn’t open fully as it would hit the wall and I’d have trouble taking out the crisper drawer. So leave it as it is?

Obviously leave it. What do you mean by switch it? You can’t hang the door on the other side anyway.

Actually you can switch it so it opens from right to left but seems to make sense to leave it as is.

Open your door now, and see where the hinge/door extends to. I bet it won’t extend out at all.

I never saw a fridge where you couldn’t swap the doors!

Yes you can.

The other thing to remember is that if you switch the door round the light switch will be on the wrong side of the fridge. It still gets switched off when you close the fridge, but it can make it easier to leave the fridge door open as it requires more force to shut it.

I had mine switched the other way round and didn't repeat it when I bought a new fridge because that plus the vegetable issue was more annoying. My fridge had a slightly sticky out front which was what caused the problem - it might not be an issue if your fridge front is a different shape.

Does the fridge have to be there? Isn't there a better location?

Obviously nothing - you can always switch fridge doors!

OP - I’d personally change it, it would drive me more nuts to not be able to open the door to where I’m prepping the food and cooking.

If it were me I would change it over as long as the shelf above the drawer lifts out ok.

Yes this. Obviously it’s be better to have the door opening the other way but it is a non-starter if you can’t open drawers.

Just place something solid (e.g. back of a chair) behind the door as it is now in the equivalent position to the wall. See if the door opens far enough to access fridge drawers. If so, then do it.

You would usually need a few cm of clearance to the side of the hinge to open a fridge door. So I reckon if you swapped it over, it wouldn’t open properly. Enough to grab food off the shelves maybe but not enough to open drawers or remove shelves.

@OutbackQueen , any chance of swapping places between the drawer pack and the fridge? That might help.

That’s a great idea - I put a chair where the wall would be and can still get the shelves out. I really want it to open so that things are easy to access when cooking so will do the switch!

Wish I’d thought of that *Icanthink but too late now!

Eh? Most models of fridge (and freezer, and fridge freezer) have this option.

There's a spacer under the drawers, you're meant to swap it over too when swapping the doors, then it opens fine.