adifrank

hi. i'm in a rented apartment. the kitchen is set up so that the refrigerator is adjacent to the gas oven/stove. when using cooking and using the two gas burners nearest to the fridge, the side of the fridge becomes pretty hot.
I'm curious to know if this might be somehow making the inside of the fridge warmer as well and therefor making it work harder to keep cool.

If in fact this is the case, I'd like to get some tips on how I might be able to solve this (without rearranging the kitchen). Possibly there is some kind of material I can slide in between the fridge and the stove/oven which can contain the heat and not pass it on to the fridge.

Looking forward to reading your advice. Thanks!

kok328

Personally, can't think of anything that would provide any degree of thermal protection without creating a fire hazard. Separating the appliances is the best option.

adifrank

thanks kok328. unfortunately, the way the kitchen is set up separating the two is not an option. it would require some major redoing of the kitchen and as i mentioned, this is a rental.

woodchuck

anything you put on it will help. a plane wood panel or one with insulation fastened to the back will help. Look around and see what you can find.

adifrank

thanks for the reply woodchuck. i'll look into that. i kok328 is right though about the fire-hazard issue. i'll try to see what i can come up with to put between the wood and the stove which could prevent a potentially hazardous situation. maybe some sort of fire resistant material?
i'll research it further...

adifrank

could this do the trick?
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202089068/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=fire+treated+wood&storeId=10051

inspectorD

Just go to your nearest woodstove store, they deal with fire retardent materials and what we call "stand offs" all the time. Usually a double sheet of stainless steel with an airgap works really well.

Just remember > Hot always goes to cold.

Hope this helps.

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slownsteady

We had the same situation when we bought this house. It was years before we could correct it (by rearranging the kitchen), but the fridge really did not suffer any damage. In fact it is still in use. It would be hard to prove whether it affected the electricity bill though.

I think a reflective piece of metal would be a good bet, especially if the fridge is dark colored. i would want it to be metal for safety purposes and a reflective surface would absorb less heat. Some kind of air gap is a good idea (inspectorD!).

Wuzzat?

An air gap with a small fan should give you close to room temperature on both surfaces. Kind of a DIY "air knife".

I suppose hot ambient air on one of the six surfaces will make the fridge compressor duty cycle higher. Then you could compare your monthly savings on the elec. bill by using the barrier vs. the one time cost of materials and labor. A fridge pulls about 500W average.

One of these days I want to bring the 120v supplied to our basement fridge compressor out to a connector and run a 24 hours mech. timer.
Knowing the baseline duty cycle overnight with no door openings I should be able to tell when this old fridge begins to fail by seeing an increasing duty cycle.
We had one fridge where the door internal insulation was somehow soaking wet and this thing was gobbling power just to keep up.

You can also use this timer method to measure the heat loss from an elec. water heater. With no water usage it's about 5 minutes on for each 7 hours off.

notmrjohn

Manuel with both both new reefer and wall oven recommend at least 9' between the two including cabinet walls.. The heat should not damage reefer but will make it work harder.

A piece of foil wrapped fiberglass duct board between the two would help, its an inch thick and the foil is relativly fragile. Do not use foil backed styro insulation panels they hve to be covered with drywall or siding to be fire safe and i do not know how the foam would stand up to heat from range. There is also metal faced laminate counter top ( Formica) I have installed that around ranges in remodel jobs, usually brushed stainless steel. That would at least reflect some heat and could be put over duct board to protect foil.

Even heavy duty aluminum foil wouls reflect but would be liable to tears and holes.

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