It's getting hot in here!

One Thursday I was getting ready to mop the kitchen floor and I bent down to retrieve a magnet that had fallen on the floor.  That magnet was warm, far warmer than it should be in my air conditioned house.  I opened the broom closet next to the refrigerator and felt the wall, it too was warm.  I began to notice there was very little air flow around the refrigerator.  

Left side;

Top, excuse the dust please;

Right side;

The tape marks where the fridge meets the wall.  We were trying to determine how much room was left behind the fridge.  We worried they'd only left an inch, but we believe now there's about 7" between the back of the fridge and the wall. 

(The white mark is a post card that stuck to the fridge when I went to remove it.  I'll get some goo gone and remove it soon.)


It was a PAIN to get the fridge out!  They had it jammed in there very well.  Ever so slowly and slightly we moved the fridge back and forth to get it out.


I hired a handy man;

And he cut out part of the bottom shelf above the fridge;

Of note, if at all possible DO NOT use a power saw in the kitchen!  Saw dust was EVERYWHERE!

I removed the cabinet doors and put some vintage items on the top shelf.  Eventually I'll paint over the hinge holes.  Now air can escape from behind the fridge and no more risk of burning up my refrigerator (or worse).  If my next refrigerator is smaller, I can attach a piece of sheet metal or similar over the hole and reattach the cabinet doors.  I never used these shelves before so nothing lost.