Plumbing behind fridge - affect the depth?

LOL, way higher standards than Europe in both plumming and electricity? You must be kidding. Not that I haven't seen houses wired really badly in the UK, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden and great wiring in Australia, but to claim that the Australian standards are "way higher" than that of Europe is simply not true. And judging from this forum, the plumbing standards in practice seem to be generally lacking in Australia.

Btw, I don't see why one wouldn't have the recess-box, but in the cupboard next to it. The best of both worlds. And if you could have a small stop thingy (I have no idea what they're called in English) at the outlet from the wall, so much the better, instead of having to turn it off at it the mains at the slightest problem.

I don't get why anyone would be hard-plumbing anything these days, and why anyone would use copper pipes and not pex, for that matter.

Actually all our taps have separate shut offs, be it in the kitchen, laundry or bathrooms, but this is a newer renovation. And the taps for the dishwasher and washing machines were all plumbed into the cabinet adjoining the appliance; I had wondered why, but as CEK mentioned, was told it was for quick access in case of failure. They obviously didn't trust the automatic shut-off on both the dishwasher and washing machine...

As for the mains, it's fine if your main is close at hand, but ours is over 30m up the hill from the front door, which isn't close to the kitchen.

Just to give you something else to mull over. If putting the shut off behind the fridge should never be done, and only put in a cabinet. Can you tell me where the shut off went in YoullNeverWalkAlone's kitchen? I'm guessing you would have put it in the open space behind the books.

Well in some instances of course installing the tap behind the fridge may be your only option but for the vast majority of people who have cupboards either side that are 600mm deep it is just a dumb decision. Most of the bigger fridges these days are 750-800mm deep so why would you make it step out into the kitchen another 50 - 75mm ?
If you have fridge recess 800mm or deeper then sure you can put it there without it impacting the space in front of the fridge but I just think it is bad building practice for the reasons I and others have mentioned in other posts above.

Stewie

OK it seems some people have become so worked up with THEIR point of view that they have forgotten their manners and are not being very respectful of other members. . The original poster was looking for some comment and advice and I'm sure was not looking to see several people arguing their point of view in such a manner. There for I have removed much of this thread. Please stick to the thread topic. If you wish to have a personal conversation in which you want to agree to disagree that is your business. BUT don't use someones thread to do so.

Please be reminded of the following.


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Apologizes to First_Timer_Ray for letting this continue for so long.

************************************************ edited by kexkez Homeone Support Member.

There are always exceptions and you don't have much option in this case.

BUT if you have an option it should have a shut off tap that is easily accessible without the need to remove the fridge!

Thanks Roger, this is pretty much the same layout to our kitchen except the island runs the other way, with the fridge facing the end panel. We have no surrounding cupboards, and like this photo, we have a walk in pantry to one side (with only one door).
At the end of the day, it is how it is, I'm not about to rip our kitchen apart for the sake of a tap which is already there. I was merely trying to find out how much others' fridges protrude that have plumbed ice/water.
I would be interested to know how much the above fridge is sticking out because it looks fine to me. If it's in the same vicinity as the one we are looking at I would happily buy it.
Thanks Kexkez for keeping the thread on topic.

It's pretty easy to work out Ray.
If your current depth of cupboards are 705mm with a tap behind that sticks out 55mm that leaves you 650mm then just suss out the fridge you want to buy. Look at the specs and compare.
Whatever the difference will be how much your fridge sticks out.
Look at how the doors pivot too. Most open out past the side of the fridges about 20-30mm.
For this reason the back of the fridge doors should be parallel or slightly in front of the adjoining cupboard doors depending on how much space you have left either side for the appliance ventilation.
As you say, it is how it is and unless you decide to spend a fair few dollars to re-position the tap you may well end up with your fridge doors sticking out 150mm but that depends a lot on whichever fridge you choose.

Stewie

the builders pumper for our place accidentally gave us a tap point behind our double fridge space as well. It's capped ( no tap) It was a mistake and it was decided that it was far less exxy to leave it than to rip it out. We nicely opted to say we'd keep it rather than insist they remove it. Our fridge does stick out but then you are meant to have some space behind a fridge anyway. We have a door way on one side and stove and stove cupboards to the other side with single brick walls defining the walls of the fridge cavity. Love the above fridge cupboards that seem the norm over east. Here they are a fancy, upmarket addition and certainly not standard. Wish we had one.

Our fridge space is 740 deep and the cabinet is 712, but the door and handles take it to 915, so it sticks out heaps but we’ve learnt to live with it.

From the fridge handles to the bench is 980mm but it’s a huge gap and you could cope with less space. This is also our entry to the kitchen and we have never had any issues.

Ray, your kitchen / pantry / dining area sounds the same as ours, this shot shows how it looks.

http://i1055.photobucket.com/albums/s507/grumblebum54/fridge1_zpsa56c0de6.jpg

Thanks Grumblebum. Our kitchen is very similar.
Judging by what another member PMd me and your responses here I think 10-15cm outside of the fridge space seems the norm considering the door depth and handles need to be outside the space. Logically then the more bulky the door and handles are the more it will stick out.
Like others have said, I'm sure it will probably look a bit odd sticking out for the first few weeks (as our current fridge is small enough to fit well inside the space in both width and depth), but over time it will just become normal.
I really appreciate those who took the time to reply.

In grumblebums photo most plumbers would put the tap in the single door cabinet beside the drawers.

Normally the carcass of the fridge sits level with the cabinets and only the thickness of the door protrudes.

I had in my last place as per what a few of the guys mentioned here.. the tap was placed in the cupboard beside the fridge recess and plumbed through with a small hole.

This will give you an idea. Perhaps see if you can get the tap moved slightly?

On a totally unrelated note to the plumbing, reading this thread and going through our design, we're probably not going to have water to the fridge (we like the fridge / freezer pigeon-pair setup) but I've realised that as we're having a pantry next to the cavity, I'll put the power-points in there with a "desk-grommet" in the cupboard wall separating them !

Thanks guys,

P_D

http://www.4cabling.com.au/desk-grommet ... -2184.html
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HP1228

def NO powerpoint or water tap behind dishwasher or fridge.

After reading this thread and getting all prepared for various options for our fridge water tap our builder said "oh we put all fridge water taps in a little alcove/niche in the wall behind the fridge space so it doesn't take up any space in the cavity". How nice is that?! Sensible builders?!

From reading this thread, yes nice, but possibly more sensible if it was (in a alcove / niche) in the cupboard next to the fridge ?

P_D

Haha PD do you like stirring?? Meh, I can live with having to move my fridge in the rare instance of a plumbing problem occuring.

Oh sorry, Not stirring at all EmyN !!

As I said, we're pigeon-pair people so it's not an issue for us, but I was thinking that with 200Kg of fridge and 50 kg of food and drinks inside, it's not something Mrs P_D would be able to move in a hurry if the water line let go when I wasn't home*.

Cheers,

P_D

*Things like this ONLY seem to happen to Mrs P_D, and ONLY when I'm not home !!