Left Hinge Fridge / Freezer with Plumbed Water - The Unicorn of Fridges Apparently!

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Left Hinge Fridge / Freezer with Plumbed Water - The Unicorn of Fridges Apparently!

NzVanFan

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#311241 27-Dec-2023 17:50

Doing up the kitchen and thought we had all the appliances sorted - went to three places who all asked what hinge we wanted on the fridge. We need left opening due to the configuration of our kitchen. We also want plumbed water via the fridge. Thought we'd found the F&P Model RF442BRPUX6. All three places said it came in left opening - so we go to order and guess what, it doesn't. Sigh.

Anyone know of any left hinge fridge freezers about the size of the F&P and with plumbed water? I can't seem to find anything in my searches so far - can't believe that's such a unique requirement they aren't made!

Anyone come across anything?

sidefx

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#3175870 27-Dec-2023 19:29

Can't you swap the hinges so the door opens the other way?

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Senecio

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#3175874 27-Dec-2023 19:44

Swapping hinges isn’t so much of a thing with plumbed fridges. It’s not that simple as you would need to reroute the plumbing.

OP if you want a left hand hinge you are likely going to need to forgo the plumbed versions.

NzVanFan

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#3175879 27-Dec-2023 20:14

Yeah can't flip the hinge on plumbed fridges sadly. Certainly looking like the plumbed option won't be happening now - will probably stick with the fridge we've got and look at a new tap mixer that can do mains and filtered water.

As an aside, the three appliance places we've been dealing with seemingly assumed F&P had a left hinge option as we were quite clear with them we needed that. Wasn't until the order was going in that we got the phone call there's no right hinge option. Genuinely surprised there aren't left and right options for the majority of options though.

mdf

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#3175885 27-Dec-2023 21:27

We had a similar issue. Found a Samsung option that wasn't plumbed, but had a refillable tank that was mounted in the door with a faucet on the outside. I explained that I needed left hand opening, and the salesperson assured me that you could switch the hinge sides. Had it delivered and consulted the manual - nope, can't switch hinge sides on this model. Ended up with the non tank option.

It was a shame, because the body of the fridge seemed to have the spots to remount the hinges (the non tank one we got seemed to be identical, just the door was different). But the way the door was designed meant not possible.

NzVanFan

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#3175887 27-Dec-2023 21:35

We thankfully found out a bit earlier in the process - it blows my mind there are seemingly fewer and fewer left hand options.

Starlith

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#3175894 27-Dec-2023 22:12

I feel for you, we got our new house 3 years ago and left hinge fridge was ideal for the place where the fridge slot was allocated. We also had plumbing but we didn't see the need to use the plumbing and still managed to get a standard F&P left hinge fridge but it was difficult. Builders and kitchen designers need to pull their heads in for lumping new builds with this problem. All they needed to do was swap over the Fridge and Pantry spaces then right hinge fridge would be perfect and as they are more common it would be easier for the owners to source one.

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Ge0rge

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#3175896 27-Dec-2023 22:58

Could you do a French door option instead? They can come with plumbing and solve the "must open this way" problem.

NzVanFan

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#3175897 27-Dec-2023 23:04

The space is a little limited - looking at a 750 wide three door Panasonic option at the moment but that'll likely come with a rejig of the design and the loss of some space. That's about as big as we can go really.

Bung

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#3175898 27-Dec-2023 23:09

The usual explanation for RH doors being more common is that most people are right-handed. That logic seems screwed, I'm right-handed so I prefer using my left to open the door so I can reach in with the right. The same whitewash geniuses seem quite happy to make nearly all frontloading washing machines LH opening.

NzVanFan

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#3175899 27-Dec-2023 23:15

Maybe we're just lazy 🤣 - our rationale is simply it's easier to access the stuff in the fridge for us with the left hinge ie, we don't need to walk around the door to enter the fridge to get back to the bench area. Maybe it's lazy or just stuck in our ways but the idea of stepping around the door to access it vs just opening it and reaching in makes me cringe! Never once thought the right hinge dominance was going to be about people being right handed 🙃

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#3176271 30-Dec-2023 07:52

NzVanFan:

Never once thought the right hinge dominance was going to be about people being right handed 🙃

same here, a fridge’s door hinge has always been to the side that suits the orientation of the kitchen to complete the “work triangle”).

I reckon some lazy manufacturer brand or two have decided that’s impacting their profit so have brain washed a new generation to think otherwise.

anyways, I’m normally opening the fridge with the left hand, because I’m balancing the marg and whatever with my right hand.

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NzVanFan

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#3176286 30-Dec-2023 09:15

We've decided to make a design alteration and gone for a slightly bigger french door fridge and offset that with making a cupboard smaller. Left hinge fridges appear to be hard enough to get let alone ones with plumbed water. Who would have thought eh.

Thanks to everyone that helped.

Mehrts

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#3176297 30-Dec-2023 10:31

Yep, had a similar struggle with trying to find a fridge of certain dimensions that had a left-hand opening due to kitchen constraints.

Ended up finding a suitable Westinghouse unit which you buy the hinge kit for. Although the guy at Harvey Norman said the price for the kit was $350 for a couple of brackets and plastic caps!

He straight away adjusted the price to $50 without me even asking, as he was just as shocked as I was with the price. Great service.