Someone can correct me if I’m wrong because I’m only making inferences from various fridges I’ve owned, but I believe there are two different kinds of refrigerator condenser systems. One kind is the traditional condenser coils on the back that require air circulation behind and around the fridge, and the other has the coils underneath the fridge and exhausts out the front bottom, usually with fan assistance. Those are the kind that can be boxed in because they don’t need ambient air circulation around them. The downside is they need fairly regular vacuuming around those lower condenser coils.
I don’t store stuff on top of the fridge just because it gets dusty. I doubt it would have much effect on air circulation unless you really packed stuff in. I have cabinets above the fridge that are somewhat hard to reach so they’re ideal for stuff that’s rarely used.
All residential refrigerators are “Free Standing”
Even the built in ones are “free standing” and could easily be set out in the open.
They still have a fully enclosed casing, just that the sides are generally plain and ugly and they have a flange to screw it into the opening, and of course the doors are made to be matched to your cabinets on some models.
Now if you mean as in commercial built-ins, well i dont think even the super rich care for those much in the home, who wants a useless hot noisy room full of compressors copper pipe condenser coils and fans?
Nah, that pretty much sums up what i have seen.
The older, and some of the cheaper new ones have the coils on the back still.
Like the good old cheap top freezer models i think.
Most seem to have gone to what you describe, the round coil with the fan under the fridge venting out the front and needing a shop vac on a regular basis
Still need a bit of room in the back so the fan can pull in air, but the outlet, cord, water fittings etc usually stop you from cramming it flush with the drywall anyways
I remember posting about my (highly irrational) worries about losing something behind the fridge and it catching fire… This brings me back (OCD meds work wonders!)
Anyhow, from what I’ve learned from people on here and my research is the worst that could happen is that you have to move the fridge to retrieve whatever fell. That and dust. I store cereal and bread on top of the fridge (used daily). It does seem to get dustier than other places around the house, but that is about it.
On that note, I have a small piece of PVC pipe wedged behind the fridge so I don’t push it in too far after cleaning (air circulation)
LOL. I was just bemoaning this today. We don’t use it as storage, per se, but when my husband does dishes once or twice a week, he’ll invariably stash things up there to dry. Which leads to things falling on my head, behind the fridge…or they’ll just get stuck back where I can’t reach them.
I used to keep things like extra cereal and chip bags atop the fridge till we ended up with this really tiny kitchen without room for a proper drying rack or space to lay a full towel down.