# Why are oven doors hinged at the bottom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [June 5, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682 "2021-06-05T18:07:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/41 "2021-06-06T22:47:37Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Refrigerator doors always seem to open on the wrong side, and block your view and access from one side, but allow you to reach deep inside the refrigerator. You’re one of today’s lucky 10,000. > **[How to Reverse a Refrigerator Door](https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-reverse-a-refrigerator-door/)** > > Door handles can easily be reversed on almost any refrigerator door by removing a few screws and bolts —but keep track of the parts and the assembly o ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/42 "2021-06-06T22:53:02Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Broil is the American word for grill. > [@Chronos](#): > > And to an American, grilling always refers to food sitting on some sort of hot surface with a heat source underneath. I must admit, having lived in the U.S. for many years now, I was never really clear on this. But then shouldn’t it be called a “broiled cheese sandwich”? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/43 "2021-06-06T23:33:31Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > But then shouldn’t it be called a “broiled cheese sandwich”? It should be called a fried cheese sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/44 "2021-06-06T23:47:53Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > As the OP said, not all oven doors are hinged at the bottom. In restaurants, often the doors swing open to the side. > > I have many burns from bumping into those open doors while they were open. I would assume that that is also a good reason why home kitchens have them open from the bottom. Exactly what I was going to say, except for me it’s “had” because it was 25 years ago and I’m very lucky that I pretty much never scar. That restaurant kitchen had a main door into the kitchen that pushed into the oven door, so all of us had burns on our arms from the oven door being pushed into us. You’d just bandage your arm repeatedly as it bled through during the day. (I was very young and an immigrant and had no power to ask for changes in kitchen layout). I suppose theoretically a downwards door is a tripping hazard, but when I think about it oven doors just aren’t left wide open often enough for that to happen. FWIW my fridge came with the option of left- or right-hand door installation that you chose before you bought it, and it’s a mid-range model. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/45 "2021-06-06T23:52:39Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > fried cheese sandwich Is that how they are cooked? They are not part of my diet - I thought the cheese was melted by toasting the bread, i.e. _under_ what the British would call a grill. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/46 "2021-06-07T00:18:28Z")
Grilled cheese sandwiches are done on a pan or griddle in my part of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/47 "2021-06-07T00:31:17Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > FWIW my fridge came with the option of left- or right-hand door installation that you chose before you bought it, and it’s a mid-range model. Yes, fridges come with left/right door installation. Am I the only person in the world that half the time approaches my fridge from the left, and half the time from the right? That has to deal with multiple kitchens with different layouts? That has different hand preferences depending on what I’m doing and what I’m carrying? I know that there are door designs that allow both left opening and right opening of the same door, depending on which side you unlatch each time, and I have occasionally fantasized about having a refrigerator like that, but even if I was a billionaire, there are other things I’d spend money on first. Like custom blades for the swiss-army knife (Yes. I **know** that you can select a custom blade set. No, the custom blade options are **not** what I want.) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/48 "2021-06-07T00:46:58Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Total opposite to the UK (and most of Europe I suspect) Doncha know, we Mighty Special Americans do all kinds of things bass-ackwards from most of the rest of the civilized world. Is there a list of such things somewhere? Have we had a thread on it? It’s a long list. (Didja know that American carousels go the opposite way than carousels everywhere else?) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/49 "2021-06-07T00:56:25Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Yes, fridges come with left/right door installation. Am I the only person in the world that half the time approaches my fridge from the left, and half the time from the right? That has to deal with multiple kitchens with different layouts? That has different hand preferences depending on what I’m doing and what I’m carrying? > > I know that there are door designs that allow both left opening and right opening of the same door, depending on which side you unlatch each time, and I have occasionally fantasized about having a refrigerator like that, but even if I was a billionaire, there are other things I’d spend money on first. Like custom blades for the swiss-army knife (Yes. I **know** that you can select a custom blade set. No, the custom blade options are **not** what I want.) Well, none of those are an issue for me - my fridge is in a corner, I do happen to use two kitchens regularly but my GF’s fridge is also in a corner (feels like a Dirty Dancing reference), and no, I don’t change preferred hands. But I doubt very much you’re the only one. It does sound like one of those niggling annoyances. Getting this new fridge meant I could have it open the other way to the kitchen door it’s right next to and constantly banged into (and there’s a specific fridge plug socket, so it couldn’t be moved), and man, that was a relief. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/50 "2021-06-07T02:24:36Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Like custom blades for the swiss-army knife (Yes. I **know** that you can select a custom blade set. No, the custom blade options are **not** what I want.) There’s custom. And then there’s custom-custom. Sounds like you really want the latter. If _I_ was to want a custom-custom Swiss Army knife it totally would have a universal TV remote with 2 buttons: mute and off. For use in public waiting rooms, bars, etc. And a phaser with two modes: stun and evaporate. Also for use in public situations involving annoying people. I’m still thinking about my other 23 choices. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/51 "2021-06-07T03:24:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m still thinking about my other 23 choices. Obviously your last choice should be a device that grants you 25 more choices. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/52 "2021-06-07T03:29:17Z")
I don’t know if you could fit it in a Swiss Army knife, but it will fit on your keychain. [TV B Gone](https://www.tvbgone.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/53 "2021-06-07T05:01:55Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > It should be called a fried cheese sandwich. My wife insists on calling it a “toasted cheese sandwich”. Which I guess is accurate enough… The bread certainly is toasted. Though I still object for two reasons. (1) I’ve always heard it as “grilled cheese” my entire life so that’s what I’m calling it dammit. (2) To me that implies that the cheese itself is toasted, which isn’t true; it’s just melted between slices of toasted bread. (But is the cheese itself “grilled” in a grilled cheese sandwich? Shut up, nobody wants to hear your sass.) I concur, as an American. that the difference between “broiled” and “grilled” is whether the heat is above (broil) or below (grill). This might indeed be an American thing. I know that my ovens (an air fryer and an actual oven/stove) always heat from above when set to “broil”, as have all appliances I’ve ever used, so don’t blame me, blame the manufacturers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/54 "2021-06-07T15:12:33Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I don’t know if you could fit it in a Swiss Army knife, but it will fit on your keychain. [TV B Gone](https://www.tvbgone.com/). I bought a pair of a similar devices from some outfit on Amazon a few years ago. When it works, it works spectacularly to improve your local environment. But I found it worked successfully on only about 1 in 3 public TVs. Damn. Then again they were $6 for 2, not $20 for one. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/55 "2021-06-07T22:45:29Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I concur, as an American. that the difference between “broiled” and “grilled” is whether the heat is above (broil) or below (grill). We left America many years ago. I had the idea that a ‘grill’, as in a ‘Bar and Grill’, included any flat cooking surface, like you might cook a sausage or a hamburger on. But when I look now, the internet seems to say that grilling requires a an open grid. What says the Dope? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/56 "2021-06-07T23:04:34Z")
It gets used both ways. The common factor is heating from underneath. While ‘grill’ does mean a grid of metal bars people use the term interchangeably with ‘griddle’ which does mean a flat pan. However, many griddles have grooved surfaces which is more like a grill. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/57 "2021-06-07T23:24:06Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Almost no other door one usually encounters works that way; they are almost always hinged on one of the sides. Pickup trucks. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/58 "2021-06-07T23:33:38Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Pickup trucks. I knew there was somewhere from which I was familiar with the idea of multiple-hinged doors! Station Wagons. At one time, available in models where you could both open down and open sideways. All the other examples I’ve been thinking of (door-in-door, removable pin lids, etc), I couldn’t imagine on a refrigerator. The Station Wagon advertisements made it just look natural and effortless. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/59 "2021-06-08T00:13:37Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > My wife insists on calling it a “toasted cheese sandwich”. Which I guess is accurate enough… The bread certainly is toasted. Though I still object for two reasons. (1) I’ve always heard it as “grilled cheese” my entire life so that’s what I’m calling it dammit. (2) To me that implies that the cheese itself is toasted, which isn’t true; it’s just melted between slices of toasted bread. It’s a toasted “cheese sandwich”, not a “toasted cheese” sandwich. (Or substitute grilled for toasted.) The sandwich (specifically, a cheese sandwich) is toasted (or grilled). You’re not making a sandwich out of toasted (or grilled) cheese. A grilled sandwich has been buttered; a toasted sandwich has not. Bottom line: listen to your wife. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-oven-doors-hinged-at-the-bottom/943682/60 "2021-06-08T00:31:42Z")
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