Video: Measuring for a New Refrigerator

SAN RAFAEL — Host, Sarah Rutan: When planning to purchase a new refrigerator, its important to first measure the space. Today we’re in San Rafael with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Mike Patterson of Martin & Harris Appliances to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Mike Patterson: Okay, so what we’re going to do today is measure the space that we have to replace a refrigerator, and because there’s no such thing as a plumb home, at least I haven’t found one yet, we’re going to measure in critical areas so that we can make this process a more easy and enjoyable process.

First thing we’re going to do is we’re measuring a refrigerator space and we’re going to measure the height on the left side from the floor up to the obstacle of the cabinet, if it’s a cabinet, above. We’re going to write down that dimension. We’re going to repeat that again in the middle, and then we’re going to repeat that again on the right side, and that’s as we’re facing the space. That will give us our dimension and you take the smallest number of those three dimensions, and that’s the space you have to work with.

We’re going to do the same thing quite simply left to right up high, down in the middle, and then again down below, and we’ll take the smallest dimension there and we’ll know what we have to deal with in widths.

The other thing is depth and that is – there are a lot of variances in depth. So, they’re going to start out at about 27. It depends on how far out you want your refrigerator to come and what capacities you’re looking for, but that will vary from 27 inches all the way up to 36 inches.

You also want to look out for obstacles down in this space. Anything in my way, like molding running around the bottom, you would then measure that as well and deduct that from your dimensions because it is in the way.

So, now that you’ve measured your space, you’re going to take those dimensions to your favorite retailer and give them the dimensions so they can find the product that best fits in this space and will function the way it’s supposed to.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from our local, top-rated companies, visit us at experts.diamondcertified.org.