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Non-magnetic refrigerator doors


Fat Guy

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If all goes according to plan we're soon to be the owners of a Sub-Zero refrigerator. Recently, a friend with one of these told us that the one complaint she has is that the doors are non-magnetic. For parents of a five-year-old, this can be an issue because the refrigerator door is the default home of school art projects.

Is it so? Are Sub-Zero doors non-magnetic? Are there other brands like this? And surely there are workarounds, like suction cups or something, right?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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A high nickel stainless steel can be very non-magnetic. The main compartment will still have to be magnetic for the magnetic gaskets to work.

You may want to give this a try.

Get what is known as "rare earth" magnets (eBay, Neodymium magnets) and see if these super super powerful magnets will stick.

Do not get the big ones, they are so powerful that you can hardly take them apart.

dcarch

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Yep, the typical stainless refrigerator door is not compatible with magnets. Frigidaire had a true stainless door that was magnet-friendly, but it also appeared to be a lower grade of stainless than everyone elses. The compromise was the "stainless-look" doors and had three advantages over true stainless: 1) lower cost, 2) magnet friendly and the biggie 3) much easier to keep clean. Not all companies have that as a door option.

Edited by mgaretz (log)

Mark

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My parents just used tape to attach things to the refrigerator door when I was a kid. I don't know if the refrigerator door wasn't magnetic, but for some reason, the only magnets we did have were on the front of the oven.

To keep the tape from showing, they made the tape into loops, and stuck them to the back of the paper; this also means that you don't do any damage by removing the tape, because you can just trim away the portion that was stuck to the fridge, leaving the remainder attached to the back of the paper.

Edited by Mjx (log)

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
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No magnets is a strength.

Consider how you might decide when to throw out young Picasso's aging water color. Its never good. Much easier to never have it applied to the fridge in the first place.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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It seems that part of what one is paying for with a Sub-Zero is the mechanical quality, and part of it is the sleek or integrated design. Menus, grocery lists, poetry magnets, and kindergarten art projects are not part of that design concept.

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It seems that part of what one is paying for with a Sub-Zero is the mechanical quality, and part of it is the sleek or integrated design. Menus, grocery lists, poetry magnets, and kindergarten art projects are not part of that design concept.

Maybe they should be!

I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

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This article from This Old House magazine seems to recommend Frigo Design that will make magnetic & chalkboard replacement panels for Sub Zero:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20231516_20523298,00.html

http://www.frigodesign.com/php/appliance/chalk.php

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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This article from This Old House magazine seems to recommend Frigo Design that will make magnetic & chalkboard replacement panels for Sub Zero:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20231516_20523298,00.html

http://www.frigodesign.com/php/appliance/chalk.php

I was going to suggest this. I have a friend who remodeled her kitchen and bought special panels for the doors of the fridge and freezer that matched the rest of her kitchen cabinets. The drawback was, according to her, was the $#@%! expense (her words :laugh: ).

Still, it's a great idea.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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If the sub-zero has panels, you could try putting a thin piece of magnetic steel (doesn't have to be stainless but should be rust-proofed with paint or galvanized) behind the stainless panel. A strong magnet should hold.

Mark

My eG Food Blog

www.markiscooking.com

My NEW Ribs site: BlasphemyRibs.com

My NEWER laser stuff site: Lightmade Designs

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I have used this with some success on our non magnetic fridge door.

Choopa

I was going to suggest a DIY solution similar to the above, but given that this product is reasonably priced, it probably beats multiple trips to Home Depot and evenings in the basement cobbling something together. (Unless, of course, you're one of us wierdos who enjoys that sort of thing!) I'm surprised they don't offer a chalk board version, though.

As for rare earth magnets, like neodymium magnets, they probably aren't a good idea in households with small kids. While they can be hard to get apart, the real problem comes when part of your body is between two of them when they attract - it's a serious pinch even with very small ones. The really "worst case scenario" comes if someone (like a small child) swallows more than one of them. In the digestive tract, they could "find each other" while the stomach wall or intestine is between the two, causing serious internal injuries. (Sorry to be a Debbie Downer - I just thought it would be a good idea to mention it.)

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I always hated when the refrigerator was cluttered with stuff. When we got the new, non-magnetic one, we set up an art-project display area in the home office - just a big magnet board mounted to the wall. Much nicer.

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  • 2 months later...

I found a product called Happeez, which claimed to stick to stainless and also be removable and reusable. I ordered a three pack. They seem to work really well as clips to hold things like photos. I don't think they hold much weight but they seem great. I may get a few more, even though they're painfully expensive ($15 for a three pack). They also make a memo pad and a small white board using the same adhesive technology.

P1020932.JPG

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Consider how you might decide when to throw out young Picasso's aging water color. Its never good. Much easier to never have it applied to the fridge in the first place.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Throw out? You're supposed to save that stuff so you can embarrass them with it later in life. In front of their college friends and that sort of thing.

Sent from my Brain using Fingertype

Edited by Moopheus (log)

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

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