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A braided stainless supply hose and its shutoff valve behind a washer.

Clearances, shutoffs and leveling that make service easy

Set up for easy upkeep
guides.

How an appliance is placed decides how easy it is to keep up: breathing room around coils, a reachable shutoff valve behind every water line, a short and straight exhaust run, and feet leveled after every move.

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Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

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Set up for easy upkeep,
guide by guide.

How an appliance was set up decides how easy it is to keep for the next ten or fifteen years. A laundry pair jammed against the wall with no slack in its hoses, a built-in whose grille disappears behind new trim, a refrigerator line with no valve of its own: none of these is a broken part, yet each makes routine upkeep hard or impossible.

All 18 guides
A home kitchen with a built-in refrigerator's lowest freezer drawer pulled fully out and its kick plate set aside, a technician kneeling, seen from behind, vacuuming the condenser coil through the open front of the built-in refrigerator, the cabinetry around it clean and tight, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Clearances that leave room for service, and why tight fits cost later

The inches around an appliance decide how well it breathes and whether it can be cleaned at all. The makers' figures for cold storage, laundry closets and the gap behind each machine.

The open sink cabinet of a clean home kitchen beside a built-in dish care machine, an owner's hand seen from the wrist down turning the chrome shutoff valve on the dish care machine's hot water line, the shutoff valve's small lever half turned, a flashlight resting on the cabinet floor, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Shutoff valves every appliance needs, and where each one hides

Water, gas and power each need a way to be turned off at the machine. Where the makers want those valves, what kind to avoid, and how to test them before the day they matter.

A freshly moved-into home laundry room, a technician seen from the shoulders down setting a spirit level across the top of a front-load laundry machine while turning one leveling foot of the laundry machine with a wrench, packing blankets folded in the corner, indoors, seasonless.
5-minute read

Leveling and airflow after a move: resetting each appliance

A move shifts feet, kinks lines and leaves brackets behind. The checks that put each appliance back to how it was meant to stand, breathe and drain.

Clearances, shutoffs and leveling that make service easy.

The guides in this section look at setup through the eyes of the person who will service the appliance later. They cover the clearances each maker asks for and the working space the manuals leave out, the water, gas and electrical shutoffs every appliance should have within reach, and the leveling, bracket and airflow checks to redo after a move or a remodel.

The figures come from the installation instructions the makers publish, from GE, LG, Whirlpool, Sub-Zero, Speed Queen, Viking and Frigidaire among others, together with ENERGY STAR and CPSC guidance, and each guide links its sources. Fitting a brand-new appliance is installation work in its own right; these guides are about leaving room for everything that happens after it.

They are most useful before a remodel is finished, on the day after a delivery, and in the first week in a new home. Each ends by saying which steps an owner can take and which ones, such as lifting a built-in, reconnecting gas or adding a valve, need an installer or a technician.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerClearances that leave room for service, and why tight fits cost later

Appliance clearance requirements come from each installation manual: a few inches behind a freestanding refrigerator, about 3 inches around most freezers, at least 1 inch at the sides and 4 inches behind LG's front-load laundry machines, and louvered closet doors with 60 to 120 square inches of opening.

The short answerShutoff valves every appliance needs, and where each one hides

Appliance shutoff valves let water, gas and power be stopped at one machine without shutting down the house.

The short answerLeveling and airflow after a move: resetting each appliance

Leveling appliances after a move means resetting each machine's feet until it sits level and does not rock, re-engaging a cooking appliance's anti-tip bracket, removing any laundry shipping bolts, restoring the gaps the makers ask for behind and around each unit, and checking water lines for kinks.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop.

What services cost
  1. 01A walk around the house first
  2. 02Cleaned, checked and adjusted
  3. 03Wear parts before they fail
  4. 04A service record for the house

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems
A stainless freestanding refrigerator in a warm home kitchen pushed tight into a narrow opening between tall cabinets with almost no gap at the top or sides, the kick plate at the bottom visibly furred with gray dust and pet hair, a simple dial appliance thermometer standing in a glass of water on a shelf seen through the half-open door. Problem

Cold Storage Running Nonstop: Coil Dust, Clearance and Door Seals

6 causes, cheapest first

 A home kitchen counter in soft daylight with a small plain white plug-in energy meter with a blank dark screen plugged into a wall outlet beside a stainless refrigerator, the refrigerator's kick plate at the bottom visibly furred with dust. Problem

Appliance Energy Use Creeping Up With Nothing Else Changed

6 causes, cheapest first

 A home laundry room with a front-loading vented machine standing open after a finished cycle, a pile of towels in a basket in front of it visibly still damp and heavy, a lint screen held out of its slot and covered with a thick gray layer resting on the machine's top, soft daylight. Problem

Laundry Taking Two Cycles to Dry: The Lint Path Is Usually Why

6 causes, cheapest first

 Low view behind a front-loading washer pulled slightly away from the wall in a home laundry room, a black rubber fill hose with a visible swollen bulge near its fitting and a thin stream of water spraying from it onto a tile floor, a spreading puddle, the hot and cold wall valves above. Fire, gas, water or wiring risk

Supply Hose Leaking or Bulging Behind an Appliance: Shut the Water Off

6 causes, cheapest first
A family sharing breakfast in a bright, well-kept home kitchen.
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
set up for easy upkeep.

What is the most common setup mistake that makes upkeep harder?
Removing all the slack. Hoses, water tubing, cords and ducts cut to the exact length mean an appliance cannot be pulled forward for cleaning without disconnecting something.
Should a delivered appliance be checked even if the crew installed it?
Yes. Level, clearances, the anti-tip bracket on a cooking appliance and the position of each shutoff take a few minutes to check and are the details most often skipped in a hurry.
Which setup checks can an owner do alone?
Leveling a freestanding machine with its feet, confirming the gaps behind and around it, finding each valve and breaker, and looking for kinks in water lines. Gas connections and moving built-ins are not owner work.
Does a move call for the same checks as a new appliance?
Largely. Shipping bolts, brackets, level, water lines and filters all need attention again after a move, and a gas appliance needs a new connection at the new home.

The other
sections.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

All guides
A refrigerator's dusty condenser coils seen close behind its kick plate.
What slow wear looks like before it becomes a breakdown

Signs an appliance is due

A finger on the control panel of a washer, the display dark.
Ten-minute tasks with the appliance unplugged

Checks between visits

A soft brush lifting lint from a dryer's lint screen, seen close.
What is due when, across the whole house

Routines and schedules

The closed gas shutoff valve behind a range, seen close.
Lint fires, gas at the burners, hoses and wiring

Fire, gas and water safety

An older and a newer refrigerator side by side in a garage workshop.
A yearly plan, a visit when due, or a new appliance

Plans, visits and replacement

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your home appliance working again.

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Schedule maintenance Call (844) 879-5178
(844) 879-5178 Schedule maintenance