I recently moved into a rental property and within the first week the refrigerator stopped keeping things under 50ºF. When the guy came out to look, he said it was due to my chest freezer being near the refrigerator and it caused the compressor to burn out in it. The refrigerator has wood on both sides, going up to the cabinet above it, creating a little nook for it to reside in. There is about an inch gap on both sides between it and the wood. The chest freezer was on one side, next to the wood, with the stove being on the other. The chest freezer's compressor and other parts are in the back corner, away from the refrigerator.
If any other information is needed, ask and I will provide if I can.
I'm highly skeptical about this, but don't want to just take the blame of it being broken. I have no real knowledge if it is possible or not.
So, is it possible that the refrigerator is failing due to it's proximity to the freezer?
Update
They have replaced the refrigerator at no cost to us. The guy mentioned that he was going to have it written into the lease to not allow chest freezers at all so I'm thinking he may have something personal against them. Thanks for all the input and help.
Best Answer
Total, utter, male-bovine-derived-organic-fertilizer.
The cabinet isn't helping it cool any (and is almost certainly less ventilation space than the manufacturer requires), but the freezer really can't have much effect, being on the other side of the cabinet.
The stove on the other side gets far hotter than the outside of the freezer does - so why wasn't that blamed? Presumably because you added the chest freezer to an extant rental kitchen, and the landlord wants to stick you for price of the new refrigerator?
You are not, however, doing your chest freezer any favors if it was right next to the wood - most chest freezers have the coils running under the skin and also have a manufacturer-recommended minimum ventilation space around them.