Whether it’s your family message center, an ever-changing scrapbook page, your photo gallery, or a do-it-yourself collage of spontaneous artwork, the front of the refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of real estate inside your home.

Oh, but those stainless steel appliances that look so elegant and modern? They’re a problem. Because it’s true — and the sales guys won’t think to warn you — your magnets won’t stick to most stainless steel refrigerators.


Photo: DairDair

Designers and decorators and magazine editors don’t quite get it. And I guess the appliance makers don’t either.

They may think we should revel in a pure clean uncluttered fridge front, but guess what?

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We don’t.

We don’t want to live with a blank-faced fridge.

We love our fridge magnets — the holiday souvenir magnets and giftshop impulse-buy magnets, the tacky ad magnets from the pizza take-out, magnetic note pads, plastic alphabets, and strange glue-smeared scraps of felt on magnetic tape, made by loving preschool hands — all of them!

Our magnets help us to organize and celebrate our family’s daily lives. Right there at eye level — right in the heart of the house.

What the home appliance manufacturers need to do is sit down in my kitchen for a cup of coffee and look around. Maybe in your kitchen, too. Definitely in my friend Kathy’s kitchen…

Then maybe they’d begin to understand why North America resounds with the wail — “My fridge magnets won’t work on stainless steel!” And then maybe they’d get their act together to give us the one feature in a refrigerator that’s needed above all others: the ability to decorate the front of it with magnets.

Does it matter?

I say, yes.

So I’ve looked into this stainless-steel-fridge-magnet issue a bit, and here’s what I’ve turned up: 7 solutions!

None of these alone is the one perfect solution to your stainless steel fridge art crisis, but there are enough ideas here that some sort of mix-and-match fix should be possible:

1. Different Fridge:

Not all stainless steel appliances are created equal, however. Okay, this is science stuff and makes my eyes glaze over, but it seems to have something to do with the different amounts of nickel in the metal alloy that’s used to face the appliances that we call “stainless steel” appliances.

The good news is, some stainless steel fridges will, in fact, work for fridge magnets — especially if the magnet is fairly strong. The most magnet-friendly appliances have a thin sheet of stainless steel as a decorative face over a metal core that’s more ferromagnetic — meaning a metal that magnets will stick to.

If you haven’t bought a fridge yet, take a few magnets to the store and test the attraction before you make a final buy.

2. Different Side:

Many “stainless steel” refrigerators are made differently on the front than they are on the sides. If your fridge magnets won’t stick to the door, try the side of it — if your kitchen arrangement allows easy access to it, of course.

3. Different Appliance:

Or try the dishwasher, or another convenient appliance. For some reason — perhaps because the smaller expanse of metal on the face doesn’t need to have the same strength as a whole big fridge door, your non-fridge stainless steel appliances seem to be more likely to want to play nice with the magnets.

This is great, if all you want is to put your plastic alphabet magnets out for the little kids to learn to spell while you’re making dinner… but it’s not a great solution for those of us who love the ever-changing eye-level Metropolitan Refrigerator of Art.

4. Different Surface:

You can get magnetic paint and make yourself a new magnet display place from a convenient cupboard door, or even a section of wall. I like this idea very much, and a painter pal tells me that the magnetic paint does work very well.

You might even get a can of blackboard paint, too, and paint yourself a half-and-half magnet board and chalk board.

The only problem there is, in a small kitchen, you might not have the blank wall space to spare.

Oh, and you’d still have a great big bare shiny cold medical-looking stainless steel fridge, just beggin for some crayon art and a souvenir magnet from Niagara Falls…

refinished fridge 5. Same Fridge Only Different:

Instead of replacing your old, magnet-friendly fridge with the hip new stainless steel you crave, at the cost of your art display, consider a refinishing job.

A good cabinet shop may be able to fit a new stainless steel panel to the front of your existing fridge, depending on the model and its age. If the new face-panel is thin enough, your magnets should still be able to work.

Or there’s a liquid stainless steel brush-on coating that’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new fridge if all you really need right now is a kitchen decor update.

It goes on a lot like paint, they say, but if that’s more of a do-it-yourself job than you’re keen to take on, I’ll bet the Yellow Pages can find you a professional painter or refinisher who’s done it a dozen times and can make your old fridge look like new stainless steel. For about $50 plus labor.

And your beloved magnets will still work on your fridge.

6. Different Sticky:

Some people say you should just use sticky tape, or reusable putty or those Lulalu clips or, who knows, a wad of chewing gum… well, maybe not the gum… but something other than magnets, anyway, to post your photos and memo-notes on the fridge.

That’s not a bad idea, and it gives a great excuse to go browse in the office supplies store! The down side: you don’t get to use and display your magnet collection.

choopra board 7. Different Metal:

So, if you go the tape-and-sticky-gum route for your fridge display, and you still want to show off your magnet collection — or if you’re bound and determined to use those magnets on the fridge, no other surface will do — there’s something called the Choopa Board that could be your fridge’s new best friend.

It’s a metal board that comes in three different sizes (and two colour options: white or stainless steel) with suction cups on the back. You stick one to the front of the fridge, then stick your magnets on the Choopa Board.
Problem solved!

This Post Has 41 Comments

  1. PeterW

    Well then you haven’t done enough research on Fridges, Most stainless steel refigerators are non magnetic because of the amount of other alloys created in the stainless compound, HOWEVER Frigidaire does create stainless steel refigerators that you could stick magnets on without having someone paint over your old refirgerator

  2. Gary Kusher

    I am an ebay user, I have submitted a copyright misuse and I will let you know what they tell me when I receive any kind of answer.

  3. Marco

    Here is a wonderful solution that is non-adhesive and works not only on stainless steel but other smooth surfaces as well. Called StainlessCling.

    stainlesscling.com

    Also have a line of dry erase white boards, black boards, and chalk boards that use the same cling technology.

  4. John Evans

    re – Stainless Steel and Fridge Magnets: 7 Solutions
    Solution # 8 = Go to a metal recycler where old fridges are being cut up for scrap. They can cut any sized pieces that you can glue to your stainless steel fridge.

  5. Domestik Goddess

    Jodie, thank you – I very much appreciate that!
    You can imagine, it’s hard to put a lot of work into a blog over the years just to find someone else is ripping it off, and it’s all David-and-Goliath time against the big companies.

  6. Jodie

    A small piece of help/info for you. Those who read your blog and are ‘registered users’ @ ebay can report that guide as a copyright violation. Perhaps if enough of those ‘report’ buttons are pushed they will take it more seriously? I do so and the following message was provided to me.

    We appreciate your effort to help us maintain a safe trading environment. eBay takes all reports seriously. We will investigate your report and take the appropriate action, based on the information that you have submitted and information gathered from other sources. If you have other concerns or questions, contact us. Thank you for helping make eBay a safe online marketplace.

  7. Domestik Goddess

    Oh, the eBay fiasco just keeps getting more ridiculous!
    In response to an email I sent this morning, reminding eBay’s “customer service” chaps that no action had been taken, I just received this email:

    Thank you for writing eBay in regard to Image and Text Theft.

    We developed the Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) program to help owners of
    intellectual property protect their rights. When we receive a notice of
    claimed infringement from a VeRO member, we remove the listing.

    If you’d like to participate in the VeRO program and pursue this matter
    further, please go to:
    http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/vero-rights-owner.html

    If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reply to this
    email and let us know.

    Sincerely,
    Kay M.

    Okay, couple things here:
    (a) as a Canadian, I can’t sign up at eBay.com – it will redirect to eBay.ca (the Canadian version) as soon as the address gets entered; and
    (b) the VeRO program applies to listings of things for sale, not to the guides that eBay lets sellers publish to attract buyers to their store – and the issue here (as I have been at pains to try to explain to the not-helpful eBay folks) is with a Guide.

    Who wants to take a bet on whether eBay will take down the stolen content before I’m collecting an old-age pension? Bet #2: what are the odds that “readyseller1908” will be allowed to keep on stealing the work of other writers and passing it off as his own, to help him sell his magnets and stuff on eBay?

    My reply:

    As a professional writer who depends on copyright law to protect my livelihood, YES, I most certainly do want to “pursue this matter further”.

    But, as I have explained REPEATEDLY – the stolen content is NOT on a listing, but has been published as one of your GUIDES by user “readyseller1908”.

    And, as I am a Canadian, I can’t register at your blasted eBay.COM website to report the infringement with the “Report This Guide” button or to use your VeRO program – which obviously doesn’t apply in this case, anyway – because your site keeps redirecting me to eBay.CA as soon as I enter my address in the registration form.

    So, will you stop sending me these irrelevant form letters,
    and simply get on with resolving this clear case of copyright violation, please?

    Yeah… I’m afraid that, after a month of this foolishness, my communications with eBay may be starting to reflect the fact that I’m fast running out of patience… a lot of time has been invested here, to no avail, so far!

    Sigh.

  8. Domestik Goddess

    Follow-up: eBay has not been cooperative about removing the stolen content from their website.

    Bloggers need to know about this, and keep a close eye on what eBay is publishing in its “Guides” because it may be content that’s stolen from your blog!

    As soon as Janelle alerted me to the fact that an eBay seller (readyseller1908)had published this blog post as a Guide, with his own name and email attached as credit, I submitted a complaint report to eBay — and had to jump through a lot of hoops to do it, believe me! They do not make it easy to report a copyright violation unless someone’s trying to sell counterfeit software or something like that. The only way to report a Guide is to be an eBay member — and Canadians can’t sign up as members at eBay.com, as it immediately redirects to eBay.ca…

    Anyway.

    About a week, I later got a form email back from eBay that asked for the *exact same information* I’d already given. I replied, giving all the info again, with every possible detail they could wish for. No response. No acknowledgment. No action.

    Then, a few days after that, I got an email from eBay asking me to fill out a Customer Satisfaction Survey! (You can bet I gave them some feedback – and there wasn’t a whole lot of “satisfaction” involved!) I used the comment part of the survey form to remind them about this unresolved issue, and explain why I was giving such a negative “satisfaction” report.

    Nothing. No response from eBay of any kind.

    Now, 1 month later, there’s still no action from eBay, still no reply to my original report or to the follow-up emails or survey.

    The stolen content is still on the eBay site, under readyseller1908‘s name, and he’s still merrily selling his crap on eBay, even though he is clearly not an honest person — and eBay knows it.

    So, I wonder if you guys might give me a little help to get eBay’s attention?
    Anyone who is an eBay member, could you pretty-please go to http://reviews.ebay.com/Stainless-Steel-And-Refrigerator-Magnets-7-Solutions_W0QQugidZ10000000009942958 and click the Report this guide link at the bottom?

    • For “Select a reason for reporting” just choose “Copyright and Trademark Issues and Unauthorized Use of Images and Text” from the drop-down menu; and
    • for “Choose a reason for selecting the report type selected above” choose “Unauthorized use of images or text”.

    See? eBay doesn’t make it easy!

    Much appreciated, if you can help out here. :) And if you’ve had your own blog content show up on eBay pages without your permission, drop a note in the comments — we’ll be more than happy to return the favour!

    1. Domestik Goddess

      Janelle, you ROCK! Many thanks for spotting the copyright violation, and bringing it to my attention.
      No, I’m not a member of Ebay.com – so if you see any more of my content on that site, you’ll know that it’s stolen. :(

      I’ve gotten in touch with Ebay by email, so let’s hope they step up and deal with it promptly… Just imagine, if an Ebay seller will stoop so low as to steal someone else’s words, to make themselves look good — is that someone you’d actually want to trust enough to buy something from?

      Thanks again, Janelle – you restore my faith in humanity! :)

  9. nicole

    OMG thank you I have a stainless steel fridge in my new condo and for a year I have been trying to decide what to do about the magnet issue. I know I know I’m a grownup I should be able to solve such problems. but no.

  10. mike

    It seems almost ironic, the sudden popularity of stainless steel refrigerators, taking the lead among the other kitchen appliances where stainless is perferred, — magnets will not adhere to. High quality 440 stainless alloy has too little iron to attract magnets. If you see a stainless looking fridge with magnets all over, then its not really stainless or of a low quality. You may use a magnet to determind the qaulity of stainless steel when shopping for the real thing.

  11. mike

    I don’t get it! Why would anybody want to deface an appliance with silly little magnetic backed grapedy? I think it has more to do with: “because everyone does it” factor than logical purpose. You buy a fridge then clutter the doors with all manner of crap making it look like something out of a child’s nightmare! Oh well, to each his own!

  12. Levent KEN?R

    Dear Madam/Sir,

    We want to get fridge magnets about 2.000 units’ maybe more depends to price. We designed fridge magnets but we do not manufacture these magnets ourselves. If it is possible could you manufacture for us fridge magnets? So we contact you about this issue. If you accept to manufacture, we will send you two photographs in order to use on fridge magnets. Please let us know about this issue. Thank you very much in advance.

    Best regards,

    Levent Kenir

  13. domestika

    Now there’s a fridge that tells a story of its owner! Thanks for sharing this little glimpse, John :) Any else have their own Metropolitan Refrigerator of Art photos to share? Go ahead, leave a link!

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