Refrigeration does not create 'cold'—it extracts thermal heat from inside the cabinet and exhausts that heat into the surrounding room air.
If you trap a commercial refrigeration compressor inside tight, unvented joinery, the trapped ambient air temperature will rapidly surge beyond 50°C. The compressor will run continuously, overheat, trip its thermal overload switch, and ultimately suffer catastrophic mechanical failure.
Front-Breathing vs Rear-Breathing When planning custom underbench bar joinery, insist on units with front-breathing plinths (such as Skope ReFlex, Williams Cameo, or Schmick Alfresco). These feature divided kickplate louvres: fresh room air is drawn through one side of the front grille, passed over the condenser coils, and ejected out the other side.
For units with rear exhaust, always provide a minimum 50mm rear air gap plus ventilation grilles cut into the kickboard or countertop splashback.