Under-Cabinet Outlet

An under-cabinet outlet is an electrical receptacle mounted on the underside of the upper cabinets, or on the wall just beneath them, instead of in the backsplash. It can be a single receptacle, a row of them, or a continuous power strip (often called plugmold) that runs the length of the cabinet. The point is a clean backsplash: tile or stone slab runs uninterrupted, and the plugs sit out of sight above the counter.

Under-cabinet outlets still have to meet the counter rules in the International Residential Code, Section E3901.4, which follows the National Electrical Code's Section 210.52(C). Along a counter, no point can be more than 24 inches from an outlet, and every counter space 12 inches wide or wider needs one. The outlets must sit on or above the counter and no more than 20 inches above it. Upper cabinets usually hang about 18 inches above the counter, so receptacles on their underside land inside that limit and count toward the required spacing. Outlets hidden behind a built-in appliance or inside an appliance garage do not count. A power strip has to be a product listed for the way it is installed, not a household extension strip screwed to a cabinet. The full placement rules are summarized in IRC E3901 receptacle placement.

Every kitchen counter outlet also needs shock protection. That usually means a GFCI breaker at the panel or a GFCI device upstream, because a reset button under a cabinet is hard to reach and easy to forget. The rules for which outlets need GFCI and AFCI protection, and how they differ by the code edition your city enforces, are in IRC E3902 GFCI and AFCI protection.

For example, a Scottsdale kitchen with a full-height quartzite backsplash might put a power strip under every run of upper cabinets and keep the backsplash bare. An island has no cabinet above it, so its outlets go in a listed pop-up unit in the counter or, where the code allows, on the side of the island just below the counter edge. Because the strip, the backsplash material and the cabinet bottoms all have to line up, this is decided before the electrician roughs in the boxes, not after the tile is set. See the rough-in inspection for when that wiring is checked.