The difference between an integrated appliance & a hidden kitchen appliance:

Kitchen Secret #14:
The difference between an integrated appliance
& a hidden kitchen appliance:

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Secret 1: Why are there so many 'limited offers'?

Secret 2: Why you shouldn't pay any attention to a 'sale'

Secret 3: The Selling Cycle - The Kitchen Designer plan

Secret 4: What is a Kitchen
'Market Demonstration'?

Secret 5: Should you tell your designer your budget?

Secret 6: How much does a Kitchen Designer earn?

Secret 7: How should you prioritise your needs?

Secret 8: Why do Designers want a sale 'on the night'?

Secret 9: What do the price & quality have in common?

Secret 10: Your own made-to-measure kitchen… or is it???

Secret 11: Why will a Designer decline a request?

Secret 12: How does a Designer sell 'empty space'?

Secret 13: When is a 'corner base unit' not a 'corner base'?

Secret 14: Is there a difference between hiding & integrating?

Secret 15: When is an oven not an oven???

Secret 16: Is everything included in your kitchen price?

Secret 17: How much should you pay for your kitchen?

Secret 18: How can you find the 'bottom price'?

Secret 19: Don't get 'ripped off' by the finance package

Secret 20: How long should your kitchen last for?

Secret 21: What is the best kitchen guarantee available?

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As if deciding upon your kitchen style and design doesn’t give you a big headache, you will also have to decide on the pros and cons of either keeping your existing appliances, buying new ‘stand alone’ appliances or buying integrated ones. Many customers don’t take time in analysing which appliance will be right.

Many factors need to be taken into consideration. On this occasion, we’ll be looking at appliances that typically are situated close to a water supply – appliances such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers. Figure 8 shows a typical example of a customer wanting to integrate a non-integrated appliance. In this situation the appliance is a washing machine, but it could have just as easily have been something else. To ‘hide’ a non-integrated appliance in such a scenario, it’s necessary to use a slightly deeper worktop. A washing machine needs some ‘breathing space’ at the back. In order to have the doors flush with the finish of the worktop at the front and an adequate gap at the rear, the depth of the worktop needs to be extended by at lease 50mm. This means that if encountering a situation where the wall for this particular part of the kitchen only allows for a 600mm depth, then the whole row of cupboards and appliances will have to ‘stick out’ very slightly. This can again be seen in figure 8.

As most machines are very nearly 600mm wide, when enclosing such an appliance kitchen companies will generally allow for a 700mm space – 50mm clear at either side. When attaching the doors, a 300 and 400mm door is used – not the most symmetrical look, but more importantly taking up an additional 100mm of space in the ‘kitchen run’ without good reason.

When space is at a premium, a 100mm waste in the ‘run’ might just well have a significant impact upon the design.

Figure 9 shows another alternative for the same part of the kitchen. This time, we are using a fully integrated washer. Integrated appliances are completely different to non-integrated ones.

As a generalisation, one of the main differences is the ventilation supply.

For non-integrated appliances, the cooling ventilation can be found at the rear, whilst with the integrated version it can be found behind a vent in the kitchen plinth.

This significant appliance design alteration allows both cupboards in the kitchen as well as worktop to be positioned right next to it. The alternative in figure 9 enables yet another amendment to the overall kitchen design. As can be seen in figure 8, there is only room for a 400mm base unit to the right hand size of the appliance.

Many kitchen companies don’t make drawers in a 400mm width – they only have a 500mm option. Therefore, if there’s going to be a hidden non-integrated appliance in this particular run, then there won’t be enough room to have a handy set of drawers nearby to the sink. The important thing to remember is that one small seemingly insignificant change in the kitchen design could result in a vast change in the efficiency of the overall final package.