Modular Kitchen Appliance Checklist India

Why This Has to Happen Early

A modular kitchen is designed and manufactured as a system, then installed. Once the carcasses
are in and the counter is on, changing anything means cutting into finished work.

Every appliance needs some combination of power, water in, water out, and
ventilation. Each of those is a five-minute conversation at the design stage and a
disruptive job afterwards.

Power Points — The Most Common Regret

Nearly every kitchen ends up short of sockets, because planning counts visible appliances and
forgets concealed ones.

Inside cabinets: water purifier, dishwasher, waste disposer, sometimes a
booster pump.

Above the counter: mixer, kettle, toaster, microwave, air fryer — and two or
three spare, because appliance counts only ever grow.

Dedicated: refrigerator, chimney, oven.

Sockets are inexpensive during a build. Adding one to a finished kitchen means chasing walls
or running visible trunking through a kitchen designed to look seamless.

Plumbing and Drainage

Three appliances need water and drainage, and each has to be decided before the cabinetry is
manufactured:

• Sink — obvious, and its position determines much of the rest
• Dishwasher — inlet and drain, plus a cabinet sized for it. Even if you are
  not buying one now, leaving provision is nearly free
• Water purifier — inlet, drain for the RO reject line, and power. Covered
  below

The reject line matters and is often improvised. RO produces reject water continuously while
running, and it needs plumbing properly into the waste. A hose tucked into the cabinet is how
people end up with a swollen, mouldy cupboard base a year later.

Chimney Ducting

Given how Indian cooking works, the chimney is arguably the most consequential appliance in
the kitchen — high-heat oil generates a great deal of fine particulate, and extraction at source
is what keeps it out of the rest of the home.

Plan for:

• Ducted, not ductless, wherever the layout allows. Ductless filters and
  returns the air to the same room
• The shortest, straightest duct run possible. Every bend costs
  extraction
• A hood at least as wide as the hob. A narrower hood cannot capture the
  outer burners
• The correct mounting height — too high and the plume disperses before
  capture

Duct routing has to be agreed with the designer before the false ceiling and upper cabinets
are built. Afterwards, the options are all bad.

The Purifier Nobody Plans For

This is the appliance most consistently left out of modular kitchen planning, and it is the
one where planning saves the most.

A wall-mounted purifier needs a stretch of wall — in a kitchen designed around continuous
cabinetry, there frequently isn’t one, and the machine ends up in an awkward corner or on the
only clear wall the design was built around.

An under-sink purifier solves that by living in the cabinet, with only a
slim tap on the counter. But it needs four things decided in advance:

1. Clear cabinet volume — genuinely clear, not the space that exists once you
   remove the bin and the pipes
2. A power point inside or immediately beside that cabinet
3. Inlet and drain connections
4. A hole in the counter for the dispensing tap — drilled by the fabricator
   when the counter is cut, which is free, rather than by someone drilling granite in your
   finished kitchen, which is not

The Checklist

Appliance	Power	Water in	Drain	Other
Hob	If induction	—	—	Gas line if LPG
Chimney	Yes	—	—	Duct route
Water purifier	In the cabinet	Yes	Yes	Counter tap hole
Dishwasher	Yes	Yes	Yes	Cabinet width
Refrigerator	Dedicated	If ice/water	—	Ventilation gap
Microwave / oven	Dedicated	—	—	Built-in housing
Washing machine	Yes	Yes	Yes	If in the kitchen

If the Kitchen Is Already Built

Not everything is lost — some things retrofit better than others.

• Under-sink purifier: possible. The counter hole is the main cost, and a
  power point may need running. Both are routine jobs, just more expensive than they would have
  been.
• Wall-mounted purifier: straightforward, if there is a wall for it.
• Dishwasher: hard without a cabinet sized for it. Freestanding models are
  the usual compromise.
• Chimney ducting: the hardest to retrofit well, and the one most worth
  getting right at design stage.
• Sockets: possible, and rarely invisible afterwards.

Frequently Asked Questions

What appliances should I plan for in a modular kitchen?

Hob and chimney, refrigerator, water purifier, and — depending on the household — dishwasher, microwave or built-in oven, and sometimes a washing machine. Each needs its own combination of power, water and drainage decided before the cabinetry is built, because retrofitting any of them means cutting into finished carcasses.

Where should the water purifier go in a modular kitchen?

Under the sink is the usual answer in a modular kitchen, because it keeps the machine out of sight and off the wall. That requires clear cabinet space, an inlet, a drain connection, a power point inside or beside the cabinet, and a hole in the counter for the dispensing tap — all far cheaper to plan than to retrofit.

Can I add an under-sink water purifier after the kitchen is finished?

Yes, but it costs more. The counter has to be drilled — granite and quartz need professional drilling — and a power point may need running to the cabinet. Both are routine when the kitchen is being built and disruptive afterwards.

How many power points does a modular kitchen need?

More than most people plan for. Count every appliance including the ones inside cabinets — purifier, dishwasher, waste disposer — and add two or three spare above the counter for small appliances. Sockets are inexpensive during the build and expensive afterwards.

Should the chimney be ducted or ductless in a modular kitchen?

Ducted, wherever the layout allows. A ducted chimney removes cooking emissions from the building; a ductless one filters and returns them, leaving heat, humidity and a share of the particulate in the kitchen. Ducting has to be planned into the design, which is exactly why it is on this list.