How to read an appliance spec sheet without missing the number that matters

Overall size and cutout size are two different numbers on the same page

A spec sheet is written for the person installing the product, not for the person buying it. The overall size describes the appliance. The cutout, or the opening, describes the hole the appliance needs. They appear on the same page, they are different numbers, and the cabinet is built to the second one.

Manufacturer document. Every dimension on this page is a figure one named manufacturer publishes for one of its own products, taken from that published document. They are here to show what kind of number to look for and where it hides. They do not describe a class of appliance and they do not transfer to yours. Your appliance has its own sheet and its own figures.

The examples are worth reading precisely because they do not agree with each other. One manufacturer asks for a minimum opening of 30 inches (762 mm) between the base cabinets for one of its own freestanding ranges in the United States. A cooktop is a completely different question, because it is a cut in the countertop: one manufacturer publishes a cutout of 28-1/2 to 28-5/8 inches (724 to 727 mm) long by 19-5/8 to 19-3/4 inches (498 to 502 mm) wide for one of its own 30 inch models. Both products are called 30 inch. Neither opening is 30 inches.

Counter depth is a case dimension, not a finished depth

Counter depth is a description of the case of a refrigerator. It is not a description of how far the refrigerator sticks out into your kitchen once it is built.

Read the last row again. On that manufacturer document, the counter depth model is 31-1/4 inches (794 mm) deep once the doors and handles are counted, against a base cabinet run that is normally 24 inches deep plus a counter overhang. Counter depth is a proportion, not a flush finish, and a buyer who expected flush has been sold the right product with the wrong expectation attached to it.

The number that meets your aisle is the depth with the doors open

An appliance that fits its opening can still fail the kitchen, because the kitchen is used with the doors open.

Manufacturer document. One manufacturer publishes 43-1/4 inches (1099 mm) of total depth for one of its own French door refrigerators with the doors open at 90 degrees. Another manufacturer publishes 50-3/16 inches (1275 mm) of depth for one of its own 24 inch dishwashers with the door fully open, and asks for 2 inches (51 mm) between the side of that door and a wall or cabinet in a corner. Those are two models from two documents. Look up the figure for the exact model you are buying.

Published planning guideline. The figure those open doors collide with is the aisle. Published planning guidelines put a work aisle at 42 inches (1067 mm) for a kitchen with one cook and 48 inches (1219 mm) where more than one person cooks, measured between finished faces. Those are recommendations from an industry body, not code, and they are the numbers to check an open door depth against.

The check is two minutes of work on a plan. Write the published open depth of each appliance beside it on the drawing, then draw each door open and look at what is left of the aisle. A refrigerator door swings into it. A dishwasher door drops into it and takes the floor in front of it as well. An oven door arrives at the same moment as something heavy and hot.

The clearances the maker asks for sit on top of the cutout

A cutout is not the whole request. Manufacturer documents also ask for air gaps around a product, and an opening built to the cutout alone is an opening the machine does not go into.

• One refrigerator sheet asks for 1/8 in (3 mm) at the sides, 1 in (25 mm) above the hinge cover and 2 in (51 mm) behind, for that model.
• One built-in microwave trim kit asks for 1 in (25 mm) beyond the edge of the trim on every side for air, and says not to mount that kit within 2 ft (610 mm) of a range, a cooktop or another microwave.
• One 30 inch single wall oven asks for a cutout 28-1/2 to 28-5/8 in (724 to 727 mm) wide and 27-1/4 to 27-5/16 in (692 to 694 mm) high, in a cabinet 30 in (762 mm) wide, with at least 23-1/2 in (597 mm) of depth, and puts that cutout 32-1/2 in (826 mm) off the floor for a single oven in a tall cabinet.
• One cooktop sheet asks for at least 1-3/4 in (44 mm) between the back edge of the cut and the wall, and 2-1/2 in (64 mm) from the front edge of the cut to the front edge of the counter.

What is above the cooking surface is a different class of number

Clearance above a cooking appliance is published by the manufacturer of the appliance, and it is also addressed by model code text, and the two are not the same kind of statement.

Manufacturer document. One range sheet publishes 30 in (762 mm) from the cooking surface to an unprotected cabinet bottom, and 24 in (610 mm) where that cabinet bottom is protected in the way that sheet describes. One cooktop sheet from the same maker publishes the same pair. Those figures are for those products, from those documents.

Model code figure, verify locally. A vertical clearance above the cooking surface of not less than 30 in (762 mm) to combustible material and metal cabinets is the figure in the model code text quoted by published planning guidelines, with 24 in (610 mm) permitted where an approved range hood or other approved noncombustible material is installed. It is required in many US jurisdictions, and what applies where you live is decided by your building department.

Where a manufacturer figure and a code figure cover the same distance, your installer and your building department decide which one governs, and the manual for the appliance you actually bought is one of the documents they work from. Ask which one applies before the cabinets above the cooking surface are ordered.

Where the connection goes can change the cabinet

A cutout can be exactly right and the machine still not fit, because the outlet is behind it. Manufacturer documents say where a connection may be brought through, and that instruction changes the cabinet.

One built-in microwave trim kit publishes two different minimum depths for the same product: 19-1/2 inches (495 mm) with the outlet outside the cabinet, and 22 inches (559 mm) with the outlet inside it. Two and a half inches of cabinet depth, decided by where an electrician puts a box. That question has to be asked of the electrician and the cabinet maker on the same day, and the answer written on the cabinet order.

One dishwasher drawing shades the area of the cabinet side walls where the water, waste and power connections may be brought through, and the installation text for that model asks for the drain hose to be connected at least 20 inches (508 mm) above the floor. The same manufacturer gives the opening for that machine as at least 33-5/8 inches (854 mm) high, measured from the lowest point of the underside of the countertop, 24 inches (610 mm) wide at its narrowest and 24 inches (610 mm) deep, and a panel ready machine from a different maker asks for a cutout of 33-7/8 inches (860 mm) by 24 inches (610 mm) by 24 inches (610 mm) instead.

That opening height is measured from the lowest point of the underside of the countertop, which is the bottom of the counter, of a build-up strip, or of a sink base rail, whichever hangs lowest. It is one of the few appliance figures that cannot be settled until the countertop is chosen.

What amperage, breaker or circuit an appliance needs, and what gas connection or shutoff it takes, are also on the sheet and they are not questions for this page or for you. Copy what the sheet says and give it to your electrician, your plumber or the gas fitter. Nothing here is an instruction to connect, move or test anything.

The six places a dimension hides

The two lines to write on every sheet, and the morning both orders are signed

Write two things beside every appliance you have chosen: the model number exactly as it is printed on the sheet, and the date somebody looked at that sheet. A record without a model number describes an appliance nobody ordered, and a figure without a date is a figure nobody can defend when the sheet is revised.

Everything on this page exists for one morning: the one where the cabinet order and the appliance order are signed. After that morning the two documents describe two different kitchens, or they describe the same one.

1. Every appliance on the plan has a model number written against it.
2. Every opening on the cabinet drawing matches the opening the manufacturer asks for, not the overall size of the appliance.
3. The refrigerator depth with the doors open has been checked against the aisle.
4. The cooktop cut, and the two published distances to the wall behind and to the front edge, are on the countertop drawing.
5. The microwave cutout depth matches where the outlet is going.
6. The dishwasher opening is measured from the lowest point of the underside of the countertop.
7. If anything is panel ready, the panel is on the cabinet order and in the cabinet finish.

It takes about an hour with the sheets and the drawing side by side. It is the cheapest hour in the project, and it is the last one at which any of this is free.