An Outlet in a Cabinet, the Dummy Approach

outlet for microwave inside cabinet

Contributors to eHow.com and its sister sites learned early on that they'd maximize their ill-gotten gains if  they were to grab as many related "titles" as possible and pound out as many variations of the same post in as short a time as they could. Knowledge of the subject was never a prerequisite, just the desire to score many fifteen-dollar stipends in a hurry. We don't know how many posts Nichole Liandi pumped out on residential wiring, but we do know that "How to Install an Outlet Inside a Cabinet" (at the mother site) is the sixth one we've found lacking.

Liandi, whose list of DotD awards stands at nine with this nomination, seemed unable to understand even the basics of the problem. Oh, she did her usual bang-up job of rewording the instructions for extending an end-of-run outlet, although she managed to forget to call it an outlet:

"...Wrap the black wire around the brass screw on the switch [sic] and the white wire around the silver screw..."

Of course, Nichole's lack of awareness of the process did lead to numerous problems. Here is our list, which is probably not exhaustive:

• "Remove the screws from the cover of an existing outlet that's located below the cabinet where you want to install the new outlet." – What if there isn't an outlet below (or above) the cabinet of interest, Nichole? The most common reason for an outlet in a cabinet is an over-the-range microwave. 
• "Tape the end of a length of 14-2 cable to the wire and pull the wire up through the wall to the hole." – What if the outlet is on a 20-amp circuit, Nichole? And why not 14-3: do you have something against grounded circuits?

"Wrap the black wire around the brass screw on the switch and the white wire around the silver screw." – If the outlet isn't end-of-run, this ain't gonna work. "Place the gang box against the back wall of the cabinet and screw it to the wall with wood screws placed through the screw holes in the gang box." – A) you didn't specify a wall-mounted box and B) what if the owner wants the outlet to be mounted in the wall? Hint: old-work electrical box.

Liandi addressed only the simplest possible situation and got some of that wrong. That's been par for the course for this particular Dumbass of the Day.

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