Water & moisture
Water and moisture: standing water, drainage falls, monsoon and freeze — and why the plinth matters more than the stainless skin above it.
The short answer
Water destroys an outdoor cabinet at the bottom, not the top. A 2.5 inch castor plinth and a drain fall do more for longevity than a better coating.
Read in this order
Start here
The rest of the category is variations on these. Each answers one question rather than listing trends.
Guides in this section
The full list
Newest first. Each guide answers one question and links to the cabinet, drawing or report that settles it.
Before you read the guides
Where water actually gets in
These are the decisions the guides below keep returning to. Settle them roughly first; the articles then fill in the detail.
The bottom, not the doors
Water kills an outdoor cabinet at the plinth and the floor line. A 2.5 inch castor plinth that keeps the base out of standing water does more than any coating.
Standing water
The ground has to fall away from the run. A run in the low point of a patio spends the wet season with its base in a puddle.
The waste and the trap
A trap left full over winter is the single most common cause of water inside the cabinet, and it is not a cabinet fault.
Joints
Where two modules meet, and where a top meets a wall. Those are the two lines that get sealed, and they get re-sealed every few years.
The fixings
Mild steel screws in a wet plinth fail before any panel does. Stainless fixings are the cheap insurance nobody budgets for.
Straight answers
Questions this section gets most
If the answer you need is not here, the enquiry form asks for the grill model and the run length and nothing else.
Is stainless steel rust-proof?
No metal is. 304 resists corrosion well, and standing water will defeat any grade if it is allowed to sit against the steel.
Should the run sit flat on the ground?
No. It sits on its braked castors with air under the base. That gap is what lets the underside dry after rain.
Does a run need sealing before a monsoon?
The cabinets do not need sealing. What needs attention is the fall of the ground, the waste trap, and anything stored inside the closed modules.
Save the reading
Send us the grill and the length
One field, then a configuration and a price. If your grill is one we have not cut for, we will ask for the manufacturer's drawing rather than guess at it.
Page last updated · Reviewed by the BOGEQI technical team, Foshan Bogeqi Cabinetry Co., Ltd.
Reference
The heights that decide drainage
Water leaves a cabinet at the bottom, so the bottom is where the design is won. These are the levels involved.