Short answer
The failure is rarely the rain. It is water that arrives and cannot leave — in a joint, a packed gap around an oversized opening, a sealed enclosure, or a base sitting flat on a wet surface. Every detail that solves it is a drainage detail.
The four places water stays
A packed gap around a poorly fitted grill opening. Water sits in the packing against a cut stainless edge.
A base sitting flat on paving or a deck, where the underside never dries.
A sealed enclosure with no vent, where condensation forms inside and has nowhere to go.
A joint between two worktop pieces, where a line holds water against the cabinet top.
Why cut edges matter so much
A stainless panel is a skin over a core. A cut edge exposes that core, and a wet cut edge is where corrosion starts — usually from a place you cannot see.
This is why every aperture and vent is cut and edge-finished at the factory. A hole cut on site is an unfinished edge, and once it is wet the failure is internal.
Castors, not a flat base
The modules stand on 2.5 inch castors. That lifts the base off the ground, which lets air move under the cabinet and lets water run away instead of sitting.
A cabinet set flat on a wet deck has a permanently damp underside. That is a design error, not a material one.
What to do about it
Keep the run 20 mm off the wall so the rear can breathe and the counter overhang can cover the gap. Vent the cabinets. Do not pack gaps with sealant. Rinse the run occasionally on a coastal site and let it dry — a surface that dries does not corrode.
Where standing water does its damage
The base, not the doors
The bottom 90 mm of a cabinet — the plinth and the castor zone — is where water sits and where corrosion starts. Keeping it out of the water is the whole job.
A fall away from the run
The ground has to fall away, not toward. A run in the low point of a patio spends the wet season with its base in a puddle.
The gap under the cabinet
A 2.5 inch castor plinth leaves roughly 65 mm of air under the base. That gap is what lets the underside dry after rain.
Fixings before panels
Mild steel screws in a wet plinth fail long before the stainless does. Stainless fixings are the cheapest part of the specification and the first to be cut.
The trap and the inside of closed modules
Water inside a sealed module comes from the plumbing or from stored items, never from the panels. Draining down in autumn prevents most of it.
Questions we get about this
Will the cabinets survive a wet climate?
Built as described — vented, raised on castors, cut edges finished at the factory — yes. The material is not the limiting factor in a wet climate; the detailing is.
Do I need to cover them in winter?
In a hard frost area, a cover helps. Elsewhere it is optional. What matters more is that water can leave, which a cover can actually interfere with if it traps moisture against the cabinets.
Can water get inside the cabinets?
Driving rain can reach a base vent on an exposed site. That is why the interior is skinned with stainless on both faces rather than left as exposed core.
Before you order anything
Send the grill model and the run length. You get the aperture, the module list and one itemised price back in writing — freight shown separately, valid 15 days.