I have to run out but will try to answer some (if not all!) of your questions later tonight. Here are some close-up pics of our Turbonics kickheaters: First pic is the side of the island facing our pantry wall and the doorway to the kitchen. Second pic is the side of the island facing the sink wall. We used the black plastic grates supplied with the units--they fade away and are barely visible unless you are looking for them. They do (or did) offer metallic-look plastic (much like the silver pedal on our trash cab opener I'd imagine), but we opted to stick with the ones we had. We have ours hooked up to switches seen here (had the switchplate made to custom specs by arnev.com--took a few tries to get it right, and DH had to carve out the back of the final version a little to fit the switches in snugly, but the end result is perfect): There are various options for hooking them up as you seem to already know; with or without having them hooked up to the switches, including running both (or in your case, all three) units off one switch. We mostly run ours on low speed, unless it's bitterly cold, and we want to jump-start the warming! :-) Anyway, have to run, but will pop in later with more info. FWIW, we are very happy with ours, and our plumber, who tried to talk us out of getting kick-heaters, was impressed with these when he installed them and tested them out. PS If you do a search at the bottom of the Kitchen Forum page, you might find some older threads with some of my posts about Turbonics.

It's an accessibility issue. You need to get at it if there's ever a problem and short of removing the counter and the cabinet, I see no other way. I've done several of these in the past and cleanly done are not unappealing. One suggestion is to install a slide out tray on the bottom of the cabinet. Covers the cut-out and makes those items readily available. Another is to make the whole bottom removable. Depending on the cabinet style, overlay or style and rail, a good carpenter can do this with ease. It may take the average DIY'er a little more time, but not much more than a cleat on the perimeter and a few screws with finish washers to make it look good. I've attacked this problem several different ways depending on the client and they're wants (and of course budget). Hope this helps!

We have two of them in the master bath. They were there when we bought the house and I'm not sure why the previous owner chose toe kick heating instead of a conventional vent. I hate them. They're very noisy. That could be amplified by the marble but I wouldn't ever choose them unless there wasn't an alternative. I don't think I'd mount them halfway up a wall either (if I'm understanding what you're proposing). You'd be standing right in front of direct heat. Are you sure that's what you want? Sorry if it's not what you want to hear but I'd want to know what I had to consider before I made a decision like that.

Hello there, doggone. I'm not going the IKEA route, but I did get some open toekicks w/ my kitchen design. I don't have dogs, but I have a feisty little cat, and I just know the open toekick is going to be a problem -- the collection of junk the cat has chased under my sofa is tremendous. While I love the look of little legs on the cabs, I don't need catnip mice, balls of string, or errant cherry tomatoes rolling all the way under the cabinets. My solution is going to be to have my GC (or me!) put a backerboard about three inches behind the legs (and I'll paint it black or brown so the furniture leg detail stands out). That way the junk will be within reach of the dustbuster (or broom, or whatever.) I'm sure you can do that with the IKEA cabinets as well (even if you have to make little 3 inch high boxes to sit under the cabs behind the legs). So that's my compromise. Good luck with whatever you do!