This is about the flat stuff as I know nothing about the angled kind.

First, you are looking for the hardwired kind - meaning its directly wired into an electricity circuit. Hardwired ones are less bulky than the portable types - called plug-in. Plug-in multiple outlet strips can be fairly deep and wide.

Do put the multiple outlet strip on a circuit by itself. At first blush, that can sound crazy, but you are installing many outlets in one place that are meant to run kitchen appliances.

If your multiple outlets are within 6 feet of a sink, you may need to install a GFI circuit breaker in your electrical panel. Your electrician should know if your locality requires it as the building codes do.

DO NOT get a strip with surge suppression. The physical way surge suppression is handled in most strips is MEANT to wear out and the strip replaced every few years.

Wiremold is the company that makes PlugMold - which is a brand name. You are looking for hardwired PlugMold and its available at some big box stores and just about every electrical distributor. Almost all of those have a "counter" where they will sell consumers anything they have. Plugmold comes in some stock sizes already assembled, but they can be cut to fit. There are very large sizes available that are special orders as are ones for odd situations.

On the smaller sizes (6 feet or less), the max draw on the circuit is 15 amps. Don't expect to run a 30 quart mixer or the knife sharpener with the can opener and 1500 watt microwave.

Your electrician can get it for you and I would go that route - you might need the starter wiring segment or a GFI circuit breaker and you might not. IF your electrician has never installed Plugmold, they have a technical support line who can answer any questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: PlugMold

Slight clarification: All kitchen outlets (except those dedicated to certain appliances) are required to be on a GFCI, not just those near a sink.

Hi, here is a picture of my TR angle strips from T@ask Lighting. They are pricey, the picture is of one 24" stip. In all we bought two of the 24" and two 5" at a cost of $496. We only put it in areas that we wanted a uninterrupted backsplash and went with the TR angled because we think it easier to plug into under the upper cabinets. We have one of the five" ones in a charging station drawer. Our kitchen was a DIY so we did a few bells and whistles.

I think you have to go through your contractor or electrician for true, hard-wired Plugmold. IIRC, ours came from Task Lighting.

The thread linked below has a few pictures and some discussion...ranging in time from January 2008 (when it was started) to January 2011.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Plugmold, Wiremold, etc.

Our town enforces the national code 2008 NEC for Tamper-Resistent Receptacles. The only company that met it was task lighting and it was very pricey. The HD stuff would never pass code here.

Home Depot does sell a tamper-resistant code-compliant plugmold, but only online and it is indeed much more expensive. Probably made by Legrand.

HD Tamper Resistant plugmold

Although that HD code-compliant strip does seem spendy at $150, it does replace (I believe) 6 outlet boxes. I think the materials and labor to provide, install, and wire 6 junction boxes and receptacles would add up pretty fast.

Mine is also from Task Lighting. Shizzz is expensive! But I love it! I have white subway tile with gray grout and I got the silver plugmold with gray sockets. Looks gooood. Works gooood.

I don't have great pics of my angled plugmold but I linked one that kinda sorta shows it below.

I learned about it from this forum and am super happy with it. I had the flat kind in two other kitchens and this is a noticeable improvement in terms of ease of use.

Here is a link that might be useful: angled plugmold

@angie - all outlets do not have to be gfi, they have to be linked through a gfi outlet - except for outlets dedicated to refs, etc. which need to be on a separate circuit anyway. Up until 2010 - each outlet had to be a separate GFI outlet.

I literally have two different electrical distributors within two miles who both sell it. I still let the electrician buy it.

This is an old pic of my plugmold. I said the heck with it and banged it onto the backsplash. I just wanted the outlets and not the three outlet boxes there would have been doing it the other way.

Thanks for the pictures, all; and for the link to that old thread -- I have been looking at that one and several others as well. It seems like such an obvious need, but so little supply for the demand. Oh well.

I was going to put some in a charging drawer too (actually *behind* a pull-out which doesn't really go all the way to the wall), but the $$$ have me balking. Since it's out of sight I just saw these corded electric and USB strips at HD that maybe I could just nail to the wall back there -- it's all out of sight.

@bmorepanic. I know, unlike Aliris's hapless installer, that you only need to have GFI protection, not a separate GFI device at each outlet. I didn't imply otherwise. (I said "on a GFI.")

But now I am confused. Whatever did you mean, then, by this: "If your multiple outlets are within 6 feet of a sink, you may need to install a GFI circuit breaker in your electrical panel." I took this to mean that you thought that only outlets near a sink needed GFI protection, and I was informing the OP that, in actuality, all kitchen countertop outlets (again, except for those dedicated to certain appliances), need GFI protection.

Aaaaah, maybe I figured it out. Perhaps you were thinking of the requirement in 210.8(B)(5), which requires GFI protection for receptacles within 6 feet of any sink? That section pertains to non-dwelling units (business, schools, etc.). Section 210.8(A) covers dwelling units, and there, the requirement is that all receptacles serving kitchen countertops are GFI-protected, even if not near a sink.

I am also confused by your statement "Up until 2010 - each outlet had to be a separate GFI outlet." It was certainly not the case that up until 2010 you were required to have a separate GFI device for each outlet, which is what your statement sounded like to me, but I doubt you meant that. So I am not sure what you meant by that. Also, the NEC codes are updated every three years, and the recent years were 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2011, so no changes were made in 2010. (The adoption of the code varies by municipality, of course, so your municipality may have adopted, say, the 2008 code in 2010. Mine is still on 2008, hasn't adopted 2011 yet.)

By the way, under 2008 code, the fridge is allowed to be on one of the small appliance branches. In fact, it is only "allowed" to be on its own circuit under Exception 2 to 210.52(B)(1). I don't have a copy of the 2011 code, so I don't know if anything has changed.

Hope this clarifies, not confuses!!

Oy vey: clear. as mud.

Can I please ask: does "GFCI" or "GFI" refer to two different entities?

I know there is a GFCI/GFI (I believe GFCI == GFI) _breaker_ that goes in the breaker box ... is that a different thing, confusingly termed identically, with the outlets you buy that have a little breaker right in the outlet itself that you can push?

The tenor of my question tells you just how far away from the technicalities of angie's and panic's posts I am. This stuff is so complicated....

Regardless, I'm happy to stick everything in a damp area on a GFCI. Skimping on these things strikes me as silly. They are costly, but not compared with what's getting spent overall, and I can imagine they are kind of cost-effective public-safety-wise. And if they aren't I probably don't want to know about it as it is the law afterall. It's just not one I've spent any time bemoaning. There are too many for that .... ;)

Aliris: Yes, GFI and GFCI mean the same thing. It could just be my impression, but it seems to me that when they were first introduced, everyone said "GFCI," but now, "GFI" is more common. That is why I switch back and forth. Sorry for adding to the confusion.

And, yes, we use the same 3- or 4-letter acronym to mean such a device that is installed as a receptacle in an outlet box OR such a device that is part of your circuit breaker in your electrical panel. Obviously, the one in your panel is also a regular breaker (as you noted) and is usually (always?) qualified by saying "GFI breaker" (as you also noted).

Hmmm... thanks, Angie. The details of which is part of the code, I'll leave to the professionals I guess. Seems to me both are required in the kitchen, the breaker and also the outlets, at least in parallel -- right? Don't worry about setting me too straight if I have that too wrong; happy to let someone who understands this do it.

I still can't begin to understand why plugmold is so esoteric. It seems to me a completely obvious no-brainer sort of product to have available. cheaply. Make em in different colors, too. The HD clerk today acted *shocked* that I was buying it for a residential application ("that's really only used for commercial purposes you know") ... so strange. It seems so very much more practical to manufacture a string of outlets, the housing for which gets attached to the wall rather than wiring, separately, all those boxes. Talk about a better mouse trap....

Looking at the links which lead to more links, I see lots of pictures with plugmold under the upper cabinets; however, I am planning no uppers.

Can plugmold be installed (hardwired) above the counter at the base of the wall?

My idea is that I'd like the backsplash to be uninterrupted, but I also don't want upper cabinets, so I'd like the plugmold to be as low as possible.

Thoughts? Experiences? Ideas? Suggestions?

I follow the code AS ENFORCED in my area - we used to be required to do all gfi (lazy typing). Here, they didn't require the gfi circuit breaker until lately and they considered the plugmold as a "fixture" rather than an outlet and didn't make us use the tamper resistant ones.