Under counter washing machine

I thinking about putting a front load washing machine in the kitchen. It would be installed under the countertop but I'm not sure where to to put the plumbing. Should I have it above the counter, behind an access panel maybe. Or should I put it under the counter with access from one of the cabinets, probably the sink base.

As long as the stand pipe is at the right height does it matter were it goes. All the ones I have seen have had them right above the back of the washer but I'm trying to avoid that.

any help here?

It doesn't make much difference where you put the hot/cold supply as far as making the machine operational, but you do want to have access to the valve(s) so you can turn the water on/off. I would suggest the single lever valve decorative surround that also has a place for the standpipe. This sets the valve and standpipe into the wall cavity and I suppose one could fashion a door to conceal the insides. If you are sold on the idea of putting the standpipe along side the machine, functionally it will work as long as it is vented and trapped. I think the whole question really comes down to what do you want. To totally conceal everything some other way, it would be somewhat difficult but not impossible to devised some way to do it. I would hesitate about totally concealing the standpipe.

I'm still going to have access. I want to put it under the sink, I have the box with the single lever valve and the drain built in. It has it's own trap and vent but the thing I was worried about was the height. all the ones I have seen seem to be up higher and I have heard that if it's to low it could backup into the sink. The maunal for the front load machine says that it has to be atleast 18 inches off the floor. I just want to make sure that that holds true regardless of what else is off that horizontal drain line.

Now you've disclosed a problem. Sinks normally have a 1-1/2" drain which is adaquate for draining them because when you drain a full sink, you're not dumping the entire sink full of water into the drain at one time. It drains by gravity as fast as the 1-1/2" drain will take the water. As washer however, requires a 2" drain because the entire load of water is pumped directly into the standpipe. An 1-1/2" pipe can't take that much volume all at once. You can not go from a 2" to 1-1/2" either, never decrease the size of a drain as you progress from the source of the waste water to the main sewer. Increase is fine, just never go smaller. Your washer must have a 2" drain with a trap and vent.

No problem there. I have a 2" that comes up for the sink with 1 1/2" traps, back to back, for the kitchen and bathroom sinks that vents with 1 1/2". Next to that I have a 2" that comes up for the washer with it's on 2" trap that vents with 1 1/2". both drains go into a 3" horizontal that ties in to the 4" vertical drain.