Can anyone beat Ikea on price - BEWARE THE NEW MOTED RANGE may cost you more than you think!
Bought a new sink and worktops. Thought it would be a quick weekend's work to replace - except the Ikea Faktum sink unit was water damaged and it wouldn't last.
The original units (apart from the sink unit) are 15 years old, so we were thinking it might be time to revive them. So we were considering buying new doors and drawer fronts at some time.
But back to the kitchen unit - went to Ikea told them we needed a new sink unit to replace the Faktum - told very empathically that it was no longer being sold. So with no other choice bought the new Metod to see how much work would be needed to use it.
It turns out:
- The door is 10cm taller (we knew that)
- The hinges and so hole fixing are entirely different.
- But the unit it 1cm further out from wall
- It is 2cm higher.
So basically they are entirely incompatible.
So, started looking to find out whether we might get an old carcass from ebay - and by a strange turn - found the Netherlands site - saying that they were still selling Faktum in Amserdam (and the US). But they were being told it would be available for two years after Metod was being sold.
Knowing other countries were being told this, I eventually tracked down a very hidden page that said the same about the UK (except I had been explicitly asked for Faktum and been told it was not being sold - in other words I was lied to by Ikea Staff in Glasgow).
But the final straw was when I started looking for alternative to Ikea and found this forum
community.screwfix.com/threads/ikea-kitchens.116747/
Here, professionals were talking about all the problems we originally had with the Ikea kitchen unit and the same ones causing me so much hassle now ... but worse, the Metod units are EVEN WORSE.
Many people will buy an Ikea kitchen - then ask a plumber to come in only to be be told "sorry love I don't work with Ikea kitchen units".
The problem is that they have been designed for Swedish houses which apparently don't have the same kind of plumbing in the Kitchen. UK kitchens are older with a lot of plumbing under the sink (we have double sink, dish washer and washing machine.
And I didn't mention that the Kitchen door is yet again needing replaced, because the newer doors introduced about 3years ago are nowhere near the quality of the original ones we bought 15 years ago.
In summary:: it might not seem expensive ... but a 25 year guarantee means nothing if a bit of water splashing out of the sink means you have to replace the whole kitchen because they just don't do the same units any more.
... and if you have any plumbing in your kitchen - get a quote from any trademen before you buy.