Kitchen cabinets soft close doors

[Squidgems]

To avoid bugging my kitchen fiter with yet another query about what he's done can anyone tell me if these fittings have been placed correctly.

It's just that the doors are not closing softly on any of the cupboards or base units.

I've gone on you you tube which shows that they are usually placed above the hinge which these aren't. Plus they are so in your face when opening the door!

Sorry if it's a daft question but my previous kitchen was so old it didn't have the luxury of soft close doors and I've not really looked at the mechanism in other people's homes.

Ours look a bit different to yours

Mine look the same as Pixie's.

you appear to have the air piston ones, which are screwed to the frame at the opening edge, usually top and bottom.

Also available are a type which clips into the hinge, or are built into the hinge. They are more expensive. You have to have hinges by one of the better makers who offer them as an option. Blum are a very good make, I expect Hafele also offer one and are usually cheaper.

Sometimes you can get them at discounted prices, e.g. on ebay when somebody has over-ordered or has excess stock.

I just looked, it seems to be about £6.50 per hinge and you would I think have to change both, or all three, hinges on each door. Hinges usually have a standard fit.

Examples here

On the same page you can see the Blum pistons, which are quite a lot cheaper, and I presume a less prestigious brand would be less again.

I suppose you could buy enough for one door as a trial, and then consider if the cost of doing more doors was worthwhile.

It might be possible to adjust the position of your existing pistons, I don't know.

looks about £7 per pair for the latest ones with integrated soft close.

I still have the same sort as Pixie, and I bought some additional soft closers which clip into their standard hinges, which end up the same, but doubtless only fit the same brand.

Thanks for the replies. I've looked at the link PigletJohn and can see that most of them look a lot better than the ones I've got.

I have now had a look at the kitchen order form and found that they are described as 'Hinge sided soft close buffers'. I looked up the part number on the Homebase website and it says that one should be fitted on the hinge or two for larger cabinets. So the fitter has put it in the wrong place and when it's removed I'll have an extra unsightly hole in each brand new cabinet!

I can only think that he is used to putting somrthing similar on the other side to the hinge and has not read the instructions as he is Polish and doesn't speak much English. We communicate via the other person who is working with him.

I have not used the latest Blum hinges, but they look smarter than the ones I've got. It's a pity they're rather expensive. I presume the kitchen companies buy them by the million at a much better price.

I still have the older two-part ones, where you can unclip the hinge by hand to lift the door off.

This is the Hafele one, a different design

Hafele are often lower price than Blum.

found them

Hello, gems

do you think your are this sort?

The buyer comments say that they should be fitted by the hinge, which is unusual. It looks like the buffer can be screwed in and out to alter pressure.

I can't see instructions online but they might be somewhere on the maker's website (or in the packaging)

Hi Piglet John. Sorry for late reply. Yes that is exactly the item that the fitters have put on the cabinets doors. You say it's unusual for them to be put on the hinge side. That will explain why the fitter put them where he did. It's just that they don't work where they are.

I was unsure about just getting the buffers put in the right place or getting the Hafele soft close hinges that you linked to and asking the fitters to change all the hinges. But I can already see the guy rolling his eyes at the request. I've measured the hinges that are currently in place and they are longer than the Hafele soft close ones. I'm not keen on more holes in the cabinets so i will probably stick with the buffers for now. Thanks for looking into this for me.