Howdens or Magnet kitchen?

[StripyPants]

Please help me decide, especially if you have had a new kitchen recently

Kitchen 1 from Magnet
painted mdf door
Prefer the design of the door

Kitchen 2 from Howdens
£2500 cheaper
Easier for builders to get stock
But it’s a vinyl wrap door and I don’t like the door as much

It’s taken me about a year to get to this point so definitely want it to be one of these 2

Thank you!

Pictures?

Do Magnet sell the doors separately ?
Could you get most of it from Howdens and just the doors from Magnet?

I’m not sure I can be bothered getting the bits separately liz

Will try to add photos. They’re not much different to look at but the Magnet is a better quality door as it isn’t wrapped...

Magnet first pic, Howdens second

I've got a Howdens kitchen, it's about 10 years old now and still looks good.
The only sign of wear is a little sort of bubbling of the wrapping on one of the doors, from the kettle which sits right underneath.
I've got no experience of Magnet kitchens sorry !

Thanks liz. Everyone always says that they bubble but I don’t mind if they last 10 years. I’m not sure it’s worth spending an extra £2500 to prevent a possible bubble. If that makes sense!

We had a wrapped kitchen in a rental house a couple of years ago. It was Howdens and I was really disappointed. DF has always raved about howdens kitchens - though he has had wooden ones but I kept cutting my hand on the edges of the doors where they were lifting.

I’ve only heard good things though apart from that. People don’t seem to rave about Magnet as much. They do have regular sales though if price is an issue.

I had a very basic Howden's kitchen put in a couple of years ago, and it's been fine - it looks great, in fact, and I love it. I hesitated for a long time because of the wrapped doors issue. (That said, I don't live in that house all the time, so it hasn't had two years of use.)

I make sure I use my kettle right on the outer edge of the worktop!

I have a Howdens kitchen possibly the same doors as your picture but in a different colour? See photo. It is fantastic quality. It's my second kitchen from them (had one put in in my old house) and couldn't fault it. The kitchen I recently replaced was Magnet. Again it seemed good quality but I wouldn't pay more for it.

We have a magnet kitchen nearing 30 years and it still looks new. I don't know about howdens.

I just had your Howdens one fitted, even the same handles! It looks fab and feel very high quality.

I could have written LizB62A’s post - our Howden’s one is 11 years old and the only problem is where a kettle caused a bit of a bubble ! We had all kinds of quotes and went for the Howdens because, at the time anyway , they had a very tall wall cupboard option.

Much cheaper than the Magnet equivalent and we have been very pleased - it doesn’t look cheap,in the way some of the budget options did.

Ooh, think you might all be convincing me to save £2500! It’s the Howdens Burford we like, sounds like it’s pretty popular!

That sounds, and looks from a quick search, very familiar - and the extra tall cupboard is there !

On looks alone I prefer the Magnet one. It looks more refined and expensive. Plus we had a vinyl wrapped Ikea kitchen and it's bloody awful

Just had a Howdens kitchen installed and we love it.

Just a quick update, we explained our dilemma to Magnet and said we would go with them if they were the same price as The Howdens kitchen. And guess what? They agreed! Hope that might help someone else with the same dilemma in the future.

Thanks for all your thoughts

Yay @StripyPants great news 🙌🏼

Great news - I would have gone with Magnet out of the two as many of the builders I've worked with (I'm an architect) rate them as better but that might be because they are local (magnet factory is a big employer here) . Both are usually flexible with their prices when pushed and for regular trade customers.

I have one client on site at the moment who has gone with a magnet, another with IKEA and a third with a bespoke handmade one - they are all fab and can't wait for them all to be finished (so I can take photos)

We have a Howdens kitchen and I'd not do it again, but tbf 5 that's largely down to the fact that the builder did not know what he was doing. So I'd say get the kitchen manufacturer to put in the kitchen, they know far better which way up a carcass goes etc, and how best to attach hinges so no drop on door levels etc. And the Howdens Bosch integrated stuff is awful - very low grade range and not at all the quality you'd expect from Bosch. The fridge is particularly awful and cheap the freezer's tiny, the hob quite bad too; for their 5 ring burner you need small pans to actually use all 5 at once. Then dishwasher is ok though. We're moving. Im going to John Lewis next time.

Hi OP been a long time you had posted this but thought I might put my thoughts on this.
I am due to getting my kitchen done and am going to be looking at quotes from Magnets, Howdens and Wren K. We have had kitchen from both Magnet and Howdens. Magnet for over 16yrs and it has lasted but the doors were wood rather than other material.
Howdens we had for 12years and it is laminate but even this has not degraded. It is still good as. The only thing that has happened sometimes is the kitchen shelf coming off.

Price wise Howdens are cheap so would go for it.

You done well with comparing and asking Magnet to price match.
Getting quotes from both I would certainly try price match if there is a particular unit I like in Magnets.