Blum Hinges

[Birdhunter]

I have become a handyman for a departed friend's elderly widow. Hinges had broken on one of her kitchen cabinet doors. Unwisely, I volunteered to fix the problem. I took pictures of the existing hinges and even took one of the broken hinges to Rockler. When the store employee asked me what the overhang was, I had no idea. After all, overhang is that part of ones belly that projects over the belt buckle. He suggested buying two hinge sizes bracketing the overhang possibilities.

Back to the widow' house to install the hinges. Turns out none of the existing screw holes match the new hardware. I had pencil, punch, and drill with me so making new holes not an issue. I mounted the new hardware on the door and the frame. In the numerous videos I had watched, These hinges easily snapped into place. Not for me they didn't. After about 20 minutes of wrestling with the door and the hinges, one then the second locked into place. The door hinges didn't need any of the 3-4 axes of possible adjustment. I was more than thankful. The house is maintained at a comfy 92 degrees so I was already sweaty. The widow was thankful.

This kitchen has about 20 other cabinet doors that have either broken or failing hinges.

I'm calling a cabinet specialist!!!!

 

[Rutabagared]

Ahh . . . the wonderful and confusing world of Blum hinges.  I don't use them often enough to remain familiar and always have to reaquaint myself when the need arises . . . full overlay, partial overlay, inset, crank arm hinge, hinge plate thickness, opening angles, etc.

I've had some success loosening the up/down adjuster screws on the mounting plates when having trouble getting the CLIP top hinges to "clip" on.

92° sounds comfy.  When I visit elderly relatives, especially in winter, I dress in layers .  But your just stuck with it the remainder of the year.

 

[tjbnwi]

If the holes did not line up the original hinges are probably not Blum. Addionally the overlay is clearly marked on a Blum hinge. Until about 15 years ago Salice and Grass had their own hole pattern. All of the euro cup hinges we deal with now no matter the brand have the Blum pattern.

If one has issues clipping on a hinge leave one of the mounting plates loose. This is usually an indication the plates are not parallel to each other.

Tom

 

[Michael Kellough]

And there was also Mepla which allowed adding multi axis adjustment to narrow face frames in the 1-1/8” range. Extinct, and no replacements.

 

[Packard]

I recently replaced the Amerock cup hinges on my cabinets with Blum hinges.  As long as the cup hole fits the Blum hinge, the other holes just require a Vix bit to work. 

It is helpful if you can enlist an assistant to hold the door in place while you mark the location of the hinges on the face frame.  After you get the first hinge installed you become the “cabinet specialist”.

Post some pictures.

 

[Birdhunter]

The house is about 40 years old and these are the original hinges. That’s why they are breaking and do not have strong closure. I was impressed with the high quality of the Blum hinges.

 

[Packard]

I have not had an opportunity to test out the other brands (Blum is the easiest to source), but Hettich, Hafele and Sugastune apparently make comparable hinges. 

Frustratingly, Hafele makes both the aluminum extrusions and hinges to make narrow frame glass doors.  Frustrating because the catalog listing the components is sufficiently vague as to make ordering a junk shoot [this site does not like my language.  “Junk shoot” was their version.  To comply I probably would have written “a roll of the dice”.. 

I have uses Sugastune soft close hinged lid closers and they are very nice.  But frustrating again was the sparse instructions on installation. 

I believe that if I grew up with any of those manufacturers, that their options are probably on par with Blum. 

Hafele offers a dizzingly vast array of cabinet hardware in addition to their hinges.  I ordered some Hafele hardware from www.HomeDecorHardware.com.  The transaction was satisfactory.  I don’t know who else sells this stuff.

Home Decor Hardware shows the entire Hafele catalog: https://www.homedecorhardware.com/hafele.html

 

[Birdhunter]

I bought the Blum hinges from a Rockler. The staff member was extremely helpful. When I mentioned that I might be doing up to 20 doors, he said to order online as the store would never have that many in stock.

Rockler's web site said that hinge was sold out. I could not cross reference the Rockler part number to an identical hinge on Amazon. Since I will be letting a professional handle the other doors, this is a moot issue.

I remain amazed at the huge variety of Blum hinge variety. It's daunting.

 

[rst]

I just replaced a pair of 80’s era 90 degree door hinges with 110s.  I wasn’t sure the originals were Blum but was reasonably retain Blums were the first Euro style available back then.  I ordered four from Cabinetparts.com.  I had ordered a prefab oak tray and soft close under mount rails for under our kitchen sink.  Their service was great although there was a lead for the tray but was  actually delivered earlier than the quoted date. Turned out the originals were Blum as the plates on the cabinet were identical.  It’s amazing that parts that old were engineered so well that they are still in production.

 

[tjbnwi]

Just a heads up-

Blum warranties their products for life. If you have one fail go to their website, fill out the form, send yours in and they’ll send you a replacement.

We install about 3000 Blum hinges/slides a year, have yet to have a failure.

Tom

 

[Packard]

I bought the Blum hinges from a Rockler. The staff member was extremely helpful. When I mentioned that I might be doing up to 20 doors, he said to order online as the store would never have that many in stock.

Rockler's web site said that hinge was sold out. I could not cross reference the Rockler part number to an identical hinge on Amazon. Since I will be letting a professional handle the other doors, this is a moot issue.

I remain amazed at the huge variety of Blum hinge variety. It's daunting.

There are lower cost vendors than Rockler if you are buying several hinges, shop around or ask in these forums.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

If the attachment holes do not line up, they were a different brand, since Blum has always been the same.
The most well-known brands are generally well marked (branded) usually on both the hinge and the plate.
Years ago, we used to keep two different drill/insertion machines, because Grass hinges used a different pattern. (closer together, slightly further from the edge, IIRC?) They have since changed that pattern, so they now match Blum, Salice, etc. There are several "discount" brands out there now.
Sugastune is a bit of an anomaly. They have some variations like stainless steel hinges.

 

[Cheese]

There are lower cost vendors than Rockler if you are buying several hinges, shop around or ask in these forums.

A&H Turf comes to mind.

 

[Packard]

There are lower cost vendors than Rockler if you are buying several hinges, shop around or ask in these forums.

A&H Turf comes to mind.

That is my vendor of choice.  Somehow they are able to avoid charging any sales tax too.  A savings of over 8% in my area.  Other online vendors do add NY sales tax and I was under the impression that it was required by law.  Turf is very reliable, but I find their website deficient. I pick up the phone.