I had Yorktowne cabinets installed in my kitchen redo last summer; so far, they are just fine. My KD/GC is a Yorktowne dealer (though he also carries other brands) and he described them as "not top of the line, but a good value". I think there are 3 levels within the line, called (somewhat silly) "silver", "gold" and "platinum", with "platinum" being all plywood boxes; mine are "platinum".

I was a little shocked at how expensive they were, for a "good value" cabinet.

It is also my understanding that many/most/all? manufacturers tend to offer kickbacks -- there is a more genteel term but it escapes me at the moment -- to dealers to push their lines.

So....can't really comment re Kraftmaid, and not entirely sure I didn't pay a bit dearly...but I have no complaints about the cabinets themselves.

Hope this helps

/j

I have Yorktowne cabinets. They were here when I moved in
and they have held up great. I did once replace the
trash cabinet and the reps at my local Yorktown location
(next town over) were fantastic and gave me the parts
for free. They of course were probably trying to sell me
more cabs.

And my Aunt just redid her kitchen with yorktown. It
looks fantastic.
Would I buy yorktown? No, probably not. If I had the
money I would hire a custom cab maker to create my kitchen.
Meanwhile here are some links that might be helpful.
Not sure if these were the ones you read on GW.
~boxer

Yorktowne Cabinet Review Corrupt Sales Practices?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg102205095786.html?29

Yorktowne Cabinets
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0106275222067.html

Yorktowne Cabinets anyone?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0608240226786.html

Quality of kitchen cabinets: Yorktowne vs IKEA
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0808273618986.html

Thanks for the comments. Boxer, I had seen a couple of those posts but not all so thank you for the links. I'll pass this on to her.

These are the absolute worst cabinets made in America today. Elkay has run this company into the ground.

The finish is terrible. Spoke to a dealer today in NY who had to have his last 5 Yorktowne kitchens field repaired by a furniture refinisher. He said it was like watching new cars be refinished in a underground garage..ie the finish is never the same!! He said there should be a lemon law for companies like Elkay/Yorktowne.

They make their own doors. They use a grade of wood known as #2 common random...the pink slime of the cabinet business. To maximize yield in their dimension mill use tiny scraps of wood, glue and piece them together such that the finished product looks like a crazy quilt of patched together wood. No matter what you do to it it looks like crap and they know it!

Yorktowne is grossly OVER PRICED. Most dealers try to shove cheap flake board construction on you because they charge %16 more for plywood. Many other companies offer plywood standard and blow Yorktowne away in price and quality.

The construction is a tale of two shitties. Substandard materials cobbled together in an inferior construction made by the Elkay corp an even shadier cabinet company. Don't take my word for it google "Yorktowne cabinet factory closing". You can view first hand Elkay's abysmal record of poor quality, union busting and mis-management.

Look and feel inside the cabinet. It is held together by dozens of triangle shaped fasteners. If you are unafraid of ripping your finger open, then open a door and run your finger along the back of the face frame, where it meets the side panel. You will find dozens of sharp pointy nails sticking out for you and your children to rip your finger tips open with. These little finger slicers are clearly evident with double faced glass door cabinets. As if the abysmal Yorktowne finish were not enough. They announce to your friends, family and indeed to the world that you made the bone headed decision to purchase the higest priced lowest quality cabinet made in America.

Alas, the poor decision to buy Yorktowne (or the equally high priced low quality Elkay sister company Medallion) was not yours alone.

How were you to know that your cabinet sales person was being bribed by the Elkay/Yorktowne/Medallion corp to foist an overpriced low quality cabinet upon you. See CORRUPT SALES PRACTICES http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg102205095786.html

Yorktowe/Elkay is so desperate that they pay dealer sales people kick backs of up to 30$ per cabinet to your cabinet sales person to steer you into a low quality high priced product where as most often is the case a lower cost higher quality alternative is availible. With a 30$ per cabinet kick back the average 20 cabinet kitchen with a 65% mark up means you are overpaying $990

Bribery, payola, kickbacks, and graft are the only way Elkay can sell this overpriced junk to you the unsuspecting consumer.

I have seen countless "dream kitchens" ruined by this company. If a sales person tries to steer and manipulate you into this brand for his "kickback" than don't walk out of the showroom run..before it's too late.

WAY under Kraftmaid quality.

My in-laws used Yorktown about 10-12 years ago for their kitchen. They expanded their kitchen and wanted to buy the same cabinets to match what they had. Even though they bought the same finish, they don't match at all, and I doubt they will even when they oxidize. The new ones look like they have a glaze on them, and the old ones do not. Yorktown says they have not been glazed, but they look very different from the ones that were stained before.

The construction is also poor for what they paid. It was significantly more than my solid wood custom cabinets.

They also had a scammer for a dealer. He brought them stuff they didn't need and didn't bring them stuff they did. Yorktown said that he was an authorized dealer and they "would look into it", but this guy is still selling cabinets for them a year later!

A lot of the import cabinet are actually better quality, and that pains me to say because Chinese imports are such a crapshoot when it comes to quality.

Not defending Yorktown, but keep in mind the kind of garbage that KitchenExcrement has been spamming this forum with.

Thanks for the replies. She ended up going with the Kraftmaid cabinets that she liked initially and they should be delivered next week.