My KD suggested something like this (see link). There is also a clip on kind. You have to make sure they fit your hinges.

Here is a link that might be useful: blum soft close

inkycrab: I bought closers for myself and my cabinet maker had me buy some for him. When he got the cabs finished he decided he liked the way the other design mounted on his frames better. So he ordered several hundred for himself and his brothers business. He claim's they like these better than the Blums. I have never seen a Blum so I can comment. He put the ones with wings on my cabs, which are the ones he prefers. There the same except the mounting. The mounting screws get covered with the piston so I thought they would look better.

Anyway I have 48 and he has 100 of the 3 piece one we don't need. They can be mounted 2 ways. 1. drill a hole in the shelf the size of the piston and push in the piston, 2. mount the whole assembly. Here are pictures of both.
You can have them for what I paid, $1.25 ea. If interested send me a private email.

An idea, you might want to try 2 on 1 door if you cant find something strong enough.

Larrylwill...do you have any pictures of the the entire cabinet with the soft close dampers installed? I want to show my DH.

TIA!

Thanks Larry! It looks like you install them on the opposite side to the hinge...

It looks like the 3-piece one (the one your cabinet maker didn't like) would be mounted on the side of the cabinet rather than the top of the face frame.

Did you personally try the 3-piece one? If so, do you agree w/your cabinet maker that the winged one mounted on the face frame is better?

I wonder if one would be better for heavier doors than the other...

Old_Skool....what is the IKEA design? Perhaps if it's one of the two Larry shows the other one might work better for you!

Anyone else have any experience with either design?

This isn't exactly meant to be a hijack...it's meant to garner more information for both the OP and me!

Yes he installed it opposite the hinge. I left the left door off for the picture. I think the reason he liked the one with wings was because the frame is 1" and the hidden one has the screws front and back so only one screw would screw into wood without a block behind it. I never tried either. I never thought about mounting on the inside near the hinge. I wouldn't think it would work as good. However I will move one to see.
BTW they did not come with screws.

Larrylwill: may I ask where you purchased your dampers? $1.25 per unit is a fantastic price! Thx!

do not buy that kind, blum has revamped there line, and the new ones are much better, they mount on the hinge side, so they contact quicker and they are adjustable for different size doors. 1 will do a 24 x 42 easily and 2 on a pantry door. they run a little bit more, but they are much much better.
http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/30/40/20/index.php

The old blum dampers are somewhat cheesy. The door closes rapidly, then bangs into the piston, then slows down. Not a true soft close.

Here are true soft close hinges that we used in our cabinets.
- http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=133-733
Work beautifully.

Has anyone used the BLUMOTION for doors - COMPACT mentioned by Mcr1? Do they work well? Does the door close rapidly, then bang into the piston, then slow down? It kind of looks like that will still be the case. Do they really handle the bigger/heavier doors better?

Pharaoh...the ones you linked are integrated into the hinges...so we would have to change the hinges on all the cabinets.

* Posted by amsunshine (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 16, 08 at 20:38

Larrylwill: may I ask where you purchased your dampers? $1.25 per unit is a fantastic price! Thx!

A company in Calif I found on the internet. They had a min order of $50 I think. Deco Direct

They do not bang and they will hold the heavy doors, I have used them on doors that are 27"x72". That door took 2 but most doors will only need one. I use one on anything smaller than a pantry door. We build custom kitchens, so I use them in every job.

I tried one on the inside but it seems to be better on the outside. Im not sure it would hold back a heavy door. It also depends on your hinges. My doors have to be closed about 2/3 before they will continue to close the rest of the way on their own. I would suspect if you had the money the ones incorporated in the hinge would be better. However for $1.25 per door they are better than nothing.

mcr1: Are you speaking from experience after trying this type and comparing it to the Blumes or was that just a guess?

I am speaking from experience, I used to use the old piston style, and would never go back to those. Of course the ones built into the hinge are great but they are only for frameless hinges, most people have the face frame concealed hinges. I have remodeled over several hundred kitchens, so yes I know you will not like the old style and the new ones that mount on the hinge side corner are much, much better and you could probably get them for around 4 bucks a piece.

YEs, the IKEA is a basic piston that fits into a housing similar to the pictures above. The door slams into it, slows and then still bangs onto the frame.

Since I have a face frame with hidden hinges, the Blumotion hinges with built in dampers probably won't work but the ones posted of the new style which mount at the top of the frame look really nice.

I went to the link Mcr1 posted and those look perfect, but the question is what is the model number and where can I order them?

We have 42" high by 27" wide doors in two places, 12" x24" in two places, some 24" x 36" doors and 12x30 and 15x30.

mcrl:
Have you had any doors that are too light to fully close with those devices?

you can adjust the strength of the damper with a screw you turn, so no they can be usd on smaller doors as well as larger. The model number is 917A, but they tend to have a loner model number when you order them. I get them from a distributor so I am not sure where you could buy them. If you can not find them on the internet (they wont be in home centers) you could email me and I could ship them. But you should be able to find them online. Also check blum homepage for distributors.
mikemoore@moorescabinets.com

So, it sounds like...

If you have frameless cabinets the best option is the soft-close incorporated into the hinge.

If you have face-framed cabinets, your only option is the separate piston.

Is this correct?

Look no more...I know exactly what you need. I tested several soft closures before buying the ones I have. Many of them, including the ones someone showed above, don't work well, because they are not heavy duty enough - at least in my experience.

The Blumotion for compact doors are terrific. The specific ones shown work with non-Blum hinges. Very easy to install, and quite frankly, my favorite thing in our new kitchen over anything else, even the granite. I can't speak highly enough about this item, can't you tell!!!

If you purchase 20+ quantity from the link below, they'll give you a discount per item. They did for us last year when we ordered them. They are worth every cent they charge, IMO.

They are heavy duty and you can adjust them.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: where to get them

Thank you everyone for your help. I purchased the Blumotion for compact doors as shown in the picture above. I picked up 19 of them for $55 shipped.

I can't wait.

Debi_2006 & Others....do you only need one per door? (In our case, our doors range from 12"H above the refrigerator to 36"H wall cabinets.)

old skool,

where did you order them from? I'm going to need about 20 of them myself?

TIA

buehl: Yes, one will serve any size door. I have them on every door in my kitchen.

craig: If you look at the link I provided in my previous post, you'll see exactly where you can get them (Woodworker's Hardware).

Check the link

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.cabinethw.com/p-46-blumotion-for-doors-compact-hinges.aspx

I bought the dampers. They arrived. I installed them.

AWESOME! Absolutely perfect. Easy, easy, easy install. Great adjustment. Perfect function.

I tried to install them for my drawers, however, there was no force pulling the drawer closed like the hinge on the cabinet door. So, it didn't work on the drawer.

I really want something like this for my drawers without having to try to retrofit slide mechanisms to my drawers and cabinets.

Any suggestions?

Looks like the prices have gone up considerably on the blum closers for compact hinges. Does anybody have a good link to lower (under $3?) prices? I need 30.

Thanks!

Which blum unit gets used for full overlay doors? On one of the sites (A & H) they have two different units for attaching to the frame of the cabinet. One is 0mm, and the other is 3mm.

Also, does anyone have a lead on the lowest price for these? A & H looks to be the lowest I can find.

Thanks!

I used these for my full overlay doors: http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/ProductID/B971A9700

Spacers for partial overlay: http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/ProductID/B971A9709

I've used these

https://www.sugatsune.co.uk/cat/0017002200d3/230+Concealed+hinge+with+19mm+overlay

which are quite neat as they fit over the hinge. They work well too, not just arresting the last part of the movement. You can buy the damper separately from the hinge but I'm not sure if it works with any other than sugatsune hinges

Here is a link that might be useful: sugatsune soft closing concealed hinges

I bought the Blum unit for compact doors and finally installed them yesterday. AH Turf had the best price I could find. They work GREAT! I was shocked how well they work! I also bought some to put into my aunt/mom's house and showed them mine yesterday and they are excited to be getting theirs.

It was roughly $90 for 30 units including shipping. I chose the units without screws for my kitchen and bought 1 1/4" #8 wood screws to install them with. It's important to pre-drill and I needed a flexible drill extension to get them squarely in the corner of the cabinet. I installed all 30 (all but 5 were wall cabinets- in true GW style ;-p) in well under an hour.

I highly recommend them!

i needsome soft close dampers for my kitchen cabinet doors

I have tried soft close adapters they do not work my doors are not heavy enough. Are there adapters for lighter weight doors?

I installed these on all my kitchen cabinet doors after a facelift remodel:

https://www.rokhardware.com/hardware-fasteners/soft-close-add-ons/blumotion-soft-close-with-spacer-screws-polybag.html

I think I got mine from Rockler for about $3 each, but a lot of places sell them. I installed them all using a Dremel stylus. My cabs are full overlay. No problems. It's been 5 years and nary a slam. I wasn't sure if I'd need the adapter piece, so I ordered one. Ended up not needing the adapter so saved some money getting devices without.

Laurie, my doors are painted maple shaker with MDF inserts. They are not super heavy. The door doesn't just up and close on its own. You give it a bit of a shove, as you would with a door that doesn't soft close, and momentum does the rest.

We tried out this damper from Lowes. It works well with the heavy pine/plywood shaker doors dh made. Ultimately, we went with soft close hinges, as the doors were new and we had to buy hinges anyway.