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Soft close hinges going to damage my cabs?

11 years ago

Thought you guys might be able to help with this.

I got soft close hinges with me cabs, which are great I guess... but what I noticed is the slow close spring mechanism also has the opposite effect ... when I try to open the cabs slightly; the spring mechanism pushes the door outwards to full open.

I have an "L" shaped kitchen so the corner has cabinets 90 degrees to each other. When I open the cabs, the doors want to full open and knock the "pulls" into the other cabinet face. Also hits on the cabinets adjacent to the range hood.

For right now I'm just trying to be slow / super ginger with it; but obviously long term this is a pain in the you know what. I would have been better off with just normal hinges?

I wonder if there is a way to adjust these so they dont spring outward as much? Should I replace them? Maybe I'm paranoid?

Any input would be appreciated!

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Comments (6)

cabmanct
11 years ago
On the BLUM hinges there is a little bar with a grey tab on it in the cup of the hinge, by pushing it you can change the strength of the spring.
There is also a tiny tab beside the bar ( separate from it ) that turns off the soft closing altogether.
Do you have any of these features on your hinge?
stayghost
Original Author
11 years ago
maybe? here's a pic of it
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PeterH2
11 years ago
It's not the soft-close feature that pushes the door open; that's just how those hinges are. IOW, if you disable soft close, the doors will still tend to swing open that far.

If you have Blum hinges, you can get a special "angle restriction clip" for a few pennies - that will limit the swing to 86 degrees. If not, you could install a small stay at the top of the door to limit the opening.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blum angle restriction clip
cabmanct
11 years ago
I dont use Compact 33s but see that grey tab towards the front of the cup?
Try and move it the opposite direction.

Peter is correct the hinges should have been restricted.
stayghost
Original Author
11 years ago
thanks, super helpful - I wonder if any angle restriction clips exist for other brand hinges?
cabmanct
11 years ago
That is a Blum hinge, the style is called Compact 33

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