You are correct, recent orders of KraftMaid have produced some bad reviews, particularly in regard to longevity of the finish but also touching upon the cleanliness and accuracy of joints. You can see this yourself at the independent website Kitchen Cabinets Reviews and also by searching here in the Houzz Discussion forum and sorting the answers by Most Recent.
Any chance you can cast your net wider and look at other brands? Try Harmoni by Bentwood, Prelude by Plato Woodworking, Ascend by William Ohs, or Jay Rambo. All of these are outstanding, and by working with the right dealer can put you in a competitive price range.
As far as the history of KraftMaid reviews, what I have noticed from my own research on cabinet brands is the following:
10+ Years Ago: KraftMaid was known as a mid-priced brand of cabinetry with good quality for the price. The main complaint that I have seen repeated from reviews of years ago is that sometimes the tolerances weren't as accurate as could be desired. This might only be noticeable to your installer or to someone with a trained eye for evaluating the build quality.
5+ Years Ago: KraftMaid was still known as a good value but even more so as dealers like Lowe's ran periodic deep discount promotions that allowed some customers to order cabinetry at a price rivaling lower-cost competitors like IKEA. Hardware for KraftMaid was known to be Blum, a quality brand.
2015 to 2020: KraftMaid reviews seemed to begin to reflect a growing inconsistency with the finish longevity. Customers who might have just received a KraftMaid kitchen could be happy, but those who had lived with it for a year or more might be seeing premature finish failure. The finish failure in some cases might be more noticeable on cabinetry painted an opaque color rather than natural wood with just a clear coat. Also, the hardware that was once sourced from Blum has now been changed to a generic supplier according to some reviews. Some customers report difficulties with getting satisfactory warranty fulfillment on defective cabinetry.
This is just my own observation from researching cabinet brand for my own kitchen renovation. I would strongly encourage you to do more of your own research before making a commitment to KraftMaid for your remodel. Also please keep in mind that some of the 5-star reviews might be left by dealers of the product who have not lived with the cabinetry in their own homes. This cabinetry is all made on the same production line whether ordered from a big-box retailer or a smaller, independent dealer, so quality reviews should apply across the board.
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