Hinges on Kitchen Cupboard Doors

[hondacrm]

The retaining screw at the back of the hinge regularly works loose on a number of doors after a very short period of time. It is mainly the top hinge that is affected. I am constantly readjusting the doors for alignment. The kitchen was professionally fitted 3 years ago. Any suggestions on how to make this problem go away permanently? Should I replace the hinges with a product from a quality supplier?

TIA

 

[2scoops0406]

Do you mean that the hinge becomes loose from the carcass?

 

[hondacrm]

No. Its the screw that holds the hinge onto the plate?? that is attached to the carcass. It sits behind the other adjustment screw on the hinge.

 

[Scrit]

What make of hinge are they? I reckon the only two brands worth using are Salice and Blum. You won't normally see Salice available through retailers, but Blum is more readily available. If you do decide to replace them you need to replace both hinges on the door and the carcass plates and I'd recommend going to a clip-on hinge like the Blum clip-top Inserta - then you don't have any screws to loosen and the doors can quickly be unclipped for cleaning, etc. For Blum you could try Woodfit in Chorley or Isaac Lord in High Wycombe as both do a catalogue and mail order.

Scrit

 

[Jasonb]

You could put a drop of thread lock onto the screw thread, if you don't have that then nail varnish will do.

If it happens regularly it may be that the tread has become worn out/stripped so a new hinge will be required.

Jason

 

[Scrit]

Problem with these threads Jason is that they are only cut into a hole punched through a thin piece of steel. Once they start to wear they rapidly deteriorate. If the cupboard is "low-traffic" one the nail varnish trick works, if not it's replacement time.

Scrit

 

[hondacrm]

Thanks for the replies.

The hinges are of Italian origin, the manufacturer's name is "SPREAFICO".

The problem is, as you say, mostly with the high traffic doors. I thought it might be to do with the weight of the door but some doors are twice the size of others and they have never caused a problem.

I will try the thread lock option and then progress to new hinges if that fails.