I considered this would be a relatively straightforward job, not that I've tried to put in a fitted full-height FF before. Boy was I wrong.
When I put the 200cm cabinet together, and put a row of base units next to it, and put the worktop on, I didn't realise the cabinet had bowed in in the middle where the worktop met it. It wasn't by much, (otherwise I'd have had to completely abandon the idea of a FF), but just enough to make life incredibly difficult for the next stage. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until it was way too late to do anything about it, with worktop down, tiled, siliconed, with a hob stuck in as well. You get the idea.. taking the worktop up not really an option.
After adjusting the door hanging angles as far as they would go (120cm fridge door as far down as possible, 80cm freezer door as far up), they still wouldn't close properly, leading to:
Botch #1: Hack out the chipboard underneath the door hinges to get more play on the adjuster.
Just enough thread left on the adjusters to get the doors closing. You have to be really careful doing this, as if you overcook it, the door doesn't close properly, and 'pings' back out.
Next up, with the FF back in place, I started putting the little brackets onto the FF doors, the ones that run along the sliders on the cabinet doors. When I put these on, the ones top and bottom were fine, but the ones in the middle stopped both FF doors from closing leading to:
Botch #2: Slicing off portions of the plastic brackets with a box cutter (I had to abandon the idea of putting the little plastic caps on to hide the screws as they just wouldn't go.
The instructions indicate the distance the FF should sit relative to the front of the shelf it sits on, but I decided to just ignore that and just play around moving the FF until I found a place where the thing could sit such that the doors would close and make a seal, as I realised the instructions probably assumed a square unit.
After opening and closing the doors a few times it became apparent that the top bracket of the fridge door hinge was fouling the cabinet hinge. I then realised that this FF, in spite of being plenty small enough to sit in a 200cm cabinet wasn't (if you look at the instructions really closely) designed to go in a 200cm cabinet, but in a 220cm one. This lead to:
Botch #3 Dremel a portion of the FF bracket, and a portion of the cabinet hinge such that the door could close unobstructed.
Another problem with the 200cm cabinet instead of the 220cm one, is that you're supposed to put a shelf both above and below the FF. The shelf above is so you can put some screws through the bracket at the top of the FF and secure it to something solid. In my case there was not enough room to put in the upper shelf (it would also interfere with the top door hinge, so it was:
Botch #4 Lower the top of the cabinet with two blocks of wood, screwed to the cabinet, to accept the top securing screws.
Unfortunately, this made access to the adjustment screws in the top hinge extremely difficult, so I had to resign myself to tightening/loosening it with mole grips gripping a screw driver bit, but never mind, that was the least of my worries on this job.
So now with the FF back in position, I realise that the cabinet doors don't meet flat with the FF doors, and if I fit the sliders they will be pulling each other out of true. The other problem, is that both cabinet doors as supplied by IKEA do not appear to be exactly flat.
Out comes the FF again, and I adjust up the doors, trying to only change them by the amount that they were out. Back goes the FF, and this time, they are meeting with the doors more or less correctly.
Now, I can see that I've got cabinet doors that are nothing like horizontal. The IKEA manual helpfully tells me that the slider rails are supposed to go on horizontal, however this won't fly for me, so it's:
Botch #5: I get the door as far closed as possible (while I can still mark it), mark on the inside of the door where the bracket top and bottom are, then open it fully, mark where the top and bottom of the bracket are, put another set of marks, then put the bracket between them.
Botch #6: Because I'm all on the angle now, and to avoid any wear and tear problems I back off all the screws in the bracket so the bracket is free to float up and down.
The sliders look all over the place, but seem to work correctly.
So, it's job done, and, well, not sure if I can call it disaster as it all appears to work, however disaster in terms of time taken. Most of that time was thinking, rather than doing.
Some lessons from the experience:
1) Always read the fitting instructions before you put the kitchen together, and before you buy the appliances.
2) Don't accept what the IKEA kitchen designer people say without verifying it yourself. They may be assuming you are using different appliances to the ones you actually fit. They may look very similar appliances, e.g. FROSTIG FF was 177.2cm, instead of mine being 182.7cm but I would have avoided the Dremel with the FROSTIG.
3) Temporarily fit a shelf midway up 200m high (or greater) units to make damned sure they keep their shape while you are heaving in other units. You may end up putting pressure on it, and having it 'pop' in a bit when you take the shelf out, but at least you have a fighting chance of keeping it true.
4) Consider not using fitted FF in the first place. It was a lot of extra work, and all I really gained was a 60cm storage box on the top of it, that I won't reach without a stool. I could have put a shelf there anyway, or put a Metod cabinet above.
I could go on and write a small book on the rest of the IKEA kitchen, but that's for another day!
G'night.
When I put the 200cm cabinet together, and put a row of base units next to it, and put the worktop on, I didn't realise the cabinet had bowed in in the middle where the worktop met it. It wasn't by much, (otherwise I'd have had to completely abandon the idea of a FF), but just enough to make life incredibly difficult for the next stage. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until it was way too late to do anything about it, with worktop down, tiled, siliconed, with a hob stuck in as well. You get the idea.. taking the worktop up not really an option.
After adjusting the door hanging angles as far as they would go (120cm fridge door as far down as possible, 80cm freezer door as far up), they still wouldn't close properly, leading to:
Botch #1: Hack out the chipboard underneath the door hinges to get more play on the adjuster.
Just enough thread left on the adjusters to get the doors closing. You have to be really careful doing this, as if you overcook it, the door doesn't close properly, and 'pings' back out.
Next up, with the FF back in place, I started putting the little brackets onto the FF doors, the ones that run along the sliders on the cabinet doors. When I put these on, the ones top and bottom were fine, but the ones in the middle stopped both FF doors from closing leading to:
Botch #2: Slicing off portions of the plastic brackets with a box cutter (I had to abandon the idea of putting the little plastic caps on to hide the screws as they just wouldn't go.
The instructions indicate the distance the FF should sit relative to the front of the shelf it sits on, but I decided to just ignore that and just play around moving the FF until I found a place where the thing could sit such that the doors would close and make a seal, as I realised the instructions probably assumed a square unit.
After opening and closing the doors a few times it became apparent that the top bracket of the fridge door hinge was fouling the cabinet hinge. I then realised that this FF, in spite of being plenty small enough to sit in a 200cm cabinet wasn't (if you look at the instructions really closely) designed to go in a 200cm cabinet, but in a 220cm one. This lead to:
Botch #3 Dremel a portion of the FF bracket, and a portion of the cabinet hinge such that the door could close unobstructed.
Another problem with the 200cm cabinet instead of the 220cm one, is that you're supposed to put a shelf both above and below the FF. The shelf above is so you can put some screws through the bracket at the top of the FF and secure it to something solid. In my case there was not enough room to put in the upper shelf (it would also interfere with the top door hinge, so it was:
Botch #4 Lower the top of the cabinet with two blocks of wood, screwed to the cabinet, to accept the top securing screws.
Unfortunately, this made access to the adjustment screws in the top hinge extremely difficult, so I had to resign myself to tightening/loosening it with mole grips gripping a screw driver bit, but never mind, that was the least of my worries on this job.
So now with the FF back in position, I realise that the cabinet doors don't meet flat with the FF doors, and if I fit the sliders they will be pulling each other out of true. The other problem, is that both cabinet doors as supplied by IKEA do not appear to be exactly flat.
Out comes the FF again, and I adjust up the doors, trying to only change them by the amount that they were out. Back goes the FF, and this time, they are meeting with the doors more or less correctly.
Now, I can see that I've got cabinet doors that are nothing like horizontal. The IKEA manual helpfully tells me that the slider rails are supposed to go on horizontal, however this won't fly for me, so it's:
Botch #5: I get the door as far closed as possible (while I can still mark it), mark on the inside of the door where the bracket top and bottom are, then open it fully, mark where the top and bottom of the bracket are, put another set of marks, then put the bracket between them.
Botch #6: Because I'm all on the angle now, and to avoid any wear and tear problems I back off all the screws in the bracket so the bracket is free to float up and down.
The sliders look all over the place, but seem to work correctly.
So, it's job done, and, well, not sure if I can call it disaster as it all appears to work, however disaster in terms of time taken. Most of that time was thinking, rather than doing.
Some lessons from the experience:
1) Always read the fitting instructions before you put the kitchen together, and before you buy the appliances.
2) Don't accept what the IKEA kitchen designer people say without verifying it yourself. They may be assuming you are using different appliances to the ones you actually fit. They may look very similar appliances, e.g. FROSTIG FF was 177.2cm, instead of mine being 182.7cm but I would have avoided the Dremel with the FROSTIG.
3) Temporarily fit a shelf midway up 200m high (or greater) units to make damned sure they keep their shape while you are heaving in other units. You may end up putting pressure on it, and having it 'pop' in a bit when you take the shelf out, but at least you have a fighting chance of keeping it true.
4) Consider not using fitted FF in the first place. It was a lot of extra work, and all I really gained was a 60cm storage box on the top of it, that I won't reach without a stool. I could have put a shelf there anyway, or put a Metod cabinet above.
I could go on and write a small book on the rest of the IKEA kitchen, but that's for another day!
G'night.
