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Hot take: Blum soft close hinges are overrated for face frame cabinets

I installed a set of Amerock self closing hinges on a kitchen job last month and they worked way better than Blums ever did on my face frames. The Blum hinges need those adapter plates and they always seem to loosen up after 6 months of use. Cost me an extra $3 per hinge for the Blums too, which added up to $120 on a 40 hinge job. My client actually prefers the solid thud of the Amerocks over the slow squish of the soft closes. Anyone else think the soft close hype is mostly marketing for face frame work?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamiew538h ago

That "solid thud" comment really hits home with me. Seems like a lot of modern products get fancier with features nobody asked for, when a good old simple solution works just as well.

grantmartinez6h ago

You see this everywhere now, not just with tools but with kitchen gadgets too. Bought a fancy coffee maker last year that connects to WiFi, never used that feature once and it broke in six months. My old Mr. Coffee from 2007 with the flip top lid and a simple button, that thing ran for over a decade without a single issue. We traded reliability for gimmicks somewhere along the line and nobody asked for it.

davis.adam4h ago

Man, I've been saying this for years. My advice is to just look for the simplest version of whatever you're buying with the fewest bells and whistles, because those extra features are usually the first thing to break. If it doesn't have a screen or an app, it's probably gonna outlast the fancy stuff by a long shot.