170 Degree Cup Hinges

[Bruce Gray]

I'm doing a kitchen project and have been planning on using a number of the wide angle (170 degree) 35mm cup hinges. These are face frame cabinets, using frameless style hinges (in the manner of Danny Proulx). I have used lots of the 120 degree hinges in the past, but 170 degree is new to me. I did a trial mockup using Blum 170's, and am unhappy with the operation of the hinge. It has a very "clunky" feel when opened in the first 10-20 degrees of travel. Two samples of the hinge both work the same. The rough clunky feel (I don't know how else to describe it) is bad enough to be unacceptable.

My question is this. Is this a normal characteristic of Blum 170 degree hinges ? What about other vendors? (I have some Salice 170's on order to try).

Thanks for any thoughts
Bruce

[Larry Fox]

Bruce, I used one set of the Blum 170's in my kitchen cabinet project and noticed the same thing. There is a noticible clunk at about 20-degrees where it is like another part of the mechanism is kicking in. Very annoying at first and I fiddled with them for quite a while thinking that I just had them mis-alligned but eventually concluded that it was they way they were supposed to work.

[Jamie Buxton]

My kitchen is mostly 170 dgree Blums. Those hinges work smoothly. They're about ten years old now. Dunno if they're the same ones as sold today.

[Paul Greathouse]

Bruce

I buy my Euro hinges locally, the store I use sells Mepla. I am just finishing a kitchen that has a large pantry with pullout shelves and several other lower cabinets with pullouts. I installed the Mepla 170 degree hinges on it yesterday and they are smooth, no clunk noticed. The only negative is they don't spring closed as well as the 120 degree do, but they do open wide and allow the shelves to pull out.

If the Salice don't work out, I'm sure you can find Mepla hinges on the internet.

Blum is a good brand, are you sure that they may not just need a little adjustment? The Mepla's have an adjustment screw to change the door position, maybe your Blums do also and are set a little too tight.