Most newcomers judge kitchen furniture just from the appearance----model, style, color, not the professional factors such as panel, hinge and cabinet etc. So, what should a newcomer pay attention to while selecting kitchen furniture? First, let's begin with the constitution of kitchen furniture:
Kitchen furniture consists of as following:
Cabinet (the framework of kitchen furniture)
Door panel (the main part for the appearance, which is usually cared about)
Work top (it is surely very important)
Kitchen fittings (hinge, drawer slide rail, door handle, wall cabinet hanger, fastener, ABS module drawer, cutter head, levelers, hanging clamp, air support)
Kicking board (damp-proof object between the bottom and ground)
Edge sealing
1. For any details about the materials used for the cabinet, see:
Guide for Selecting Board Material of Cabinet
2. For any details necessary for choosing material of door panel, see: Guide for Selecting Door Panel
3. For any details necessary for choosing material of work top, see: Guide for Selecting Work Top
4. For any details about place of production and price quality for kitchen fittings, see: Guide for selecting kitchen fittings
5. As for kicking board, it is used mainly for damp-proof against the ground; it can be omitted if floor slab has been fixed. Or you can select plastic or stainless steel Kicking board provided by kitchen furniture companies. It is more convenient thought it is not as serviceable as floor slab.
6. As for edge sealing, it is among these details which can prolong service life of kitchen furniture. When thickness of the edge sealing for ordinary kitchen furniture is only 0.45mm, thickness of the one for high quality kitchen furniture can be as much as 1mm.
Check the sealing part to see whether there is any sign of use of oily scratch. For use of oily scratch, the pores will be blocked for better performance. Nevertheless look through it carefully, you will find the sign of oily scratch.
What should we pay attention to as well after learning these technical points above? The key points are as below:
1. Don't count too much on kitchen furniture of foreign brands, firstly because some so-called import brands may be fake; secondly because many home-made products by regular channels are usually qualified as China is one of the five powers for export of hardware in the world----many foreign customers are even using the products exported from China!
2. Don't easily believe in the surprising differentials price between the home and foreign brands. In fact, due to home factories' using imported raw materials in large scale, the price of raw material is not so high.
3.You should check the product name, specifications, place of production, and performance of materials provided in the bid. To see whether all materials for kitchen furniture are listed; whether the import brand is listed and whether the place of production is listed; what's the grading price of wall cabinet; whether the account of on-board cabinet, semi-closet, wardrobe is listed; how many drawers is contained; which of them is charged additionally and which is not.
4. Reasonably arrange the layout of all parts of kitchen furniture to ensure as high quality as possible.
Guide for Selecting Board Material of Cabinet:
At present cabinets of most kitchen furniture are using melamine face chipboard as the main material and the main component of kitchen furniture. Leaving aside some rumors about it in the market, let me make a brief introduction here:
Melamine face chipboard：also called MFC for short. It is technically made of ornament paper which is dipped in melamine glue and then dried and pressed under high temperature and pressure.
1. Three indexes for quality of board.
For the quality difference among various types of boards, the price is very different too. The three most important indexes for consumers are formaldehyde, nail-holding ability, and water absorption and thickness swelling rate.
Two indexes to measure formaldehyde are content and burst size. Personally I think content is more reliable. The index burst size is not so accurate as it can not be strictly confirmed as content. Now people are often concerned about content of formaldehyde. The current universal E-1 standard is 9MG/100G, which is an admittance standard in Europe. So boards produced in European factories can generally meet this standard. It is a recommended standard for home factories, so not all home-made boards can accord with this standard.
Briefly speaking, nail-holding ability is intensity of connection of board to hardware, which directly affect the service life of furniture.
Water absorption and thickness swelling rate is how much the board swells after absorbing water.
2. Selecting place of production of board.
For both process equipments and material resource, the products made in the Northeast of China are the best. The widely accepted Lushuihe board is made in Lushuihe Chipboard Factory of Jilin Shengong Group. Apart from it there are several good board factories which produce boards only for export furniture, so home consumers are not familiar with them. Equipments used in them are from Germany or Finland. Formula for the glue provided by the foreign companies and the natural wonderful forest resources ensure as high quality board as imported ones.
Nevertheless due to output and price, these boards cover only a small share of the market. Most of boards are made in Henan, Shandong and Anhui, which is less high quality than ones made in the Northeast, with a litter higher content of formaldehyde than the E-1 standard, while poor quality board is much worse. The content of formaldehyde may be two or three times higher. These ones labeled with price 70~80 is of the kind above, which are often used in some bad kitchen furniture.
The popular boards nowadays in Europe are Austrian Egger, German PFLEIDERER, Belgian TIVPAN and UNILIN, and Kronospan, the biggest group in Europe.
European boards which are exported to Asia are basically of the cheapest type. From the prospective of European, they are the worst in quality. Even for IKEA furniture, boards used for furniture made in different countries are very different, though Chinese people often believe that imported products are the best. As a matter of fact some of those imported boards even don't meet the requirement of Chinese criterion. I ever saw test reports of this kind.
3. Whether damp-proof board should be used.
Many people are concerned about whether the kitchen furniture should be made of damp-proof boards. Now I tell them: it is unnecessary. In fact no European factories use damp-proof board to make kitchen furniture in spite of its surprisingly high price. This kind of damp-proof board with green core is developed for Asian market, first made in Taiwan and then in Europe, to make it more competitive, while it makes no sense in actual use. It’s unnecessary to spend money on it.
　　Now the waterproof rate of ordinary board is V20 according to European criterion. The waterproof rate of these imported damp-proof boards is V70 or V100. In Europe the highest waterproof rate is V313 though I never saw any of them in home.
Damp-proof board has a better performance with glue mixed with a little melamine, so the green powder doesn't have any effect. The color is just for distinction form ordinary ones.
There is an important point to remember, damp-proof board will still swell when dipped into water but with less swelling rate. But I think the difference between 1mm and 5mm is meaningless to consumers. Due to swelling, the sealing will be degelatinized. So I don't think damp-proof board is necessary.
4. Some points about veneer of board.
Many consumers may not notice that the melamine veneer is just sticking on the board ornament paper which is dipped in the glue and stick on the boards when they dried. Many white boards in the market are not made by being dipped into melamine glue, but urea resin glue instead. The cost of the glue is two thirds less! But the difference can't be detected within three months. Any dirty can't be cleaned and even watermark will be left if using wet cloth on it. Boards sold at 70~80 yuan are mostly of this kind. So I always disagree to have decoration agency make kitchen furniture as no qualified board can be available in the market. Compared to the decoration agency, even the smallest kitchen furniture factory is better.
As for the ornament paper, imported boards and ones made by home big factories use imported papers or ones printed in factories invested by foreign fund. The used ink is UV-proof to some extend, while veneer for the cheap board is printed with color paste with cost cut to 80 percent but with poor UV-proof ability. After used for half a year, the room furniture or kitchen furniture will discolor. The color will change light due to sunlight while the parts without sunlight will stay unchanged. With no relevant technical standard, many small factories are playing tricks like above. Pay more attention to it in purchasing.
5. Thickness of board.
In addition, board of 18mm thick is best to be used for cabinet of kitchen furniture. Too wide cabinet with 16mm's board can distort easily. Cabinet of IKEA kitchen furniture uses boards of 18mm thick. Even IKEA, as the biggest trick-player in the world, dare not play trick on it, so the thickness of board is very important! On the contrary, some so-called big factories often play the tricks to customers on it, who usually provide booklets for customers for instruction. So I think these booklets are actually misleading consumers.
6. Price difference between home-made board and imported one.
Many consumers are surely concerned about the price difference between imported and home-made boards, and interest in the price quality of kitchen furniture which purchased by themselves.
In fact the price difference is not as much as listed on the correlation table by the kitchen furniture factories. Personally I think the difference is very little. Now some kitchen furniture factories with certain production scale often purchase boards from Europe at very low price. Usually, the price for imported board, plus tariff (it is lowered by state this year), added-value tax, customs custody response cost and transportation expense, is just 10 to 15 percent higher than the high quality board (not poor quality board).
But the price difference between kitchen furniture made of imported boards and one made of home-made boards is absolutely surprising!
So, as more and more kitchen furniture factories import boards from Europe, the competition will be even fiercer. Thus the price difference will be less and less and suitable for the consumers. But you need patience to wait.
7. Authorized brand agency.
Sometimes the authorization certification makes no sense. One can wangle a certification by purchasing a batch of boards. And the certification is signed and issued by agent, which makes on sense too. By getting the certification, you have access to the fake. With a few imported boards piled there, the factory puts on air to make kitchen furniture of fake boards, which is hard to be detected by customers, and hard to be controlled by the agent. So the fake kitchen furniture is hard to prevent and hard to distinguish. The fake kitchen furniture usually appears in market. But kitchen furniture will be directly sent to the consumer’s home when the ordered kitchen furniture finished. The products in market are genuine, but ones be sent to home maybe are different from them. You can just distinguish the fake kitchen furniture when compare it with the genuine, but you don't have the chance to distinguish them.
Guide for Selecting Door Panel of Kitchen Furniture
(1) Door panel of fireproofing board: despite the formidable defect in applying fireproofing board in work top of kitchen furniture, it has unique advantages when applied in the door panel of kitchen furniture. Due to its comprehensive features, fireproofing board has leaded the market for a long time. Fire-proofing board is abrasion-proof, fire-resistant, Anti-infiltration, easy-cleaned and vivid-colored, thus suitable for use of kitchen furniture, and adaptive for the special surroundings in kitchen, and according with the trend of beautiful and useful kitchen furniture. While selecting the kitchen furniture, fireproofing board should be first considered. You will feel lucky to have selected it during the use of it in future.
(2) Door panel of solid board: Door panel of kitchen furniture made of solid board have a natural and plain effect. It is popular with people overseas, but due to its high price, not suitable for the consumption in home market. Door panel of solid board is hard to clean, and has poor fire-proof performance, and so is not suitable for the surroundings of Chinese kitchen, and doesn't accord with traditional life habit of Chinese people. So, during a long period, door panel of solid board can not lead the home market.
(3) Lacquer door panel: While you select kitchen furniture, some companies will introduce lacquer door panel to you. But what is lacquer? According to our information, lacquer implies just a kind of technique, namely process of lacquering the board and then drying it in drying house. Its advantages are use of traditional method, easy process and low cost. The drawback is to be dirtied easily and is hard to clean. There is essential difference between the surroundings for kitchen furniture and surroundings for living room. You should take into consideration the factor "easy to clean" when selecting door panel of kitchen furniture. Surely in consideration of economy, the lacquer door panel with the lowest price is also available. The price for kitchen furniture made of lacquer door panel should be around 1200 yuan for one meter (wall cabinet and base cabinet).Actual price may be higher than the one above due to two factors: the company seeks for remarkable high profit; or the company imports the door panel instead produces it by itself. So make a full inquiry and check before make a decision to prevent unnecessary loss.�
(4) PVC molded plastic door: uses middle-density material and cut-out pattern. The surface is form with PVC face and is molded with hot pressure. PVC molded board is rich in colors and special in shape. Compared to fireproofing board, it lacks easy-clean and high-temperature-proof performance. In terms of practicability, PVC molder board is not the wisest choice.
(5) Crystal board: has a shiny surface, so is called crystal board. It uses middle-density board faced with organic glass board with thickness of 2~3mm. Lacquered before pasted to, the formed board has various color changes. Crystal board is abrasion-proof and scratch-proof, and poor in fireproof performance and does not have punch tolerance performance. The process technique for crystal board is simply. and almost can be operated by hand----lacquering, pasting, manual sealing, grinding and polishing. The cost for raw material is lower than for fireproofing board. It should be a practicable choice for people with low income if its price is low. According to products of Europe and USA, and Japan etc. and related information, there is no example of applying crystal board. Whether it was ever used 10 or 20 years before is still unknown. So crystal board is not the perfect material for kitchen furniture. The comprehensive properties are not suitable for surroundings of Chinese kitchen. You will develop your own real feeling while using it.
Guide for Selecting Work Top of Kitchen Furniture
The key for selection of kitchen furniture lies in materials for work top, which are of many varieties consisting of natural stone, artificial stone, fireproofing board and stainless steel etc. They all have these basic properties such as burn-proof, antifouling, acid alkali resistant and scratch-proof but they are different in physical property and price for sale. Utility as well as appearance and price should be taken into consideration for selection. So first you'll have to know the properties, advantages and drawbacks of all kinds of materials. Now I'll give a detailed analysis of the several kinds of materials for work top which are in wide use to provide customers with some useful advice.
Natural stone work top----Natural stone includes marble and granite which both form with natural vein. They are nice, hard and feel cold, and excellently scratch proof. They are traditional materials for work top. White vein and black vein are commonly used. As for natural marble, due to the aperture on the surface, it is easily dirtied, less antifouling, and fragile, so usually is used for work top not wider than one meter. Natural stone has high density and rigidity, so firm kitchen furniture is needed to support it. But it has less resilience, so, for heavy hit or quick change of temperature, flaw will happen in the natural gap and is hard to repair. In addition, natural stone is not long enough to be made into an intact long work top. As for the spliced one, the commissure is easy to hold dirty and bred bacterium, which is bad for health. Price of natural stone work top varies with different veins and colors. The price of generally used ones is 200 yuan for one meter, which is the most economic.
Artificial stone work top---- artificial stone is very popular at present, which is made from natural mineral powder, colorant, and acrylic resin and processed with high temperature and high pressure. It is colorful and uniform in texture. For the smooth surface, it is hard to take in water break and oil fouling. With high antifouling performance, it is often called high molecule solid board. Artificial stone has excellent qualities of acid-proof, anticorrosion, antifriction, high temperature resistance, anti-shock, anti-pressure, break-proof, anti-penetration and easy clean. It has both elegancy of marble and hardness of granite, and smoothness and warmth of wood, as well as shine of ceramic. It is easy to make into any shapes, according with the tendency combining beauty with utility, so it is called "the second generation material to replace others", more and more popular with people. Artificial stone can be classified into seamless type and seam type. The seamless one is made from methyl methacrylate, and can be spliced seamlessly for any length. Two pieces can be spliced with adhesive and be ground to a whole, with rich color and vein, and smooth surface, with no mark at the seam crossing. It can be ground over and over. Seam artificial stone is spliced up with glue with apparent gap, with less excellent acid & alkali resistance and scratch resistance. Its price is around 300~400 yuan per meter. Dirty on artificial stone can be cleaned with wet cloth or cleaning agent, easy for attendance. But high-efficiency chemicals such as paint remover, polish remover containing acetone, thinner for oleoresinous paint and acidiferous pipe-cleaner can do harm to it and causes dirty spot. And dint may form on its surface for heavy stroke. Prices for artificial stone are different for home-made and imported ones. Home-made seamless artificial stone work top is 1200~1500 yuan per meter while US Dupont Corian is around 3000 yuan per meter. Fireproofing board work top----made from mid-density fiberboard, chip board or lumber core plywood. Its surface is processed with high temperature and high pressure and facing techniques and covered with fireproof materials and ornament veneering. It takes a certain share of market at present. Fireproofing board has bright colors, and performances of fire-protection, moisture protection, antifouling, scratch resistance, antifriction, acid & alkali resistance, high temperature resistance and easy cleanup, and variety of colors and types. Compared to natural stone, fireproofing board is more elastic, crack proof under heavy stroke, easy for maintenance as the other materials. In terms of structure, fireproofing board work top and rear water baffler are molded as a whole at one time, called "joint model" which is produced in large scale by home factories; the type without water baffler but equipped with aluminum alloy water bar is called combination type, which is popular in the markets in Europe and USA. Combination type water baffler is flexibly for the settlement of corner or U shape, or even stair surface. For the joint of spiced parts for corner of work top, common fireproofing board is hard to deal with it. On the part of corner of work top, usually silica gel is used for conglutination, and embedment of plastics and special bonding jumper are also used for nice appearance. Fireproofing board work top is limited for application in design, shaping and room layout for straight edge, column and winding process technique. As it is made from mid-density fiberboard, faced with fireproof plate, fireproofing board work top is easy to take in water and dump, de-gelatinization, transformation and base material swelling may happen for improper use. As fireproofing board is restricted as work top material due to popularity of other materials, it goes well with the overall development of kitchen furniture and the customs in China. Fireproofing board include three grades: height, middle and low. Its price is around 300~600 yuan per meter. So it is very popular with people for the reasonable price.
Stainless steel work top----the traditional material used for kitchen furniture and kitchen work top. It has advantages as rigidity, smoothness, brightness, long service life, easy cleanup, much application and excellent performances and ever took the most share of the market. Stainless steel work top is to cover the surface of fireproofing board with a stainless steel sheet. It looks cold and dull, less flexible for process of corner and joint parts, so not suitable for crossing pipes. As the trend of emphasizing nature and personality, stainless steel kitchen furniture is fading out of the market and stainless steel work top is unpopular and very rare in market.
Work top material is a key component of kitchen furniture. Each kind of materials has its own goods and faults while it is not hard to choose. If you want to make a piece of kitchen furniture longer than 2.4m, artificial stone is the best choice for its smooth entirety; if you like good economical efficiency, fireproofing board suits you well; if you are practical and fond of modern metal effect, stainless steel is your best choice; if you always care for fashion, artificial stone is said to be more promising and leading the future tendency. Meantime, work top material has a direct effect on the cost of integrated kitchen. Seamless artificial stone work top is usually applied for integrated kitchen of around 20,000 yuan, with high class decoration effect; seam artificial stone or fireproofing board work top is used for one of around 10,000 yuan; natural stone, at various prices, is usually used for middle or low class kitchen decoration. Comparing to the prices and performance, and considering the decoration budget and reasonable plan, you are sure to get a set of satisfactory kitchen facilities.
Guide for Selecting Kitchen Fittings
Kitchen fitting is one of the important parts of modern kitchen furniture. Nevertheless the kitchen furniture manufacturers usually pay little attention to quality of kitchen fittings, and consumers lack of enough knowledge and reasonable judgment. Hardware and fittings play a key role in kitchen furniture materials, and have a direct effect on the integral quality of kitchen furniture, as well as on the normal use and service life of kitchen furniture. Against tend of overlooking the selection, identification and checkup of fittings by consumers, now I make a general introduction of the commonly used types of fittings in the market, for consumers' conference, comparison and selection only.
(1) Hinge: for opening and closing the door for thousands of times, so the quality of door hinge is critical. Practice has proved that, in consideration of use property of kitchen furniture, accuracy of kitchen door, and its own weight, the home-made hinge is hard to meet the quality requirement for kitchen furniture. Use of hinges of about 50 kitchen furniture brands in Shanghai is below:
A: Austria BLUM hinge, famous European brand, with its excellent quality and high price, it is the highest class of hinge in the market of Shanghai. Only around 2 percent of kitchen furniture companies in Shanghai use GRASS hinge.
B: Germany HAFELE, HETTICH, and Taiwan-made hinges, are high quality, and a little more expensive than home-made ones, and only used by enterprises funded by Taiwan's investors. They cover about 3 percent of the whole kitchen furniture companies.
　　C: Kitchen furniture brands in Shanghai mostly use home-made hinges. Hinges labeled with Italian letters are actually fake products. So consumers shall pay special attention to the checkup of them with sharp eyes. Generally speaking, imported hinges is unnecessary, the product quality is reliable produced by the regular factories in home. As China is one of the five export countries for hardware, the quality of products made by normal home factories is believable. So you needn't buy expensive imported ones. The steel drawer exported to foreign also used by them.
(2) Drawer slide rail: slide rail is one of the important fittings for kitchen furniture, only second to hinge. Most of kitchen furniture companies use home-made slide rails. Quality of it can't be judged from appearance and ways of use. The differences lie in material, principle, structure, equipment and production techniques. Pay more attention to it, and try the drawers in kitchen furniture to throw light on it.
For the products made by standard companies in China are trustable as well. I strongly recommend you to use drawers of BLUM!
　　(3) Wall cabinet hanger: ways to fix cabinet on the wall and what kind of hanger is used play a key role in safety and elegancy of the wall cabinet, and show the kitchen furniture manufacturers' knowledge and understanding of kitchen furniture and their overall ability. Examples of kitchen furniture in the market of Shanghai are mostly fixed with screw bolt inserted into the wall. This kind of fixture implies that kitchen furniture in China is at elementary stage. It is neither safe nor nice, and is just a primitive method for fixture. It is correct and reasonable to fix the cabinet with ABS metallic combination hangers against on the wall, nice, suitable, safe, technical, and easy to adjust the inter-space. Enterprises early started with deep understanding of kitchen furniture across Europe as well as China all use ABS metallic combination hangers to fix wall cabinet. If you see the white rectangular ABS plastic hangers on the top of the cabinet, you will know the company uses the right method to fix the cabinet.
　　(4) Cabinet combiner: Combiners are used to join the cabinets together, thus to enhance the integral intensity and ensure a good order of kitchen furniture. It usually is not cared about by manufacturers and consumers often neglect it while purchase kitchen furniture. Consumers with abundant budget can take it into consideration.
　　(5) ABS molded drawer, cutlery tray: Molded drawer and cutlery tray are accurate and standard in size and easy to clean, pollution proof and transformation proof, play a unique role in maintenance and use of kitchen furniture drawers, and have been used widely by kitchen furniture companies in Germany, USA, and Japan etc. After looking into the appearance of the kitchen furniture, you should pull the drawer to look in it. If combination of molded drawer and cutlery tray are used, the product, with standard combination, should be at high cost. On the contrary, wood drawer is at low cost (raw material for a set of wood drawer cost 30 yuan while for combination of molded drawer and cutlery tray 400 yuan).
(6) Other kitchen fittings: Now we mention some important components related to fixture (hanging clamp and leveler). Both of them are noteless components in kitchen furniture, but the intensity and control of levelness and verticality provided by hanging clamp play very special part in supporting the cabinet and adjusting the door panel. So this kind of fixture should be a standard one in kitchen furniture. Material used for hanging clamp should be ABS with high-intensity (HEFFLE, SCILM, and HETTICH for recommended). Leveler is also important and each leveler bears the weight of kitchen furniture and balance the whole kitchen furniture and work top. Each of them must bear more than 70KG and can be adapted to height of user. During the fixture, horizontal adjustment of levelers can prevent the work top from cracking. So quality of hanging clamp has a direct effect on service life and maintenance of kitchen furniture.
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