Mereway/Wentworth Kitchen - Anyone had one for a while?

madget_2

Hi,

I'm a newbie, but I've been reading the forum for a little while. As we're about to splash out on a new kitchen, I've managed to get some great info here and see that Mereway kitchens seem to have a good reputation.

I'd love to know if anyone here has a Mereway (especially those of you who've had one for a few years or more). How is it standing up to wear and tear? Any problems with delamination of vinyl? Are you pleased with it?

I'm particularly keen on the Virginia. I would have chosen a solid natural wood for durability, but our kitchen is so dark that it needs something to lighten it up. Whilst I like the look of the high gloss, the smearing would drive me crazy.

I'd be really grateful for the opinions of any Mereway kitchen owners. Many thanks.

CKdesigner

Hi

We (the other half and myself) sell Mereway kitchens from our kitchen shop. We also had a Mereway kitchen fitted in our previous house, it was the kitchen that the new purchaser fell in love with!

I am very confident in saying that out of all the kitchen manufacturers in the UK that mass produce kitchens Mereway is the best. Forget the DIY stores, these are no competition to Mereway, Magnet, Moben also don't come close. The only way to get a better kitchen from an English kitchen manufacturer would be to spend more than twice the money. The best recommendation for Mereway is the fact that John Lewis use Mereway as their 'own brand' kitchen products.

Having said all that we also sell Schuller German made kitchens, we can sell them generally slightly cheaper than Mereway and I think they are better quality also! We now really only sell Mereway if someone wants curves in their new kitchen otherwise its Schuller.

Hope this helps.

CK

Doozergirl

I've had mine for eighteen months so not exactly a long time. It is lovely; very solid, heavy - you can tell the difference if you have to lift one of their units! And seemingly hardwearing so far - no doors have dropped even remotely etc. and the fittings are very strong indeed - I can't physically pull together the fitting for the lift up doors. It's also nice that the interiors are finished nicely and I have glass shelves on the bottom of my wall units with lights in which is a really nice touch as it lights both inside and the worksurfaces.

I have inset handles in mine, so the slab has been cut to accommodate the handle so isn't waterproofed - and the area immediately above two of my drawers has suffered with swelling where my son and the dog managed to knock a bowl up in the air and I didn't find out until the next morning :rolleyes: So I probably wouldn't reccomend the inset handles if you have kids and dogs!

Part of my utility area is Howdens and whilst it's absolutely fine, you can definitely tell the difference when you open the doors.

Steve_the_fitter

Doozergirl wrote: »

Part of my utility area is Howdens and whilst it's absolutely fine, you can definitely tell the difference when you open the doors.

Surely you can see thedifference in quality when the doors are closed too.

madget_2

CKdesigner - That's good to know. Have you heard of anyone experiencing problems with delamination of the Virginia doors at all? One thing I do find reassuring is that the place where we hope to buy Mereway units (not John Lewis) offer a 10 year guarantee. Still, I'd rather they lasted and didn't need replacing!

We've been told that they're fine to have a kettle underneath the wall units - not sure how true that is. Also, I want to check to see whether the oven housing will have heat resistant protection as that wasn't mentioned on our initial visit to the showroom.

Doozergirl - What a shame about the water damage! I'd never thought about that being a problem with the inset handles, but I can see how it might be. Now I'm wondering about the holes drilled for normal handles - whether steam, heat or water could penetrate there and cause delamination? (Blimey, I sound so finicky, don't I! I just want to make sure we don't waste our money as a new kitchen is such a big investment.)

Doozergirl

Steve_the_fitter wrote: »

Surely you can see thedifference in quality when the doors are closed too.

I'd say if I did. What I can see is that my Mereway drawers are screwed.

I have applewood drawers and they look stunning lined up together. The cream gloss cupboard doors don't actually look all that different to the Howdens gloss doors in the utility. The John Lewis looks more stylish because of the inset handles. The weight of the Mereway doors copes much better with the softclose mechanisms and the cabintery inside is much better. I have white innards in the Howdens which are horrid actually but I always buy the beech interiors now because they look a hell of a lot better quality even if that isn't true in reality. The doors aren't as snug either but the whole utility area of three larder units and a high line base didn't cost much more than the list price of one JL 1000mm drawer unit!

In the utility I have Howdens doors on Mereway wall units and they do actually look better, more snug, than the larder units so it must be mainly in the unit itself which is kind of evident if you sat them next to each other. The door fronts, less so.

I paid £500 for 14 JL units mind, complete with the luxury upgraded cabinets with lighting etc. - it was used by Mereway for the JL brochure photoshoot. What that didn't buy me was a guarantee on my dodgy drawer fronts!

madget_2

That's quite a bargain, Doozergirl! Pity about the guarantee, though.

John_Pollard

Can I add that my experience with Mereway has been mostly good, the units are well-constructed... but our doors are finished in a birch colour and this has faded very noticeably on any fronts that are exposed to direct light. This is most noticeable as the plinth below has not faded. On contacting Mereway they were not in the least interested in this flaw, said that they shouldn't be fitted near light (!), and offered to sell me some more at a ridiculously high price - I declined as the problem would inevitably reappear. I was left wishing that I had bought the German brand, Rationale instead. The kitchen was installed about 7 years ago but the fading was noticeable within two years of fitting - BEWARE!

madget_2

I'm sorry to hear that, John, and that Mereway have been so unhelpful. Did you buy them directly from Mereway or from an independent firm? If you bought them from another firm, then I'd contact them and ask them to sort it out.

Obviously, under very bright light, you might expect a little fading - but I'd expect kitchen doors to stand up to actually being in a kitchen.

My doors are cream lacquered, so I'm hoping that this won't be a problem. Besides, our kitchen window is north-east facing, so we don't exactly get a lot of sunlight. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I were you, though.