Benchmarx Nordica Nightmare

Boots26

So who is responsible for checking whether the environment is suitable. I never knew what the humidity level in my kitchen was until recently. Never had any trouble with my last kitchen which cost a quarter of the price and they never asked. They are the ones selling the product and taking my money. I wouldn’t know that a kitchen had an optimum humidity level, who would. You go in buy a kitchen and that’s it.

Meepster

Just been having a think about it and even with that type of door, it should be able to handle 60% RH. What time scale are we talking about for the doors to warp?

We check the humidity at point of survey and it's checked again before the installation, during and afterwards and we put a disclaimer in our terms and conditions that the room needs to suitable for the product and the RH levels it needs. I'm sure most companies don't do this though and there's no emphasis on the retailer to offer this service either, and to be honest, 90% of the kitchen designers out there don't know how humidity can have an effect on how a kitchen will perform.

I do know though that most retailers will use the moisture content of a door as a get out clause when a problem like this occurs, as most suppliers monitor their products for MC, especially if they are covered by FIRA as they have specific thresholds they have to adhere to.

Everything boils down to the independent test I guess! Get that done and see what happens...

Boots26

Hi meepster. We noticed the first doors roughly less than a month after fitting. The second set of doors roughly one to two weeks after fitting. All other effected doors/drawers a few months after fitting. When they done the initial site survey all they had was a tape measure, they even got some of the measurements wrong.

Boots26

Just a note on the construction of the doors. They are 19mm give or take a few tenths. The acrylic on the front is 5mm making the MDF 14mm. Not sure if this good or bad, as the thicker acrylic front could make the door stronger or the thinner mdf could warp more easily.

Meepster

Boots26 wrote: »

Just a note on the construction of the doors. They are 19mm give or take a few tenths. The acrylic on the front is 5mm making the MDF 14mm. Not sure if this good or bad, as the thicker acrylic front could make the door stronger or the thinner mdf could warp more easily.

It's not a 5mm acrylic, it's 0.75mm acrylic on the front and then is edged with 1mm acrylic, the first 4mm of that edging is colour matched to make it look like the acrylic is thicker. Underneath it is an 18mm MDF with a melamine faced back.

A 715x596mm door costs around £5 to manufacture in bulk, they really are as cheap as you can get. The rest of the cost is supplier and retailer mark up!

forgotmyname

£5 door £ 74.95 to you on special offer. Who actually makes the doors and where?

Cabinets used to come in from Italy and you could tell the difference with some made in a heatwave and then shipped to a drizzly UK.
Took a bit of an extra tap with the mallet to align.

Meepster

Not exactly sure which company Benchmarx buy from, it could be any one of 5 or 6 UK companies, or even from abroad. It's essentially just Senoplast board, which is cut and edged.

Pretty sure Benchmarx still get their carcases from Gower in Leeds, so they are UK made. I don't know any UK companies who buy carcases form the continent any more...

Boots26

They are supplied by Gower. There is definate distinction between the acrylic front and the edge. I will try and put a picture on when I figure out how to. You can feel a slight dip where the front and edge meet unless it’s just clever manufacturing.

Meepster

Boots26 wrote: »

They are supplied by Gower. There is definate distinction between the acrylic front and the edge. I will try and put a picture on when I figure out how to. You can feel a slight dip where the front and edge meet unless it’s just clever manufacturing.

They tell you the exact specification on the website. I doubt they would advertise it as an inferior product if it really did have a 5mm acrylic front...

http://travisperkins.scene7.com/is/content/travisperkins/Benchmarx/Range%20Sheets%20Cover/Nordica.pdf

Boots26

Thanks Meepster, your knowledge has been very helpful even if some of your truths are hard to swallow especially with how much it costs to manufacture against what I paid. I am in the process of arranging an expert inspection through the Furniture Ombudsman.
Again thanks