Have 2 side-by-side built-in face frame cabinets with overlay doors. The cabinets are installed in a recess between 2 end walls. These were custom built but it appears that the hinging was an afterthought. They used Blum Compact 33 euro style hinges with Overlay Edge Plates. The outside end stiles abutt the end walls and in order for the 2 center doors to fit properly the center Stiles were notched to accept the Edge Plates which allows the center doors to be offset toward the middle. The doors are approx 4 feet tall and not very light in weight. There are 3 hinges on each door. Over time the hinges have loosened and affected the doors’ ability to close properly. I would like to re-hinge the doors. I have considered piano hinges, new edge mounted overlay hinges, surface mounted overlay hinges, building up the Stiles to accept frameless overlay hinges. Modifying the doors is not really an option.
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you can try other sources as well
You can replace with other manufacturers of 35mm euro style hinges. They don't have to be Blum. Hafele carries a large selection and provides very good specifications of each item they sell. You'll want to check your door overlay dimension (full, half, etc.) and also the tab (distance from edge of cup bore to edge of door). The tab can effect swing clearance. Some euro cup hinges are made specifically for face frame mount and others can be modified from frameless to framed by use of a different mounting plate. I would try getting the ones made specifically for framed (if you can find right combination of overlay and tab to match your door) as they tend to mount more cleanly. Get the soft close feature if you can.
Euro hinges are great things and Blum is a reputable manufacturer. One problem with euro hinges is that they must be installed securely. Any looseness of mounting screws will just continue ot get worse. Eventually the doors will not swing proberly. So, if the doors once worked well, they ought to be able to be made to work again using the same hinges. Perhaps they are simply worn out. If that's the case, get new ones of the same style. If the hinges are loose, tighten screws and/or do some reconstruction of doors or stiles to strengthen things.
The one thing I would not do is to change to any other sort of hinge. Every other sort out there will be harder to make work in your situation.
Compact Euro Hinges
The hinges are 1/4" overlay and not too many manufacturers make that dimension. I'm having some trouble tightening down the screw that holds the hinge arm to the edge plate. Grass has a 1/4" overlay euro and from the video appears to be easier to adjust than the Blum 33. One of the drawbacks of the Grass is that there is only 1 screw securing the edge plate to the stile whereas the Blum has 2 screws. I'm wondering if I'm just replacing one problem with another. The doors are 17" Wide by 59" Tall with rails and stiles that are 1 1/2" thick.....probably a little overdone for the application and only 3 hinges per door.
maybe add two more
1-1/2" is pretty thick for a cabinet door. Even regular interior passage doors are only 1-3/8". You might want to add a hinge between the top and middle existing hinges-- and same for middle and bottom existing hinges. That will give you a total of 5 which should give you plenty of weight distribution in that tall panel. I believe Hafele carries the Grass 1/4" overlay face frame hingse. I just ordered some for a custom cabinet job.
I had checked out the Hafele Web Site and also spoke to a Hafele employee. Their catalog is quite large and I had a hard time navigating it. The employee sent me a link but it was for the wrong type of hinges. I'll give it another try. Yes, the doors were pretty hefty....I'm wondering if 2 X 4's were used for the rails and stiles. I'll add 2 additional hinges per door as you suggest.
Note that, at least, Blum makes "heavy duty" hinges designed for heavy doors. Likely others do too.
try this spec from catalogue...
item #348.90.010 -
GrassWrap Around Hinge, 108 degree opening, 1/4"
overlay, soft-close, screw-on, steel, nickel-plated, 45/9.5 drilling pattern
Hafele GrassWrap
I found them in the catalogue. From the schematic I'm not sure if there would be enough swing clearance with an 1 1/2" thick door...I'm waiting for a call back from the product support folks. Also, they will not sell directly to the public. They told me to locate one of their distributors....checked a couple and no luck with the product. I'll try more of their distributors. Thanks for taking the time to help me find the product in their catalogue.
HINGES
I bought the Grass TEC864 hinges from CabinetParts.Com. I bought enough hinges to install 5 per door as you suggested. There were originally 3 hinges per door. I replaced the 3 on each door and hung the doors to see how the new hinges would work. They work very well. The Grass have better adjustability than the original Blums. I wanted to add the extra hinges but the final decision wasn't mine. We'll watch them for a while and see if the the additional hinges are needed.