Sometimes a cupboard door appears to move by itself: the gap beside its neighbour closes at the top and opens at the bottom, or it stops shutting flush and sits a little proud. Usually nothing is broken. Once shelves are loaded, boards settle to the room's humidity and hinge screws ease with use. Concealed hinges are made adjustable for exactly this reason, and a screwdriver fixes most cases in minutes.
Get to know the hinge
The concealed hinge widely used in kitchen and wardrobe furniture has two main parts. The first is the cup, which sits in a round recess drilled in the back of the door, with the arm attached to it. The second is the mounting plate fixed to the side panel of the carcass. The arm either clips onto the plate or is screwed to it.
Adjustment is usually possible in three directions:
- Side adjustment: moves the door left or right, changing the gap between neighbouring doors and the door's position relative to the edge of the carcass.
- Height adjustment: raises or lowers the door to bring it in line with neighbouring fronts.
- Depth adjustment: brings the door closer to or further from the carcass, closing a door that stands proud.
Screw positions vary by manufacturer and model. Often the side adjustment screw is on the part of the arm nearer the door, and the depth screw nearer the mounting plate; height is changed using a cam or slotted holes on the mounting plate. Manufacturers such as Blum publish diagrams for each model on their websites, and you can find the right one from the brand marking on the hinge.
Typical problems and solutions
The door sags at a corner; the gap to the next door is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. This is usually fixed with side adjustment. Turn the side screw on the top hinge to pull the top corner towards the hinge side, or adjust the bottom hinge in the opposite direction. Turn a quarter at a time and close the door to check the result.
The door is not level with neighbouring fronts — one is higher than the other. Height adjustment is needed. Both hinges must be adjusted in the same direction by the same amount, otherwise the door will tilt.
The door does not close fully and stands off the carcass. Use the depth screw to bring the door closer. Before that, check that nothing behind the door is blocking it and that the soft-close mechanism works.
The door rubs against the next door or the carcass when closing. Use side adjustment to move the door away from the rubbing side; sometimes the neighbouring door also needs to move slightly the other way so the gaps are shared evenly.
The right sequence
If several doors look crooked at once, random adjustment only makes things worse. A practical order:
- First check that all hinge screws are tight, especially those fixing the mounting plate to the carcass. A loose fixing screw cannot be corrected by adjustment.
- For each door, adjust height first, then the side gap, and depth last.
- Start from an end door and work towards the middle; once one door is right, move on to the next.
- Make changes in small steps and close the door to check after each one.
What to watch out for
Overturning the screws can damage the adjustment mechanism. Do not force a mechanism that has reached its end stop. If the mounting plate screws spin in their holes, meaning the hole in the board has widened, simply tightening will not help; the hole needs repairing or the hinge moving, which is better left to a technician.
Two hinges may not be enough for heavy, tall doors. If a door sags again soon after adjustment, consider adding an extra hinge. On soft-close hinges the force of the mechanism is sometimes adjustable separately: a very light door may not close fully, while a very heavy one lands with a bang.
When to call a technician
- The cup has torn out of the door, or the board around the hinge has split.
- The mounting plate screws do not hold.
- Adjustment has reached its limit but the door is still crooked — which may mean the carcass itself is out of level.
- The furniture is under warranty and the problem keeps coming back.
Zaferoglu Mebel installs furniture with its own craftsmen and uses Blum hinges. Furniture carries a warranty of 1 to 5 years; if adjustment problems keep recurring during the warranty period, it is advisable to contact the company before trying to fix them yourself.
