What to know before choosing a kitchen?

When you furnish your home, buying a kitchen is the most delicate and important moment, especially when it comes to quality assessment. 

Understanding what to know before choosing a kitchen is important because the kitchen is the most populated environment and certainly more subject to wear, both for everyday use and for several times a day, both for the environmental characteristics that are created in a kitchen, such as heat, humidity and various vapors.

At first glance, unless we speak of extremely economical kitchens, all kitchens may look the same, but they are the individual characteristics and details that determine their quality.

So what to know before choosing a kitchen?

When choosing a kitchen it is necessary to evaluate different aspects

  • the structure (cash)
  • the mechanics (hardware)
  • the fronts (doors and drawers)
  • the work plan (top)
  • the appliances

What to know about the structure before choosing a kitchen?

Before choosing a kitchen, compared to the structure, it is fair to know that about 90% of the kitchens sold in Italy by “mercatoni” to “big names”, have a melamine faced panel structure or, to be more clear, the panels they are in chipboard covered in melamine.

But before choosing a kitchen we must bear in mind that, if it is true that the structure of the panels is the same material for 90% of Italian kitchens, it is true that not all the panels are created with the same characteristics, and this is where the difference is created between economic kitchens and kitchens of a certain quality.

The first thing we can observe is the thickness of the panels (shelves, structure and fronts):

  • A very economical kitchen will have roughly a panel thickness of 1.4 cm
  • A good quality kitchen will have a panel thickness of 1.8 cm
  • A kitchen of excellent quality, such as those produced by Veneta Cucine, will have panels with a thickness of 1.9 cm

A second feature is the compactness of the chipboard, which is not always visible because the cooks rarely leave the inside of the panels visible. However, the more compact the chipboard, the more grip the screws and the glues will have. 

Two other parameters must also be taken into account: the formaldehyde content and moisture resistance.

As far as the formaldehyde content is concerned, it refers to the type of glue used and the amount of formaldehyde they contain, bearing in mind that this is a toxic element it is appropriate to choose a kitchen with low formaldehyde content.

With regard to moisture resistance, the best panels are those with the code V100 (which have a green color inside), which are immersed in water for 24 hours and can undergo a maximum swelling of 12%, alternatively they are called V20.

Before choosing a kitchen it is good to evaluate the quality of the mechanical parts ie

  • the guides for the drawers and baskets
  • the hinges for the doors
  • the arms for Vasistas wall units, flap and package

These parts are the most subject to stress and, therefore, more subject to easy wear and in the market if they are of different types, among the best companies, producing such components we find the BLUM and the GRASS.

When we choose a kitchen we firstly evaluate the practicality and a good part of this is given by an easy opening / closing of drawers and baskets, which is determined by the quality of the mounted guides, which differ in the quality of the metals used, for the better fluidity of the tracks and for the flow. There are drawers and baskets that can support a load up to a maximum of 60 kg. up to 120,000 consecutive cycles are tested.

Finally, before choosing a kitchen, it is good to evaluate a further technical characteristic, that is, the arms for wall units, whether they are drop-down or packaged vasistas. a bracket for frictioned wall units with integrated blumotion and white fairing. This type of arm is tested up to 10,000 cycles and if we calculate that on average in one day an arm is subjected to 10 opening / closing, we can calculate for this product a duration of 25 years.

What to know about the fronts before choosing a kitchen?

Things to know about the fronts before choosing a kitchen are many, first of all you have to evaluate the material with which they are made and then compare the different types.

So let’s start, first of all to distinguish between fronts in

  • lacquered (glossy or matt)
  • solid wood-wood veneer
  • laminate
  • glass

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