Concealed cup hinges and the three adjustments
A concealed hinge has two halves: a cup pressed into a bored hole in the door, and a mounting plate screwed to the carcase. Almost all of them use a 35 millimetre cup at a standard distance from the door edge, which is why hinges from different makers usually interchange.
The reason they dominate is adjustment. After fitting, screws on the hinge move the door in and out, up and down, and side to side, so a run of doors can be aligned to a consistent gap without touching the boring. Nothing surface mounted offers that.
Opening angle is the specification people overlook. A standard hinge opens around 110 degrees, which is fine until a drawer inside the cabinet needs to clear a door that is not far enough out of the way. Wide angle hinges exist for exactly that, and for corner cabinets where the geometry is awkward.
| Type | Door position | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Full overlay | Covers the side panel almost fully | End cabinets and single doors |
| Half overlay | Two doors share one side panel | A panel between two cabinets |
| Inset | Door sits flush inside the frame | Traditional and framed furniture |
Soft close, integrated or added on
Soft close works by a small hydraulic damper that slows the last part of the closing travel. Integrated hinges build it into the arm, which is neat, consistent and the reason a modern kitchen closes quietly.
Clip on dampers do the same job on existing hinges and cost far less than replacing them. They are the sensible route when a kitchen is otherwise sound, and they can be added to some doors and not others without anything looking wrong.
Two things stop soft close working. A door that is too light does not carry enough momentum to trigger the damper properly, and a damper set to its heaviest position on a light door simply stops the door short of closed. Most integrated hinges have an adjustment for exactly this, and it is worth using rather than assuming the hinge is faulty.
Butt, piano and gate hinges
A butt hinge is the traditional pair of leaves and a pin, usually let into a recess so the leaves sit flush. It carries far more weight than a cup hinge and offers no adjustment, so the accuracy has to be in the fitting.
A piano or continuous hinge runs the full length of the joint, spreading the load along the whole edge. That is what suits a lid, a long access panel or a thin door that would distort if hung on two points, and it is also the more secure option because there is no easily attacked short leaf.
Gate hinges are a separate world again, sized by the weight and width of the gate rather than by cabinet conventions. Adjustable bearing hinges let a gate be trued after the posts have moved, which they will, and that adjustment is worth having on anything outdoors.
How many hinges and what finish
Hinge count follows door height and weight rather than taste. Two hinges suit an ordinary cabinet door; a tall larder door wants three or more, and a heavy solid door more again. The failure of an under hinged door is not dramatic: it sags, the gap goes uneven, and the screws in the top hinge slowly pull out.
Screw fixing is where most hinge problems actually start. Chipboard and MDF hold ordinary screws poorly under repeated load, and the top hinge takes the most. Fixings sized for the board, or an insert where the load is real, prevent a repair that is much harder once the hole has opened up.
Finish is about corrosion, not appearance, once a hinge is outdoors or in a damp room. Stainless resists a bathroom or a coastal site where zinc plated steel will bloom, and on a gate the pin is the part that seizes, so a hinge with a stainless or greasable pin lasts far longer than its price difference suggests.
