Call Ikea.
That's the first thing I would do if you haven't.
They should still be under warrantee.
You can't be the first nor only person this has happened to, I wouldn't think.

What a mess!

Is it the cabinet boxes or the doors? Also, if it's the doors/fronts, could you tell us which model?

Paint? Laminate? Melamine? Thermofoil? A believe all plastic based items can yellow some....some a lot! Ever see a 20 year old white microwave? There were a LOT of issues with white thermofoil when it was first introduced back in the 80s. Most have remedied that to some degree, but most of us KD's that went through that (and delamination issues) have shied away from thermofoil unless with a good custom manufacturer. Even then, I am skeptical.

The fact that your cabinets have yellowed so fast is cause for concern. Ikea should replace for you, but keep in mind, the same will happen to the replacements. Consider a different door or color.

Definitely call Ikea. I think I would be looking for a partial refund of some kind to apply to a different door type. I'm guessing you have a thermofoil? I'd be looking at the painted options.

Be aware that ikea is in the process of changing its kitchen line to metod. This change over has already happened in other countries and I believe it is scheduled to come here in 2015. So I would try very hard to get everything switched out to your satisfaction ASAP before replacement parts on the current system get difficult to find.

"The glue they used to put them together is now turning yellow and so are the cabinets."

RamonaGrama:

How do you know this?

I wasn't aware that glue was used to assemble Ikea cabinets ...? I have a large one in the garage and no gluing was required.

So...Ikea cabinets are not glued together. There should be no glue period. If there is, they weren't assembled properly.

As for your doors yellowing, there could be several reasons, the most likely of which is inadequate cooking ventilation.

Thank you all for the replies.
Look at the yellow. It is not on the cabinet doors.
It is the cover panel that is becoming yellow and its material is fiberboard, with polyester paint.
The Ikea kitchen model is Akurum Lidingo white.
There is no cooking appliance on that wall and we ventilate the kitchen by opening the window.

That looks like ultra violet light degradation to me, which has nothing to do with glue.

Not glue, but I do find it funny that just the edge of the panel is turning due to UVâ¦why wouldn't the face of the door be turing also?

Only thing I can think of is that the door and end panel were finished with a different materialâ¦one with UV inhibitors and the other without

Whatever the case I am sure Ikea would swap that out

Interesting since according to the IKEA Web site, both the Lidingo doors and side panels are "polyester Paint."
I'd ask them to exchange the end panels. Make sure to hold on to your receipt for warranty purposes.

they will swap it out for you for free. that is the extent of the warranty. you will pay to have it reapplied, or do it yourself, which is not difficult.

did someone glue the panel on for your, or screw it on from the inside?

if it is glued on, you may have difficulty removing it.

I have done three IKEA kitchens over 12 years and have never seen anything like that.

I wonder if someone got glue on that surface, cleaned it with something to yellow it, or if it manufacturing defect.

Thanks for posting, this is interesting.

I forgot to mention something.
I put a white plastic liner on the shelves inside this cabinet.
The white liner became yellow too in this cabinet.
Could this be a gas emitted by the cabinet?

To answer the other questions, I am not sure whether the installers from the PEG Company have used glue or not. I did not watch them at the time of installation.
To me , the panel and the under cabinet moulding look glued with a yellow glue.

{{!gwi}}

I know this is an old post, but whatever happened?
I have the same cabinets and all my doors have a yellow tinge. They aren't white anymore.
The trim pieces and panels are still white, but the doors are turning cream.....

Help I went to IKEA in Sunrise, Florida, also my white kitchen cabinets have yellowed. And the trim is still white. We hired a decorator, spent a ton of money$$ thinking a new kitchen really makes a home worth more money.Really everything was done so professionally and we modeled our whole living room/dining area around a "white" kitchen.

Now it has yellowed. We have just started noticing this. Turns out they KNEW this problem. But we did our house in 2010 and they didn't know until 2013. t have called them and at first were receptive, but have now stopped answering. I guess I would say don't use IKEA for kitchens, unless I hear back from them and they make this right! Terrible terrible.

Hi Ellen,

I was just wondering if there was an update for your kitchen? I am looking to remodel & was planning to go to Ikea, but wanted to see how your experience worked out in the end. Thanks in advance

If you live in Florida don't get white! They turn.....They were very nice and offered to redo my cabinets or give me a little $. So I took the second option. They were great except they didn't know about the cabinets yellowing.

I also purchased the same cabinets in my condo in 2010 from Sunrise, FL and they have all yellowed. I tried everything to clean them. I will contact IKEA and see if they are willing to do anything. Thank you for the information!

Yes do that. Sorry it happened. They aren't dirty, they yellow!

I am having same problem with yellowing doors but frames are white. Emailed IKEA pictures per their request. Never sent out a tech to look at the cabinets. Heard back from them told normal wear and tear which is totally unacceptable. Ow do I get in contact with their CEO?

Linda Czaja

Czaja, what door typye do you have? Akurum System or Sektion?

I had the same problem, door trims etc were white but some doors started turning yellow. Be really persistent and do not let it go as they tried to fob you off big time. I sent loads of pictures and had tech guy out etc etc but they were not having it. Email CEO.

peter.agnefjall@ikea.com

PS i have no problem with you telling them you are aware I had similar problems and had my kitchen changed at their expense. They are aware there is a problem with these doors. I refused the same doors as thought i would be in the same position in 6 months time. Ended up getting whole kitchen changed with totally different doors / draw fronts on every cabinet / trims/skirting / handles etc they paid for a joiner to do all the work

My cabinets are akurum stat. They discontinued this cabinet. Thanks Karen for your info. What kind of cabinets did you have?

Are these all with their polyester paint?

Think mine were Bodbyn, the kitchen came in white and grey. We had the white ones that don't stay white for very long! This was changed at IKEA's expense to Ikea Abstrakt Gray Kitchen

This is the email I sent to the CEO and he instructed the head of customer service to agree on a solution with me. This was after months of emailing Ikea and getting fobbed off. The solution I chose was Ikea pay for a replacement kitchen to be fitted, removing the old one at their expense

To: Peter Agnefjall <peter.agnefjall@ikea.com>
Subject: Email to be read by Peter Agnefjall

Dear Peter
I purchased a kitchen from IKEA. After 6 months the units had turned yellow and looked awful
I contacted IKEA customer services.
They sent someone out to look at the units and said it was not covered under the guarantee as the fault was wear and tear
I have a kitchen that has discolored after very little use, the doors do not match the white trims and is not what I expected from IKEA
I was told by your customer services there was nothing they could do as the person who came out said it was wear and tear
Last week I went in to Newcastle which is my nearest store 1 1/2 hrs away
I explained to the kitchen department what has happened and showed them these photos
They were appalled I had been treated like this and one customer adviser informed me he had the same kitchen for 6 years and this should not have happened
I am so fed up trying to sort this out with IKEA I just want my money back plus cost of ripping this one out and payment for installing another one from a company that does not treat me like this
Even your own staff agree this is not right and you should compensate me for all the stress you are causing me
I would like you to please acknowledge my email and let me know what you think about how I have been treated
Kind regards

Thanks Karen this helps a lot. I will try and seek out management at my store first. It is new haven ct. I have asked for a call back but if course never got one. I will email the CEO if I get no satisfaction. Thanks again for your help.

Almost everyone in our community had or has cabinet frames (with thermo-foil doors) that have turned yellow on the edges of the cabinets and shelves (built in early 2000's). What is this product? PVC vs Melamine? I see they have edging products out there, which is better the PVC that you peel or melamine that you iron on?

@Karen Crawford- Hi, we are having the same problem with our Akrum cabinets- after 6 years they have yellowed- and cracked. Our kitchen has plenty of ventilation too!! Ikea has only offered me $1300 refund. This is nowhere what I'll have to pay to try and replace the doors- panels. Should I refuse it? Keep pushing?

I would escalate the complaint to CEO & push for a new kitchen

@karen Would love to pick your brain, as the current CEO is pushing our yellowing cabinet issue to some speaker head who thinks yellowing is apart of wear & tear. We purchased our Akrum cabinets in August of 2011 and now all of our cabinets are yellowing. There is no way that this is a wear & tear issue. We also had these same cabinets installed in our laundry room, and these are even more yellow than our kitchen!

p.s. there are talks of a Class action against Ikea.

It is quite a long time ago when this happened to our kitchen

white cabinets turned yellow within first year

sent out a technician that said wear and tear etc

complainec to CEO directly with loads of photos

I refused a replacement of lileft for like as did not have confidence another white kitchen would not do the same

The CEO asked me to pick another kitchen

any one out of their range at the time they

paid the cost for my old one to be taken out and new one installed in cash to me and they supplied replacement kitchen

I just kept insisting white kitchen should not turn yellow

not sure if they will be so generous if kitchen is 8 years old but good luck

Yellowing is not considered a warranty related issue. They will not stand behind their product. I tried the CEO, North American President, etc.... and I got nowhere. Here is their response written by their corporate attorneys I am sure "Your email was forwarded to our Corporate office. We regret to inform that as per the care instructions included with the AKURUM warranty, yellowing is not considered a warranty related issue. Please see the attached copy for your review. " This makes me very sad indeed. I have been an IKEA customer for 35 years starting in 1987. My letter to IKEA: "

Greetings IKEA USA, First off you have my apologies for contacting you at such an awful time for our world but I seem to have some time on my hands and my wife has asked me to finally do something about this. We have gone around and around with our local stores but have found no solution and we get the same look every time so I do not know what to do or where to turn.

Over the past 10 years we have purchased 4 separate Ikea kitchens and had them all installed by your more than capable installers. The kitchen set up of major concern was installed 7 years ago. We’ve been trying for 3 years to get this resolved but I just keep hitting walls and give up. I just don’t have the time and have told my wife to live with the yellow cabinets, it’s not life threatening.

We own 4 rental properties in addition to our home and we always go with IKEA cabinets because of the quality of your hardware, as well as the fact that if a door gets banged up by a renter we can just go out and buy its replacement from your store. The existence of IKEA has made our life better. I have been shopping with IKEA since 1986, started in Conshohocken in my younger days as an undergrad at The University of Delaware.

Two things have happened recently that have caused us much concern. One is that we can no longer buy replacement doors/cabinets because you’ve changed your dimensions and two, the White Lindigo cabinets are now yellowing and its embarrassing to have paid for a kitchen that had such a limited life. White cabinets are supposed to be white. They just look awful. It’s not just the kitchen set of Lindigo doors, it’s also the laundry room too. The kick plates and cabinets are not matching up, the white porcelain sink no longer matches the cabinets and no matter how hard we try to clean the surface the yellow is embedded into the surface. The ceiling paint has not changed colors over the years nor have the cabinet trim so our kitchen looks like a mellow yellow mixed with white accents.

We have met with the Schaumberg and Bolingbrook, IL customer service teams and they all say the same thing. If you ask in the right way you probably, might get new cabinets. IKEA knows it’s an issue but the solution is not easily attained. You have to keep pushing and continue to push and then maybe you’ll get your situation resolved. What does that mean? How enjoyable is it to spend your weekends walking in circles?

Understanding that this is not a new issue and you’re very much aware of the issue what are our options? I detest attorneys. We looked into painting them grey but have been warned not to do this because the paint won’t stick to a polyester paint surface.

Hi,

Was your problem ever addressed?

No, they were no help at all. They said the yellowing was due to the sun and since we do have sun light in our home it was not covered by their lifetime warranty. Normally I would be OK with buying new doors but the issue is IKEA no longer makes doors in this size anymore. So, not only will they not replace we can't replace and they can't be painted either. Stay away from their white cabinets.

It’s been a while but think My kitchen was less than 12 months old And I would not accept anything they said just kept emailing CEO and explaining the problem. They were brilliant at paying for old kitchen to be removed and replaced with a higher spec kitchen I chose.

We bought both kids Ikea white wardrobes years ago, about the same time. I noticed recently that the doors in 1 bedroom looked yellow. Here are 2 sets of doors bought about the same time but in different rooms. One set still white, other is yellow. I have looked it up on the internet and realise the yellow ones are due to lack of light. My son never opens his shutters.

Article on internet:
“Other reasons that cause white doors to turn yellow are the environment in which they are installed. Lack of direct light or excessive moisture (like in a dank bathroom) can cause your door to discolor. Exposure to ammonia or tobacco smoke can also discolor your door.”

I think you can purchase replacement doors

IKEA changed the measurements for the doors and they no longer stock the door sizes for our entire kitchen or the wardrobe above. You're SOL. We met with a designer 2 weeks ago and we were so sick of the yellow we decided to bit the bullet and pay out of pocket. The dimensions are different now and we would have had to redo our granite island and counter tops and that was the kiss of death once again. We bought delicatus exotic granite counter tops and there is no way I am going to trash that too. The new dimensions would require us to cut the existing granite. Semihandmade.com & kokena.com do replacement doors for the old dimensions but they want $400 per door so that is not an option either. We may have them painted but the finish doesn't absorb paint well. We are out of options and I am still seething. Replacing the doors to the wardrobe in the photo would cost $1,600 plus shipping.

@Karen Crawford hi Karen, how do you go about getting the CEO'S contact information? I'm struggling with Ikea 😔 Thanks.

See earlier posts.

peter.agnefjall@ikea.com

I have the same problem. Have just started the warranty process this week. Bought cabinets in 2010. All are yellowed including the trim. Also paint has crackled. Luckily have the original receipts. I will be persistent if they aren’t going to honor their warranty. 🤞

Not sure if i would expect same service i received due to 10 years of use but wish you the best of luck

@HU-743860298

Have you made any progress? I'm about to write to IKEA but not very optimistically. I'm in no mood to change the entire kitchen so am looking into options of painting.

Anyone tried re-painting?

It is quite a long time ago / over 4 years ago when this happened to our kitchen

white cabinets turned yellow within first year

sent out a technician that said wear and tear etc

complainec to CEO directly with loads of photos

I refused a replacement of lileft for like as did not have confidence another white kitchen would not do the same

The CEO asked me to pick another kitchen

any one out of their range at the time they

paid the cost for my old one to be taken out and new one installed in cash to me and they supplied replacement kitchen

I just kept insisting white kitchen should not turn yellow

not sure if they will be so generous if kitchen is 8 years old but good luck