Push to open handleless cabinets

10 years ago

If you have had push-to-open handleless kitchen cabinets for a while, could you please share your experiences? I would love to have handleless cabinets, but don't want the crumb-catching channel involved with other methods. My kd says the push-to-open have problems and don't hold up. I will be using Plain and Fancy slab front cabinets. Thank you all for any opinions you have to offer.

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aok27502

10 years ago

My parents' 1964 house had those latches. I don't think there was a big problem with grime, but there were just the two of them living there. Although I do know that several of the most-used doors had spots where the finish had worn off. But for the 31 years that he lived in that house, Dad cussed those things. I don't know anything about the current type, but theirs were noisy. You definitely couldn't sneak into a cabinet late at night. Also, it was easy to open the lowers with a hip or knee. But it was equally easy to bump it with your toe and open one unintentionally. And they didn't always catch on the first push to close, so you might have to try a couple of times. Dad would have several doors open because he got tired of fighting them.

I like the look of slab doors without hardware, that's what I have in my kitchen. Ours have the routed hand holds. I don't have any issue with 'crumb catchers', but again there are only two of us here, and DH doesn't do a whole lot in the kitchen. If there were kids involved, that might be different. I would quite possibly do the slab doors again, but I wouldn't use the push latches.

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Comments (11)

practigal
10 years ago
What are you going to push with? If you are getting a footpedal release, maybe that would be OK? ( I say maybe because you would have to advise each person coming into your kitchen how to open the cabinets) But to me, without handles, you just spend a lot of time cleaning up the front of the cabinets. It is why I decided not to go with the crumb catcher style.
Kisa Valenti thanked practigal
writersblock (9b/10a)
10 years ago
You can push with the back of your hand or your wrist or even your hip (for lowers) and mostly you don't have to push in the exact same spot every time. Not sure what you mean by "crumb catcher." People use push-to-open on lots of different styles, especially modern slab doors/drawers.
Kisa Valenti thanked writersblock (9b/10a)
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Kisa Valenti
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you, Writersblock. By crumbcatcher I was referring to the groove in the top of the door in some types of push to open. https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/is-a-handleless-kitchen-right-for-you-stsetivw-vs~49954976
homepro01
10 years ago
Kisa,

Those are not push to open cabinet doors. They are routed handles into the door. Is the routed handles what you are looking for? Push to open door and drawers are usually flat cabinets and you push on a certain part of the unit to open them. I have a push to open drawer on my center piece table. For kitchens, blum also makes an automation based push to open system which is called ServoDrive. The non-automation version is called Tip On.

Good luck!
lharpie
10 years ago
No experience with these except to say DH would make an absolute mess of them - they would both be gross and I would worry about the constant wear and tear on the paint or stain. I'd expect for the uppers you would be pushing them in the same place pretty much every time so that area would wear out relatively quickly. Maybe if there was a plate or knob to push but that sort of defeats the purpose I think!
Kisa Valenti thanked lharpie
Kisa Valenti
Original Author
10 years ago
homepro01, thanks for your reply. I guess I didn't express my query clearly. I don't want the routed handles, because I think it is just another thing to clean. So I figured the only way to achieve the handleless look was with the push to open doors and drawers. My kd advises against them and I was looking for input from folks actually living with them.
aok27502
10 years ago
Are you having all drawers on the lowers? In my 22 year old kitchen, I have a mix of drawers and doors. The drawers have the routed handles on the bottom center, except for the lowest drawer. The doors have the handles routed on top. But the doors have the typical drawer above them, so the upper edge is pretty well protected. There really aren't any hand-holds that are open to crumbs, but mine don't have the channels on top like in the pictures you linked to above.

I would think you could do routed handles without the channel and there would be little opportunity for crud to accumulate.
Kisa Valenti thanked aok27502
Kisa Valenti
Original Author
10 years ago
aok27502 I will have a mix of drawers and doors as well.
ainelane
10 years ago
Kisa - why does your kd advise against push to open? I'm curious as I'm about to submit my final order with Blum TipOn and my kd speaks highly of it and using it in the showroom seemed great.
beenzmail
10 years ago
Is it like the motorized trash? We have that and I really like it, but you really can't stand in front of it to work as it opens accidentally when you bump it. If they were everywhere we would constantly be getting hit with them.