Kitchen Cabinets - Thermofoil?

[Bruce]

We're selecting cabinets for a kitchen remodel. My wife likes white, but the only way we can get white is either order maple boxes painted white, or a white thermofoil or laminate box. We've looked at all the woods, but we just keep coming back to white.

My concerns with thermofoil or laminate are the weight, and the inability to repair dents or scratches.

If anyone has had either of these type of cabinets installed for a while, can you tell me about their durability, reapairability, and installation considerations?

Thanks, Bruce

[Ron Maggi]

Bruce,

Stay away from thermofoil! We have a self-cleaning GE electric oven and the heat generated from the self-cleaning process caused the thermofoil laminate to melt and bulge out of shape on the drawer eges adjacent to the oven. Naturally, this occurred when the installation was out of warranty. When I called the company that installed the cabinets, I was told that thermofoil can't take intense heat so one should leave adjacent drawers and cabinet doors open when self-cleaning the oven. I later spoke to a fomer building contreactor and he said the same thing.

Ron

[Bruce]

Ron Maggi wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thanks, Ron.

Thanks for the warning. I did some 'googling' today and found out the same. Some articles also suggested keeping drawers next to a drying dishwasher open. I don't want to have to worry about doing the chores one naturally does in the kitchen.

Bruce

[Dorothy Roper]

I had new cabinets installed almost two years ago. The man built the cabinets himself but ordered the doors and drawer fronts. They are made of thermofoil. The company that made them has a web site

if you want to see what I am talking about. Anyway, they are very easy to keep clean and so far we have not had any problems with them. These are not the ready made ones you buy at Home Depot or Lowes but I assume they are similar quality. In our last house we had IXL cabinets (good ones for the 60s) made out of lacquer finished wood...sounds great but they were impossible to keep clean. Never again for me. Grease and dirt on wood is not a good thing.

[Julie]

"Bruce" wrote

I remodeled my kitchen a bit ago, and opted for Thermofoil doors. They did warn me that if my oven's seal wasn't good, I might have problems. I have new appliances, and haven't had a problem with either the oven in cleaning mode, or the dishwasher. Overall I've been *very* happy with them.

A very nice feature is that cleaning is -so- simple - they do not absorb oil. Wipe down with whatever easy cleanser you want.

I haven't needed to repair, but installation was very easy (I kept the pre-existing, euro frame cabinets).

I have a few photos here:

I used Lindsey - they were very good.

JSH