Brand new ball bearing hinges with play in them ?

[DaveyH]

Hi,

I've just bought 8 pairs of 3" ball bearing hinges. These ones to be precise,

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk...-x-50-x-2mm-satin-stainless-steel-pair-417504

I bought them because they get loads of excellent reviews, however every single one of them has a bit of play in it. Is this normal for ball bearing hinges or have I bought a load of duds?

Here is a picture of where the play can be seen. I can get the gaps at points A and B to open and close. With the hinge opened, the gaps at A and B are about 1mm, but if I apply a bit of up and down wiggle I can get the gaps to close to about 0.5mm and open to about 1.5mm.

Thanks in advance.

 

[big-all]

if you hold the leaves dead parallel, how much movement do you have

 

[DaveyH]

if you hold the leaves dead parallel, how much movement do you have

With the hinge leaves parallel it's exactly the same. Untouched the gaps at points A and B are both about 1mm but can be opened and closed to about 0.5mm or widended to 1.5mm. In fact the play is there from the hinge being fully closed to fully open and every angle in between.

There's actually less play in most of the 60 year old butt style hinges I'm replacing.

 

[big-all]

axb are irrelevant as the hinge only pivots thought the vertical axis
to move the hinge in way you describe would mean possibly 20-40mm sideways at the other hinge and as that wont happen its not important

 

[DaveyH]

I think I sort of understand what your saying, but wouldn't up/down play mean that your doors could eventually start to sag and your latches miss their keep hole?

I've just got back from one of the high street diy sheds after buying a pair of Eclipse (model number 14852) ball bearing hinges to compare them with. They also both have the same play in them. So it must be a feature of ball bearing hinges. However it's about a quarter of the amount of the play I'm seeing in the ironmongery direct hinges.

 

[big-all]

i cant really answer the question but would expect at least a small bit off play [less than say 0.5mm] to stop it binding up in use

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I've just got back from one of the high street diy sheds after buying a pair of Eclipse (model number 14852) ball bearing hinges to compare them with. They also both have the same play in them. So it must be a feature of ball bearing hinges.

Not really. The stuff we fit (Arrone, etc) has negligeable or no play at all. In fact they tend to be stiff until they bed in a bit. If they start sloppy, they'll only get worse with use IMHO

 

[DaveyH]

Thanks for the replies.

I ended up sending them back to ironmongery direct and going with the Eclipse hinges.

However, I also ended up taking 2 sets of those back for a swap, as they also had a bit of play in them (it was about half of the play I was seeing in the ironmongery direct hinges). The other 6 sets of Eclipse hinges had about a quarter of the movement I was seeing in the ironmongery direct hinges.

Have any of you guys ever examined any ball bearing hinges that have been used for a few years on doors that are working perfectly normally? It would be interesting to know it they had up/down play in them and how much. This could all be a non-issue.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Have any of you guys ever examined any ball bearing hinges that have been used for a few years on doors that are working perfectly normally? It would be interesting to know it they had up/down play in them and how much. This could all be a non-issue.

Yes, and I have replaced sloppy ball bearing hinges in doors in commercial establishments which have had 5 to 10 years usage (think restaurant front doors, office WC doors, hospital doors, etc where major use and abuse occurs). Wear and tear depends on usage, but ball bearing or washered hinges just shouldn't start out sloppy when new.

 

[DaveyH]

I've now ended up taking the Eclipse hinges back of refund as well . In total I bought 8 pairs of them, so 16 hinges total. I discovered that 3 of the 16 weren't opening and closing smoothly, they had this kind of tight slack tight slack juddery grinding motion ,. The bloke in the shop also agreed it was there, so I wasn't imagining it. Maybe the other 13 hinges would have been ok, but I wasn't prepared to find out.

So who manufactures good quality 3" (76mm) ball bearing hinges for 16kg interior doors?

 

[big-all]

to be honest, i have never fitted any roller bearing hinges but have played with a set in my workshop and my nails suffered as they where so so tight but as they where perhaps 3 or 4 years old assumed perhaps crud or rust had tightened up the hinges to a level where opening up was finger nail or tool aided opening is required
i have fitted many washered hinges but not recently as easing back and partial retirement beckoned 10 years ago--- this month[when i was 59]

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I ain't no hinge expert, but is there a specific reason it has to be this type of hinge used? Surely there are good quality (non ball bearing) hinge makes out there in their dozens?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

⁷to be honest, i have never fitted any roller bearing hinges but have played with a set in my workshop and my nails suffered as they where so so tight but as they where perhaps 3 or 4 years old assumed perhaps crud or rust had tightened up the hinges to a level where opening up was finger nail or tool aided opening is required

Commercially we don't install washered or lift off hinges very often - in part because architects and fire door inspectors seem to prefer bearing hinges. Two brands to look for are Arrone and Zoo, both of which are used on a LOT of commercial builds and which are reasonable quality (i.e. not sloppy when new, wear well). They are a little stiff to start with, B-A, but loosen up a bit with use, but not sloppy (as you'd expect for stuff you want to take a bit of use) A quick Google gave me this for Zoo

 

[DaveyH]

I ain't no hinge expert, but is there a specific reason it has to be this type of hinge used? Surely there are good quality (non ball bearing) hinge makes out there in their dozens?

Fair point. I only decided to go for bearing hinges because I've read posts on various forums that said they are much better than butt and washered hinges and are basically a "no-brainer" these days. I also noticed that the online reviews on the likes of amazon, ironmonger direct, wickes, B&Q, screwfix, toolstaion etc etc, that regardless of their manufacturer, ball bearing hinges tend to get 4.5 to 4.9 out of 5, whereas washered hinges and butt hinges tend to only get 3.5 to 4 out of 5. So based on that I thought they must be better choice. However when you look at the few 1 star reviews for bearing hinges they usually mention grinding or leaking. So they aren't really the holy grail of hinges, they do have their issues.

At the ended of the day I just want some reliable 3" hinges, not really bother if they're butt, washered or bearing.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

However when you look at the few 1 star reviews for bearing hinges they usually mention grinding or leaking. So they aren't really the holy grail of hinges, they do have their issues.

Cheap hinges are cheap for a reason. The two makes I recommended above are generally sold through architectural ironmongers, door set suppliers (the people who supply pre hung fire door sets to the trade, etc) and the like. You won't find them in cornershop ironmongers, DIY stores, or other suppliers of ironmongery tat. There is a world of difference in the quality that DIY shops supply and the stuff used on even medium quality new builds. I don't know if the item I linked to is at an acceptable price point, but Zoo stuff I have fitted over the last decade or so has not been "boomerang gear" (i.e. you don't get loads of call backs with it). Equally, though, I suspect you won't find msny reviews of it - because it isn't sold through...