Brand new ball bearing hinges with play in them ?

[DaveyH]

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...

Thanks. I will give those Zoo ones a try, even with postage costs., they're actually cheaper than the ones from the big DIY shops.

 

[Notch7]

A useful way to identify hinges is to look at their classification.

I tend to use class for 3” hinges and class 11 for 4”

for anybody interested: its common to see some black oil / grease on the knuckle of bearing hinges after a while - and it’s natural to assume it’s the bearing leaking: actually its assembly grease.

also externally it’s common to see rust on the knuckle of stainless hinges: that’s because whilst the body is stainless the bearings are steel.

https://www.poolewaite.co.uk/uploads/8557188b4d6fc1ba86017564237f968d.pdf

 

[diy_fun_uk]

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.

Yeah totally get what you're saying, I suppose my point is (cause I can be guilty of this myself) don't overthink, otherwise you can end up not just getting the job done. Look at it this way. Unless you're installing doors that need to meet a strict set of criteria, even a half decent set of hinges will, in reality, do the job.

It's not the best analogy, but it's a bit like getting caught up in what brand of silicon sealant to use. If you were reviewing them all, of course there will be some that make the top 3 in terms of performance. But in reality, the top dozen or so will likely result in a perfectly good job. Heck, some will even buy the cheapest and rave about how good it performs.

 

[DaveyH]

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...

Thanks. I will give those Zoo ones a try, even with postage costs., they're actually cheaper than the ones from the big DIY shops.

I bought 8 pairs (16 hinges) of Zoo hinges a few weeks ago. The exact model of them is ZHSS232S. None of them have any grinding in them and they all have a nice smooth opening and closing action. However 4 of them have as much play in them as I was seeing in the ironmongerdirect ones.

As an experiment I took 2 of the Zoo hinges with the least amount of play in them and used them on one of my doors. Yesterday about 20 days later I have took the door off again to prime and paint it and these 2 stiff hinges now have the play in them outlined on my first post. The door would have been opened and closed and a maximum of about 60 times and only weighs 16kg. My conclusion is that I have found a non-issue, ball bearing hinges must by designed to behave like this. Some must just leave the factory slightly different amounts of play in them.

On a side note, the posidrive screws the Zoo hinges came with are excellent, nice and hard and haven't rounded off, unlike the rubbish soft screws you get with most things these days.

Thanks for all the help everyone.