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I will never buy another Magnet kitchen

RogerS

RogerS

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And off to pastures new
Over the very many years that I have been renovating houses or doing up one for ourselevs, Magnet kitchens were my Go-To. Currently on the seventh and it has been a disaster from start to finish. To be fair, Magnet have or are in the process of resolving all the various issues, faults, broken bits and scratched frontals but the latest 'find' is, I think insoluble and a perfect storm or SNAFU.

When I started fitting the kitchen I noticed that the tolerances on the cabinet widths was a bit, shall we say, elastic. Never 600mm but 601mm or 601.5mm. Ditto 800mm cabinets. Not a problem in a run along a wall but we lso have an island unit that is single cabinet deep. So there is a breakfast bar panel at the back. It is exactly 2m long. You can see where I am going with this.

Taken the first cabinet

20250911_153842.jpg

Then the middle cabinet

20250911_153904.jpg

Then the final cabinet

20250911_153928.jpg

and adding up all those extra mm means that when you exactly align one end of the bar panel with an end cabinet, when you get to the other end the panel is not long enough

20250911_155654.jpg

I think that a 2m breakfast bar panel is the longest and so no chance of getting it and cutting to length. The cut edge not being an issue as it will be covered by the end panel.
 
So three deliveries to date trying to fix their f***ups. This time I worked directly with the branch manager and specified the exact item numbers. Delivery came today with a load sheet …every item duly ticked off.

Part of the consignment was two 500mm larder cabinets and one 600mm cooling cabinet. Exactly what was on the manifest and ticked off. The reality? One effing 500mm and two effing 600mm.

Cretins. Morons. Knuckle-draggers. Go rot in Hell
 
Your problem happened to me with a new kitchen for a client, had to wait 2 weeks for a properly sized base cabinet. Along with a relacement fridge panel. Luckily I didn't order the units.
 
I thought all these mass produced kitchens were done using CNC machinery and that was the concept for the euro 32 standard. To be fair I would say quality has fallen across the whole market and you are like many from a time that is now history who are used to things being right but now many just don't look at the detail otherwise places like Wren would not sell anything.
 
Spectric said:
I thought all these mass produced kitchens were done using CNC machinery and that was the concept for the euro 32 standard. To be fair I would say quality has fallen across the whole market and you are like many from a time that is now history who are used to things being right but now many just don't look at the detail otherwise places like Wren would not sell anything.
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Funny you should mention Wren. Few days ago the Dekton worktop template guy came and I asked him what his opinion was of all the kitchen suppliers. His general view was that their quality was broadly similar but that Wren were slipping badly and he'd heard lots of complaints.

Meanwhile, chez RogerS, am waiting for the fourth CUR (Cock Up Resolution) delivery from Magnet.
 
I don't think so. The parent company is losing money though and press reports 500 job losses but new showrooms opening. The one near us in Tunbridge Wells now does kitchens and bedrooms. I think they outsource the fitting of their kitchens etc. Wren is apparently privately owned by Malcom Healey. The family used to own Hygena apparently.
 
When we replaced ours 3 years ago, there were some substantial differences between companies - we ended up going with DIY-Kitchens who were superb - the quality was fantastic, the customer service was really good and the price was about half of what some other companies were offering - and a vast range of choices of cabinets...

As for Wren - we popped in to their showroom to just get ideas for layouts / see spacing etc. and in the time we were there had 5 different sales staff latch onto us with pretty determined / aggressive sales tactics... Any company who plays a game of - this is a £50,000 kitchen - but it is on sale until next Tuesday at only £38,000 and if you sign up today my manager has said I can give you another 10% off - has lost me as a customer. All that tells you is that the value of the kitchen is way lower than that, but that they are happy to charge you as much as they can get away with! The kitchen we were looking at when that discussion took place was half the size of our eventual kitchen spend with DIY-Kitchens which came in at £17,000 - so they were trying to rip us off at 4x the price by suggesting that it was a discount from 6x the price.
 
Coincidentally I had a chat with the very nice young man who did some brick laying for us a while ago. He bought a wren kitchen for his small house and was very pleased with it. He's just moved to a larger doer upper and I asked how it was going. He mentioned that he had been to wren for a plan and quote and he reckoned prices have tripled over the past 4 years. Not viable for him. I'll mention DIY Kitchens to him.
 
I've had to "snag list" both of my daughter's kitchens, both Wren, four years apart. The hominid throwbacks that did the first fixes needed watching ("there aren't supposed to be holes there Mate!") and whilst the foreman took my hint and got humans in for the second fix, I still had a weekend's work after "installation complete" each time AND we had to send all the doors back second time, because the finish fell off when you sneezed in their direction.

Not a fan of Wren? Gross under emphasis.

I am also singularly unimpressed by the big yellow-and-blue Swedes. Why in the name of all that's holy, did they go all-independent and produce cabinet and door dimensions no-one has ever heard of?? It's effing impossible to get spares for them (delinquent toddlers can strike hard), ditto changing finish after it gets "tired". It's to tie one into sticking with, and buying more from, the linguistically intriguing Scandinavians I know, wasn't born yesterday, but it is blood-presure overload-inducing to deal with. Harrrumph!
 
Looking at online reviews a lot of people complain about the finish in wren cabinet doors. Usually they cite bubbling as the problem.
 
I got my last one from DIY Kitchens
The accuracy and finish was good but I got random size changes to a couple of units and the orientation of a corner unit was reversed.
Given the lead time of a replacement and the fact I needed tenants in asap I was luckily able to rearrange the layout.
Eight years on said tenants have managed to keep in a good condition so far.
 
fuse said:
I got my last one from DIY Kitchens
The accuracy and finish was good but I got random size changes to a couple of units and the orientation of a corner unit was reversed.
Given the lead time of a replacement and the fact I needed tenants in asap I was luckily able to rearrange the layout.
Eight years on said tenants have managed to keep in a good condition so far.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have good tenants.
 
Outstanding family from Zimbabwe.
We advertised on Rightmove and had to take the ad down after a week with over fifty applicants and very quickly got it down to three (some people beggar belief)
Accidents do happen but instead of finding damage I find professional repairs.
I reciprocate by responding to queries at the drop of a hat.
It works well
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q! said:
I've had to "snag list" both of my daughter's kitchens, both Wren, four years apart. The hominid throwbacks that did the first fixes needed watching ("there aren't supposed to be holes there Mate!") and whilst the foreman took my hint and got humans in for the second fix, I still had a weekend's work after "installation complete" each time AND we had to send all the doors back second time, because the finish fell off when you sneezed in their direction.

Not a fan of Wren? Gross under emphasis.

I am also singularly unimpressed by the big yellow-and-blue Swedes. Why in the name of all that's holy, did they go all-independent and produce cabinet and door dimensions no-one has ever heard of?? It's effing impossible to get spares for them (delinquent toddlers can strike hard), ditto changing finish after it gets "tired". It's to tie one into sticking with, and buying more from, the linguistically intriguing Scandinavians I know, wasn't born yesterday, but it is blood-presure overload-inducing to deal with. Harrrumph!
Click to expand...
I don't like wren tbh.

The last kitchen I installed was a wren budget one and it really was budget.

The white doors looked nasty, the build was awful.
The time saving approaches etc you get with other kitchens were missing.
 
Wren have a massive factory in Barton Upon Humber where my wife Pam has a house, since it started it has turned the local economy on its head, the stream of bright green trucks in and out of the town shows just how many kitchens they are selling, the factory is mind bogglingly massive, it just goes on and on.
I had a Wren kitchen a good few years ago and found it to be pretty good with none of the problems above, I wanted to add to it a couple of years later when I changed the fridge but the cost was completely astronomical so I built a solid Oak wine rack instead.
 
Im pretty sure its the same outfit that runs Ebuyer which sells high volume computer tech and gadgets.
 
Is this not a woodworking forum and should a kitchen not be seen as a challenge and something to be made which you can then later stand back and admire knowing you made it rather than just buying some mass produced collection of boxes made from compressed saw dust.

We talk about our workshops and the nice tool collections we have accumulated over the years, not to mention the skills we have learnt so why not build yourself a nice kitchen that stands out from the crowd and show the missus that all those tools do have a purpose unlike her collection of bags and shoes that rarely see any use, then buy yourself that tool you have always fancied.
 
When I was fitting a lot of kitchens and fitted wardrobes I ended up using a small company locally to make the carcases to my sizes and a company to make all the vynil wrapped doors. They were called Browns 2000 in Cramlington only 12 miles from here and at the time had two huge factories. I usually collected them myself so got to see the production in person.
With a trade account I just put my sizes and drawings for one offs into the software online and they were produced quickly and always excellent quality.

I've just had a quick look and they state they're pushing out 25000 doors and glass splashbacks a week to the industry.
 
Spectric said:
Is this not a woodworking forum and should a kitchen not be seen as a challenge and something to be made which you can then later stand back and admire knowing you made it rather than just buying some mass produced collection of boxes made from compressed saw dust.............
Click to expand...

From personal experience Roy it very much depends on what other work also has to be done at the time. A kitchen has to work and sometimes, at least in my case the most important thing when you move and it's not workable you have to take the easier and much faster route.
If I'd attempted to make ours from scratch my missus would have divorced me. :ROFLMAO:
 
Spectric said:
Is this not a woodworking forum and should a kitchen not be seen as a challenge and something to be made which you can then later stand back and admire knowing you made it rather than just buying some mass produced collection of boxes made from compressed saw dust.

We talk about our workshops and the nice tool collections we have accumulated over the years, not to mention the skills we have learnt so why not build yourself a nice kitchen that stands out from the crowd and show the missus that all those tools do have a purpose unlike her collection of bags and shoes that rarely see any use, then buy yourself that tool you have always fancied.
Click to expand...
Bob is right. I made our kitchen, including all the building work, stone floor, vaulted ceiling, all plumbing etc. As well as the tiling and making all cabinets, drawers and appliance fitting. It's a large room, I was able to work in situ, and it took several months. This was only viable because we had another kitchen at the other end of the house.

I made everything in situ and did not take the box approach. However, if you are making lots of box type cabinets, you need a lot of storage space unless you can fit piecemeal. I think to make your own kitchen can be very satisfying but is not without significant challenges. If I were to do it again, needless to say, changes would be made.
 
Ive put an albeit simple row of units in the utility room at the current residence
I ordered the doors on ebay(superb) and got a 3m lenghth of worktop locally.
The carcass I built one piece with one piece runs of shelving.
It was so less stressful than ordering units and having to bolt them all together unnecessarily.
A damn sight more rigid too,not to mention less costly
 
Lons said:
From personal experience Roy it very much depends on what other work also has to be done at the time. A kitchen has to work and sometimes, at least in my case the most important thing when you move and it's not workable you have to take the easier and much faster route.
If I'd attempted to make ours from scratch my missus would have divorced me. :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Good post
 
Sheffield Tony said:
Though I do find myself again amazed at how much a load of posh chipboard/MDF can cost.
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faced particle board is expensive for what it is but a bargain when compared to decent furniture grade ply. Once upon a time there was no such thing as plywood, MDF or particle board yet people still had kitchens and made furniture. Ply has been around longer as MDF did not apppear until around 1980 yet ply was around in 1900.

www.vam.ac.uk

A short history of plywood in ten-ish objects · V&A

The history of plywood is a history of the modern world
www.vam.ac.uk www.vam.ac.uk

Based on this you can make a kitchen in many other ways just not in the style everyone now takes for granted and have something unique.
 
Ive not seen any news about the UK operations but Wren Kitchens has closed down in US leaving some people without their kitchen or their money.

( insert punchline here)
When Kitchens perhaps?
 
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I'm doing our kitchen now. Started in October. Nowhere near finished yet.

I'm making my own carcase because:
a) All the ones I've seen here, even in showrooms, have 3mm hardboard backs
b) Some of them need to be non-standard sizes
c) I'd forgotten how domestically disruptive it is and
d) I'd also forgotten that I am 30 years older than when I last did this.

I've got two guys in helping to fit it. One is fantastic, a real Trojan, the other is a layabout and I have to watch him like a hawk.

S
 
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