05-07-2015, 01:51 PM
There are some noticeable difference between the 2. Both have pros and cons over the other.
The English cabs are made to my specification and as such some of the Clints are of higher specification than the German cabs. For example, the English cabs are made with colour coded Egger board (Ok it's a white kitchen but if it wasn't they everything is colour coded) and have 2mm abs edging to the cab and shelf fronts and 1mm everywhere else.
The German has white egger board with colour matched 1mm edging to the front and for areas which are not visible they use cheap brown paper facing. What's more the English have full 18mm backs, the German 3mm hardboard. The top rails on the German are cheap pine as opposed to Egger on the English.
Both use the same Blum integrated soft-close hinges, both use Grey Antero blum drawers.
The German feet are slightly better using a big foot, which is something i'm trying to get my English cab maker to do.
The German is a mixture of glued and screwed depending on what they thought would be better for any given unit. The English is glued (although I often ask for the odd unit to come cam and doweled if I know I need to make alterations, like boiler housings for example)
So on a spec sheet, the English cabs appear better. However the Germans work to tighter tolerances... i.e ZERO! The English cabs are good but for example the top rail might be half a mil higher than the side panels when it's glued together. Not a massive issue but you need to take this in to account when leveling and squaring up. Also the odd cab might not have been clamped tight enough when it was glued and now the unit is 601mm wide as opposed to bang on 600mm. Again not a huge difference but you can run your tape over a number of units and find the run is 3-4mm longer than it should be.
The German kitchen screams efficiency, if they don't think an area is worth upgrading, they don't. But that zero tolerance can sometimes be a curse. When ordering this kitchen I asked for certain things to be made over sized so they could be adjusted on site. The peninsular back panel and plinths for example. This confuses the hell out of them "No. No. No, we make it to size, why do you want it bigger?", "Just humor me on this one and make it over sized please", "You crazy English, always doing things twice"
The problems with the dry lining being a perfect example. If you notice on the English kitchen I have placed packers behind the wall units in order for them to sit vertically level and square. This has left around an 8mm gap visible on the last wall unit. Not an issue as I have an over sized end panel to go on which will be scribed to the wall. As shown on the German kitchen the problem was much worse where the wall fell away 30mm. This left me with 2 options, either get the last 2 wall unit cabs remade where I could scribe them to the wall (they don't do end panels in this range), Or get the wall re-boarded. Obviously because the fall away was so stupidly large, I didn't have much of a problem getting the builders to redo it but had the fall only been 5-10mm I think they would have pushed back and resisted. I would have had no option but to get the units remade.
The other plus points with the Germans is that they will ask for all the appliance model numbers so they will ensure the appliances fit perfectly. On this one for example there is a plinth for the fridge freezer to sit on so it lines up with 70/30 doors, the oven towers have had the top doors made to measure so no fillers, the drawer unit under the hob has had the top drawer reduced in height internally and a perforated board installed so that the induction hob doesn't foul the drawers. I can get my English cab makers to do the same but it is for me to supply the spec and drawings of what I want rather than just pinging over some model numbers.
Door wise both are silk/matt finished and both are equally as good but then the doors on the English kitchen are in fact Italian produced. They are great value for money that's whey I use them so much.
The difference in price is around 20% higher on the German per cab.
The English cabs are made to my specification and as such some of the Clints are of higher specification than the German cabs. For example, the English cabs are made with colour coded Egger board (Ok it's a white kitchen but if it wasn't they everything is colour coded) and have 2mm abs edging to the cab and shelf fronts and 1mm everywhere else.
The German has white egger board with colour matched 1mm edging to the front and for areas which are not visible they use cheap brown paper facing. What's more the English have full 18mm backs, the German 3mm hardboard. The top rails on the German are cheap pine as opposed to Egger on the English.
Both use the same Blum integrated soft-close hinges, both use Grey Antero blum drawers.
The German feet are slightly better using a big foot, which is something i'm trying to get my English cab maker to do.
The German is a mixture of glued and screwed depending on what they thought would be better for any given unit. The English is glued (although I often ask for the odd unit to come cam and doweled if I know I need to make alterations, like boiler housings for example)
So on a spec sheet, the English cabs appear better. However the Germans work to tighter tolerances... i.e ZERO! The English cabs are good but for example the top rail might be half a mil higher than the side panels when it's glued together. Not a massive issue but you need to take this in to account when leveling and squaring up. Also the odd cab might not have been clamped tight enough when it was glued and now the unit is 601mm wide as opposed to bang on 600mm. Again not a huge difference but you can run your tape over a number of units and find the run is 3-4mm longer than it should be.
The German kitchen screams efficiency, if they don't think an area is worth upgrading, they don't. But that zero tolerance can sometimes be a curse. When ordering this kitchen I asked for certain things to be made over sized so they could be adjusted on site. The peninsular back panel and plinths for example. This confuses the hell out of them "No. No. No, we make it to size, why do you want it bigger?", "Just humor me on this one and make it over sized please", "You crazy English, always doing things twice"
The problems with the dry lining being a perfect example. If you notice on the English kitchen I have placed packers behind the wall units in order for them to sit vertically level and square. This has left around an 8mm gap visible on the last wall unit. Not an issue as I have an over sized end panel to go on which will be scribed to the wall. As shown on the German kitchen the problem was much worse where the wall fell away 30mm. This left me with 2 options, either get the last 2 wall unit cabs remade where I could scribe them to the wall (they don't do end panels in this range), Or get the wall re-boarded. Obviously because the fall away was so stupidly large, I didn't have much of a problem getting the builders to redo it but had the fall only been 5-10mm I think they would have pushed back and resisted. I would have had no option but to get the units remade.
The other plus points with the Germans is that they will ask for all the appliance model numbers so they will ensure the appliances fit perfectly. On this one for example there is a plinth for the fridge freezer to sit on so it lines up with 70/30 doors, the oven towers have had the top doors made to measure so no fillers, the drawer unit under the hob has had the top drawer reduced in height internally and a perforated board installed so that the induction hob doesn't foul the drawers. I can get my English cab makers to do the same but it is for me to supply the spec and drawings of what I want rather than just pinging over some model numbers.
Door wise both are silk/matt finished and both are equally as good but then the doors on the English kitchen are in fact Italian produced. They are great value for money that's whey I use them so much.
The difference in price is around 20% higher on the German per cab.
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