Hinges are an essential part of all of our lives. It's impossible to go through your day without coming across at least one object that relies on a well-crafted hinge. Yet, this humble component is severely underrated, a vital part of hanging doors, box lids, kitchen cabinets, wardrobes and much more. At Hart Wholesale, we can provide a vast amount of varied hinges in your choice of size and style.

With all the varied applications that hinges are needed for, knowing which hinge is best to choose is essential for creating a high-quality product with high durability for the customer.

The Classic Door Hinge

This is the most well-known hinge and usually, the one people imagine when discussing them. Widely known as butt hinges, this design consists of two leaves attached to the door and the frame within a mortised groove to reduce visibility and allow the door to completely close. There are four different types of butt hinges, plain, spring-loaded, ball bearing and rising.

Which design you choose will depend on the purpose of the hinge. Plain butt hinges are usually used for lightweight internal doors. The hinge's two plates (or leaves) are joined with a pin at the knuckles of the hinge.

Spring-loaded butt hinges are the most advanced version of this hinge. This is a popular choice for screen doors as the spring-loaded segment joining the two plates can be calibrated to open and close with predictable degrees of tension. 

Ball butt hinges are similar to the plain except for the joining pin. In this design, the knuckle offers lubricated ball bearings to reduce any friction. This is a more durable hinge that can accommodate the weight of heavy exterior doors or doors that are constantly opening and closing.

Rising butt hinges are similar to the plan hinge in that they both have a connecting pin. What makes the rising butt hinge special, though, is its ability to raise the door it's attached to roughly half an inch as it opens to allow it to clear thick carpets or rugs.

Cabinet Hinges

Amongst our range of Blum Cabinet Hinges, we have the popular choice, the concealed hinge. As the name implies, this hinge is designed to be a subtle addition to your cabinet, ideally one not seen at all. This versatile hinge can be self-closing or adjusted to suit your needs. Larger versions of this hinge have been used for security cabinets as being concealed helps protect them from tampering.

Some hinge designs will add an undesirable thickness to your cabinets. This can be solved with an overlay hinge. The hinge folds back on itself as it closes, allowing the door to sit flush on the cabinet but still open a considerable amount.

An offset hinge works for a similar purpose but in a different way. This speciality hinge is excellent for those scenarios where you need to get furniture through a doorway, but it's just a bit too wide. Instead, the offset hinge can swing the door away from the doorframe, widening the space available by a few valuable inches. They are also a great help in areas that must be DDA (disability discrimination act) compliant such as elderly care homes.

Specialty Hinges

Piano hinges are long, continuous hinges initially designed for the lids on pianos. The two extensive hinge plates are held together with a long rod pin that goes the length of the hinge knuckle. These two long plates can be attached to anything but are usually chosen for toy boxes, fold-down desks, and storage benches and continue to be used for piano lids.

Strap hinges are used in various applications, usually designated by the aesthetics they want to achieve. For example, a strap hinge can be used on an outdoor gate or as a kitchen fitting in a storage cabinet. In addition, we sell an eclectic selection of contemporary and vintage strap hinges that can create a modern feel or a vintage aesthetic to suit your needs.

Pivot hinges are a new approach to hinging a door. This hinge is installed at the top and bottom of the door, allowing it to swing from a single point as opposed to the traditional method of swinging from one side. This is an excellent choice for heavier doors as it removes a lot of the weight hanging in the hinges, re-distributing it into a better way that will let your hinge last far longer. Similar to the ball-bearing hinge, this design is also essential for fast-moving environments such as restaurant kitchen doors.

Fire butt hinges are a particular type of hinge designed for one purpose, to be used on emergency fire doors. The British standard compliance for hinges on fire doors (explained in BS EN 1935) is that the hinge must achieve an intended fire rating whilst allowing the activation of a door closing device. They usually resemble a ball-bearing hinge but are manufactured to withstand 800°C.

Hinges Wholesaler

At Hart Wholesale, we pride ourselves on maintaining a broad range of hinges suitable for any application you desire. Please browse the ones we have mentioned here online, along with our entire catalogue of high-quality hinges.