chevron_left chevron_right
How to choose your built-in kitchen bin

How to choose your built-in kitchen bin

Measuring your cabinet, plus solutions for non-standard cabinets, are covered in this first blog on the factors to consider when choosing your in-cupboard kitchen bin. 

Our in-cupboard bins can be to retro-fitted into existing kitchen units or can be included as part of a new kitchen scheme. 

At Binopolis we sell only premium quality brands such as Wesco, Hailo, Vauth-Sagel & Ninka as they combine great functionality with strong build quality and durability.

Our range includes products that are suitable for cabinets with hinged or pull-out doors.  You just need to supply the cabinet and the door – we can provide everything else. 

Choosing the right bin takes some working out and checking in advance. It’s worth taking a bit of time on this, and we’re always happy to help, so that what you order will fit! Please give us a call to discuss your needs or email your dimensions and we’ll suggest the right products to fit your cabinet.

The starting point is obviously the cabinet size, so in this first blog on how to choose your in-cupboard bin, we’re looking at measurement and some of the more specific considerations for more unusual cabinets.

Measuring your cabinet

Measuring your cabinet starts with the door: check if it’s pull-out or on hinges and then measure the external width across the door.

You then need to check three further internal dimensions:

Internal width (from one side of the cabinet to the other).  

The internal width is normally 30-40mm less than the external cabinet width, depending on what the carcass is made of.

Most of our bins for cabinets with pull-out doors are based on soft-close runners which need to fit to certain widths, usually 38mm less then the door width (based on 19mm carcass material). If the carcass is made from 16mm material, you can use spacers or a piece of hardboard etc very firmly battened to one or both sides, to create the optimum width.

If you have a non-standard pull-out door cabinet, it is still possible to batten the sides with thicker material as ling as it’s very firmly fixed to keep the runners and bin level and to cope with years of movement and the weight of the potential contents.

Bins for cabinets with hinged doors are free-standing self contained units which don’t fit to the cabinet sides, so you have some leeway in which bins will fit your cabinet width. You can fill the cabinet width with the bin, or alternatively position the bin over to one side to leave space for other storage. 600mm hinged door cabinets can sometimes hold two narrow bins side by side.

Internal height

Our In-cupboard bins are available in a range of heights from 320mm to 600mm. 

A typical kitchen unit is 680mm high and the larger capacity bins need to use the full height of a cabinet.  Bin units below 530mm in height will generally fit in a cabinet below a drawer and units below 370mm below cabinets with two drawers (but please check you measurements carefully as every unit is different).

Internal depth

Our in-cupboard  bins fit a range of cabinet depths from 330mm upwards (although our shortest depth bin is only 220mm deep – ideal for under sinks, fitting in-front of pipework).

Most cabinets are around 500mm deep but can vary between 450mm and 600mm.  Please check the depth of your cupboard before ordering and ensure there is sufficient depth.  

In tight situations it is often possible to remove the top section of the back panel of a cabinet, providing those few precious extra few millimetres to accommodate the bin mechanism. This is particularly useful to know if your 500mm deep cabinet has an internal depth nearer to 490mm after having a 10mm back panel fitted.    

Other special situations

Inline cabinets

If you have an in-line cabinet, the door fits into a frame and the frame is narrower than the internal sides of the cabinet.  In-line cabinets pose some additional requirements for in-cupboard bins – for in-line cabinets with hinged doors you may need to build up the floor so the bin clears any lip; for in-line cabinets with pull-out doors you will almost certainly need to build out the sides internally, so that the internal sides and ‘exit’ from the cabinet are the same width: please call us if you need help on this.

Under sink cabinets

For many customers fitting a bin below a sink unit is an obvious place to fit an in-cupboard bin.  However, pipework and U-bends can pose special challenges.  Choosing a low height unit will minimise any fitting limitations, but you may need a bin which is both short in depth and low in height. Because of this limited space. Bins below sinks are great in compact kitchens or if you have a small household, but note that they are often not large enough to be the main receptacle for a family’s waste and recycling.

The next steps in choosing the right in-cupboard kitchen bin

Once you’ve established the internal space you can allocate for the bin in a new kitchen design, or have measured an existing cabinet you have for the bin, there are a few other considerations, including capacity, number of compartments and the brand or design to choose.

We’ll cover those in another Blog soon, but for now look at the options available for bins for your door width and door type (and use the filters on the LHS of the page to target your specific circumstances). This will help narrow down the potential choice for you out of our large range.

As always please get in touch if we can help with any aspects of choosing your in-cupboard bin.