01425 508 474Buying Guide to In-Cupboard Kitchen Bins
Our fitted in-cupboard kitchen bins are a sleek, effective way to turn a cabinet into a hidden recycling bin. An integrated bin can have a transformative effect on your kitchen, freeing up floor space and keeping the waste and recycling neatly out of sight. Getting the right mix of function and style in the hardest working room in the house is important and a built-in bin is a great solution.
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 and we are official retailers for Wesco, Hailo, Vauth-Sagel, Ninka, Gollinucci, Tecnoinox and Blanco, all chosen because 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. In addition we carry a range of bins that fit into pan-drawers.
Many customers prefer a bin for a pull-out door and most hinged cabinet doors can be adapted to be used in this way. You just need to take off the hinges (ideally filling the holes) and then fit the pull-out unit to the cabinet sides and back of the door. However, you do need a central handle to enable the bin to be pulled out correctly.
Read on for more information to help you choose the right bin for your cabinet and your recycling needs.
Key points to consider
Our in-cupboard bins for cabinets with pull-out doors are a precise fit based on the external width and internal width of the cabinet. The runners need to be fitted to the sides of the cabinet casing and the bin units are designed to fit the internal width of cupboard specified (allowing for carcass widths of 16-19mm each side).
Nearly all our bins for cabinets with pull-out doors are supplied with soft-close runners, which make for easy opening and effortless closing. Bin capacities range in size from 30 Litres for a 300mm wide cabinet up to 108 Litres for a 600mm unit.
If you can choose the size of cabinet for your in-cupboard bin, our general advice is to go for the largest possible as this will provide more options in overall capacity and bin configuration (Our bin units for 600mm cabinets, for example, come in a range of options with 1, 2, 3 or 4 compartments).
These in-cupboard products are provided as a kit and do require some skill in fitting – in particular making sure the runner units are level and attaching the bin unit to the rear of the cabinet door.
Vauth-Sagel, Ninka, Gollinucci, Tecnoinox, Wesco Pullboy-Z and Hailo in-cupboard products are supplied complete with an integrated soft-close mechanism in the bin side panels which are integral to the design. Each bin comes with fitting templates or instructions. (see the respective links on the product pages).
Use our QUICK PRODUCT FINDER to find the right bin for your kitchen.
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Most of our bins for cabinets for hinged doors are very easy to fit – just 4 or 6 screws in the cabinet base hold the bin in place, and no fixing to the cabinet sides for most models. The bin is then simply pulled out from the cabinet when the door is opened.
As they are self-contained within a frame, our bins for hinged door cabinets will fit any cabinet of the designated width or wider. For example all our bins for 300mm hinged door units will also fit into 400mm or wider units; and similarly our bins for 400mm hinged door cabinets will fit into 450mm, 500mm and 600mm wide units (subject of course to height and depth suitability).
The fact that you can vary the fixing position of the bin is good news for customers with units with 500mm or 600mm hinged doors. One option is to install either a 52L or a 64L unit for a 400mm unit which would leave a space down one or both sides of the bin for further storage. For a 600mm wide hinged door cabinet it’s possible to place two units designed for a 300mm cabinet side by side. As an example, two Wesco BigBoy 40L units will provide two bins with a total of 80 Litres of waste and recycling capacity.
We also have several products which fit to both the cabinet side and the door and the bin swings out into the kitchen when the door is opened. These include round bins including, the Wesco Classic and the Hailo Big Box and the classic Peka bin range who roiginally invented this type of bin system. The Wesco The Slimline Waste Bin and the Blanco Singolo which both fit across the front of the unit and are a great option to fit in front of pipework.
Use our QUICK PRODUCT FINDER to find the right bin for your kitchen.
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Drawer-based in-cupboard bins can be a great solution if you need to use the space at the bottom of your cabinet for your recycling and waste. They are designed to be used with an existing drawer but we can supply a drawer with a soft close mechanism if required (for you to attach your own drawer front).
Pan drawers are becoming an established feature of contemporary kitchens and we have a selection of products that can be used with these. The range includes bins that fit pan drawers with an external width from 600mm up to 1200mm wide.
These products consist a set of bin containers to give you flexible recycling and waste storage and a tray to firmly hold the containers. Extra space in the drawer can be used for cleaning materials, liners or papers. The three brands we carry have different bin sizes and heights:
- The Gollinucci Sistema 9XL range fits drawers 220mm high or taller
- The Tecnoinox range fits drawers 255mm or taller
- The Wesco Pullboy 9XL range is suitable for drawers 300mm tall or higher.
The Tecnoinox Tecnobig drawer-based bins have an aluminium tray and a set of containers finished with brushed aluminium tops to the lids, giving a premium, minimally styled look and extra durability.
Use our QUICK PRODUCT FINDER to find the right bin for your kitchen.
For in-line or in-frame cabinets, where the door fits into a "frame" which creates a narrower opening than the inside of the cabinet, there are additional considerations to fit an in-cupboard bin.
If you have an in-line or inframe cabinet it is the width of the door that determines the bin you can fit. The bin must be from a range the same size or smaller than the width of the door. eg for a door 580mm wide then choose a bin from our selection for 500mm wide doors; if 430mm then choose from our range for 400mm wide doors etc.
For in-line cabinets with pull-out doors you will need to build out the sides internally, to create the fitting width of the bin you have chosen. You can batten the cabinet sides just at the point where the runners attach, or alternatively batten the whole side. Whichever method you choose, the battens must be very firmly fixed to ensure that the movement and weight of the bin will not work the battens loose over time.
The picture shows a beautifully neat solution to fitting a bin into an in-frame cabinet, created by Oaktree Joinery who fitted our Hailo Euro-Cargo 76L bin for a 500mm cabinet, into the 600mm in-frame cabinet made for their client. The neatly boxed solution obviously requires expert joinery skills to create, but simple side battening would also be effective and will only be seen when the bin is open.
For in-line cabinets with hinged doors you may need to build up the floor so the bin clears any lip, and you will need to choose a bin with a width that can pull out through the cabinet exit.
Please get in touch if you need advice on choosing a bin for an in-frame cabinet.
Use our QUICK PRODUCT FINDER to find the right bin for your kitchen.
For many customers fitting a bin below a sink unit is an obvious place to fit an in-cupboard bin. However, pipework and drainage can pose special challenges. Choosing a low height bin will minimise any fitting limitations, and some products have a shorter depth which may be suitable for fitting in front of pipework. For really tight situations in a hinged door cabinet, we suggest the Wesco Shorty – which offers 30 Litres of waste disposal – which is both short in depth and low in height.
We do have some lower height bins, both for pull-out and hinged doors, that will fit below normal plumbing (its usually the U-bend that creates the biggest problem!) but please check the available height carefully and/or talk to your plumber or kitchen fitter to reduce the drop or relocate the u-bend.
For more detailed information and ideas on fitting bin below a sink see our Blog: Bins for Under-sink Cabinets.
Use our QUICK PRODUCT FINDER to find the right bin for your kitchen.
Key measurements
There are 3 key measurements which will impact which bins will fit your cabinet:
Cabinet width
Our in-cupboard bins are designed to fit cabinets with standard external widths from 300mm up to 600mm (including 400mm, 450mm and 500mm). We also offer bins to fit into the increasingly popular pan-drawers in widths of 600mm, 800mm, 900mm and 1,000mm.
The two key measurements are the external width (usually the door) and the internal width (the inside measurement from one side of the cabinet to the other). The internal width is normally 38mm less than the overall cabinet width (when the carcass has 19mm sides) or 32mm less when the carcass sides are 16mm.
Cabinet height
Our In-cupboard bins are available in a range of heights from 320mm to 590mm.
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).
Cabinet depth
Our in-cupboards bins fit a range of cabinet depths from 330mm upwards (although our slimmest bin is only 220mm deep – ideal for under sink cupboards, 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.
Sizes from 14L to 108L
Our bins come in a range of different sizes, from 14 Litres up to 108 Litres. A standard freestanding kitchen bin is typically 30 Litres so an in-cupboard bin can provide much greater capacity.
Our most popular size is around 80-90 Litres (with 1, 2, 3 or 4 compartments). Most of these larger bin units require a 600mm wide cabinet and are around 580mm high or more and utilise the full height of a cabinet and utilise pull-out doors.
If you have hinged doors then the options vary from single bins from 14 to 55 Litres, 2 compartment options from 30 to 64 Litres and some with 3 compartments.
Total capacity is largely driven by the width of your cabinet, but even with 400mm, 450mm or 500mm wide units you have options from 58 to 76 Litres, although most will have only 2 compartments.
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One, two three or four compartments
Our range includes bins with one, two three or four compartments. Bins with two or more compartments are perfect for separating waste and recycling. Nearly every local council has a different scheme so you need to choose which is best for your own situation and for which you have space.
Food waste
Many of our multi-compartment bins have a smaller bin that can be used for food waste, although we wouldn’t recommend using anything larger than 12 Litres to ensure its emptied on a regular basis. Alternatively you can incorporate a food bin into the worktop see the Wesco Ergomaster.
