A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen and during this time period we looked at many cabinets. Ikea kitchen cabinets rank up with our favorites because they were not particle board; they seemed to have good durable hardware, and the drawer runners were top quality. Many kitchen cabinets have junk for cabinet runners so this is a very important feature to look at any time you are considering purchasing kitchen cabinets.
The cost and flexibility of the Ikea cabinet is hard to argue with. The hinges are outstanding on the units which is very important in any kitchen cabinet. The drawers are also metal framed and the runners are nice and tough. This means that you can even place canned goods into the drawers without worrying about the tracks being bent or the drawer sliding off the tracks. Any time you have kitchen drawers that do not have tough hardware that will stand up to heavy use you quickly become frustrated. One of the rental houses I lived in had constant and ongoing problems with the tracks of the drawers. They would bend and the drawers would fall off the tracks. I could never put anything heavy into the drawers but dish rags and Tupperware without fear of the drawer falling to the ground. After much research I can tell you that you will not suffer such a mishap with Ikea cabinet drawers.
A major point to consider with Ikea is that they are a company that has been around for a long time so if you have a problem with one of your cabinet doors the chances are very good that you will be able to replace the door with an exact replica of the old door even five years down the road. This especially holds true if you go with a wood cabinet look which tends to prove to be timeless. If they should discontinue the product line that you bought Ikea will try their best to contact costumers to let them know this is happening so they can buy a few replacement doors or parts before it is too late. I do not know how good Ikea is about keeping this promise, however, since I have heard of many people who say that they have never been contacted but others that make the claim that they have. It seems to me that half the people claim that Ikea never contacts them after purchase and another half of the costumers make the claim that they have been contacted.
During our research into kitchen cabinets I have noticed that the painting surfaces of Ikea cabinets tend to stand up better then other similar companies. This made our choice of cabinets harder because at the time I wanted a durable cabinet that would stand the test of time.
Ikea uses MDF instead of plywood in their cabinet construction. This is said to offer more durability then plywood over time.
Any Ikea cabinet with plastic legs is suppose to be able to hold 275 pounds each. This means that a cabinet that has four plastic corners will easily be able to hold 1100 pounds of weight.
Ikea does offer a 25 year warranty on their kitchen cabinets.
Ikea makes the claim that each cabinet takes 20 minutes to assemble and hang. I suppose this could be done because we assembled and hung our kitchen cabinets by ourselves. Each cabinet that we assembled and hung averaged approximately that time and was quite easy. However, we did not purchase Ikea. We ended up going with a cheaper brand.
Sources:
http://www.ikeafans.com/kitchen-planning-guide/ikea-kitchen-quality.html
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/kitchen/tools/kitchen_style_selector
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/591598
