Unclippng IKEA PAX Hinges

Question

I am moving my IKEA PAX storage unit, and I need to remove the doors to lighten the load. How do I unclip these hinges? My google searches seem to show a slightly different hinge than the one I have pictured. They all have a clip you pull up on on the right side of my photo. I don't see that clip. I know these hinges can be unclipped, but I don't know how.

Answer 1

These come as one piece. It's best not to unclip them. Better is to remove the two screws holding them to the cabinet wall, and leave the entire hinge attached to the door.

If you want to unclip them, you need to significantly loosen the right-most screw so it can clear the indentation it's in. Do this for all hinges. Then pull the entire door forward. You don't have to loosen the adjustment (leftmost) screw. The back of that screw has a flange that slides out of a slot. See pic below. Because of that, replacing it will be more difficult and replacing four of them at once while attached to the door will be torture. If you try it PLEASE film it. :)

Note comments contrary to my opinion on difficulty of reinstalling these after unclipping. JPA has good suggestion, to unclip them and then if you find it hard to replace you can loosen one or more of the cabinet-side parts to make it easier. I've never tried that but I think commenters have, it may be worth a try.

Answer 2

I beg to differ from the other answer. It's very easy, you loosen the rightmost screw on the picture (the one in the recess, on the horizontal bar), no need to remove it completely. You can slide out the hinge easily (you might want to loosen the left set screw, too, although it depends on the actual position). Yes, you'll need to align them again after the move but, frankly, chances are you need to do that anyway, if you've been using the units for some time already.

Even if it's tempting to remove just the fixing screws on the opposite side of the hinge, that grab into the wood, I wouldn't do that. Repeated removal of screws in MDF panels (the material these cabinets are made from) eventually result in the screws not holding perfectly any longer. Don't disturb them unless inevitable.

When the time comes to reinstall them, get a pair of helping hands, align the door and put something beneath it the hold it up (books, then a wedge on top, whatever you can find). Your helper keeps it steady while you reattach the hinges and align the upper one first. When mostly done, go on to the lower ones. If needed, you can always make slight adjustments even if the other hinges are already mostly aligned, little by little, until the door sits flush and nicely aligned.

Addendum: after reassembling, use the occasion to tighten all screws. Those that hold the hinge to the wall of the cabinet and those that hold it in the door, even if you never touched them during disassembly. You'll find most if not all of them slightly loose. I would also tighten (or at least, check) the screws or dogs that hold the side panels together. Basically, everything exposed.

Answer 3

I ended up leaving the doors on and sliding the cabinet across my garage floor. Since I will move it back over a new textured epoxy garage floor, I purchased an appliance mover for $20 at a big box store. There are 4 hinges on that door, I have 4 doors, and I recall a lot of difficulty in getting them all lined up during the original installation. Some of you mentioned this too.

Answer 4

For what it’s worth I was able to unscrew the “outer” most screw on all 3 hinges and then slide the door out to remove it from the frame. In my case I was going bonkers trying to level new doors and I was suspicious that one of them is slightly warped. Took both off and set them flat with weights on top, and just for good measure I’ll be switching them around and reinstalling left on right and right on left to try to reset things a bit to see if it helps with re-leveling.