Core Range
Essential items for your home.
Hinges, drawer slides, dish racks and lift-ups. You use them a hundred times a day without thinking — until the day one of them starts to go.
SUS304 & SUS316
Soft-Close Standard
Built for SG Humidity
Stocked in Singapore
80000
Vicenzo Cycle Test
60kg
Vicenzo Drawer Load
20kg
Max Lift Up Door Weight
20kg
Dish Rack Tier
Why These Four
Nobody renovates
for the hinges.
You choose the stone, the doors, the colour. Then you live with the parts underneath them. A drawer that sticks, a door that sags, a rack that rusts — these are the things that make a two-year-old kitchen feel old.
- The door that starts to sagCheap hinges lose their adjustment within a year. 3D adjustment brings a door back into line in seconds — for as long as you own the kitchen.
- The drawer you can't see intoFull-extension undermount slides bring the whole drawer out, so the back of it stops being storage you forgot about.
- Rust in a wet cabinetA dish rack lives above a sink in Singapore humidity. SUS304 and SUS316 stainless are there for exactly that reason.
- The overhead door on your headA lift-up stay holds the cabinet open where you left it, and lowers it without the slam.
A cabinet hinge is the single hardest-working part in a Singapore kitchen. A typical run of base and wall units is opened and closed somewhere between thirty and fifty times a day, every day, for the life of the kitchen. That is the load a hinge has to survive — and it is why a door that closed perfectly on handover starts to drop, catch on its neighbour, or thud instead of settling.
Excel's soft-close cabinet hinges answer that in two ways. Every hinge here carries 3D plus door-height adjustment, so height, depth and side alignment can be corrected with a screwdriver years after installation, without taking the door off. And the Aversa range is SUS304 stainless steel with silver plating, salt-spray tested — which matters more here than it would in a dry climate, because a hinge in a sink-side cabinet lives in permanently humid air.
Hinge Specifications
| Model | Material | Cup Hole | Opening Angle | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etichetta | Stainless steel SUS304, anodised matte black | ⌀52 mm | 105° | 3D + door height |
| Aversa V8.0 | Stainless steel SUS304, silver plated | ⌀52 mm | 105° | 3D + door height |
| Aversa 90° | Stainless steel SUS304 | ⌀52 mm | 90° | 3D + door height |
| T15-3D V5.0 | Steel and aluminium alloy, silver plated | ⌀52 mm | 105° | 3D + door height |
| T15-3D-90 | Steel and aluminium alloy, silver plated | ⌀52 mm | 85° | 3D + door height |
The Etichetta and Aversa V8.0 are salt-spray tested; the T15-3D V5.0 salt-spray rating was upgraded from 48 to 96 hours. Dashes mark figures Excel has not published for that model.
There are two things that separate a drawer that feels expensive from one that does not. The first is full extension: a partial-extension slide leaves the back quarter of the drawer permanently under the worktop, which is where things go to be forgotten. The second is where the slide sits. An undermount slide runs beneath the drawer box rather than up its sides, so nothing metal is visible when the drawer is open.
Load rating is the specification most people get wrong. A cutlery drawer and a pot drawer are not the same job. Excel publishes a tested figure for each model in the table below — from 30 kg on the lighter Vicenzo variants up to 60 kg on the Robusto and the heavier Vicenzo variants — so a deep pan drawer can be specified honestly rather than hopefully.
Drawer Slide Specifications
| Model | Type | Max Load | Sizes | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mola Fermi | Undermount, full extension | 35 kg | 8 sizes | 4D |
| Robusto | Undermount, full extension | 60 kg | 450 / 500 mm | Up and down |
| Vicenzo Nero | Double wall system | 30 kg (V1–V3) · 60 kg (V4–V6) | 450 / 500 mm | — |
| Kucifer 5.0 | Undermount, full extension | 35 kg | 8 sizes | 6D |
The Vicenzo Nero is durability tested to 80,000 cycles. The Robusto carries Singapore TUV-SUD-PSB and ISO 9001 Bureau Veritas certification.
A cabinet-mounted dish rack is the one piece of kitchen hardware that is deliberately kept wet. It sits directly above the sink, holds dripping crockery for hours at a time, and in a Singapore flat it does that in air that rarely drops below 70% relative humidity. This is why steel grade is not a detail here — it is the whole specification.
SUS304 is the standard austenitic stainless used across quality kitchen fittings. SUS316 adds molybdenum, which materially improves resistance to chlorides — the salts found in tap water, detergent residue and coastal air. In practice that is the difference between a rack that stays clean for a decade and one that develops brown speckling around the welds. Excel builds the Cipriana in SUS304 and both the Colapiatti and the Progettista in SUS316.
All three cabinet-mounted racks are two-tier with a removable drip tray, and are designed to install inside a wall cabinet with an internal height of roughly 565 mm and a carcass thickness of 16–20 mm. Measure the cabinet, not the door.
Dish Rack Specifications
| Model | Steel Grade | Finish | Mounting | Sizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cipriana | SUS304 | Polished chrome | Inside wall cabinet, 2 tier | 600 / 700 / 800 / 900 mm |
| Colapiatti | SUS316 | Stainless steel | Inside wall cabinet, 2 tier | 500–1000 mm, six sizes |
| Progettista | SUS316 | Nero black | Inside wall cabinet, 2 tier | 600 / 800 / 900 mm |
| Nazzaro | SUS304 | Black | Ceiling mounted | 600 / 800 / 900 mm |
The Progettista is load tested to 30 kg per tier; Excel does not publish a load rating for the other three models. The Nazzaro requires professional installation to a true ceiling and carries roughly a two-week lead time. Cabinet-mounted racks suit carcass thicknesses of 16–20 mm.
A lift-up stay replaces the side hinge on an overhead cabinet, so the door swings upward and holds itself open above head height instead of hanging out into the room at face level. In a compact Singapore kitchen this is often a safety decision as much as an aesthetic one.
Specifying one is entirely a matter of door weight, and it is the number people most often guess at. A lift-up matched to a door heavier than its rating will drift shut; one matched to a door lighter than its rating will fly open. Weigh the finished door — glass and frame included — then read the table below. The Costanzo V3.0 covers 1.3 kg to 20 kg across three duties, which spans almost every residential overhead door.
All three systems here are hinge-free and hold at any position rather than only fully open — the free-stop function. The Biforzo folds in half as it lifts, for a tall door under a low ceiling; the Parallelzo is built specifically for folding doors, with an adjustable opening angle and telescopic rod.
Lift Up System Specifications
| Model | Door Weight | Opening | Adjustment | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costanzo V3.0 | L 1.3–6.0 kg · H 2.6–14.8 kg · HD 4.5–20.0 kg | Free stop at any angle | 3D | Hinge-free, adjustable soft-close speed |
| Biforzo | Adjustable loading capacity | Free stop at any angle | 3D | Hinge-free bi-fold, tunable damping |
| Parallelzo | Adjustable loading capacity | Free stop, adjustable opening angle | Telescopic rod | For folding doors, manual and electric versions |
All three hold at any position rather than only fully open. The Costanzo V3.0 is the only one of the three for which Excel publishes numeric door-weight ranges; the Biforzo and Parallelzo state adjustable loading capacity without a figure.
How To Choose
Specifying hardware without guessing.
Most hardware disappointment traces back to one of four decisions taken too quickly. If you are planning a renovation or writing a specification, these are the four numbers worth getting right before anything is ordered.
1. Match the hinge to the door, not the budget
All five hinges here share a ⌀52 mm cup and the same 3D plus door-height adjustment, so the boring is common across the range and one can be swapped for another later without re-drilling the door. That makes this a simpler decision than it usually is: material first, then opening angle.
For cabinets beside a sink or hob, the SUS304 stainless Etichetta and Aversa are the safer specification — stainless is what survives the permanently humid air in those positions. The Designer T15-3D range is a steel and aluminium alloy with silver plating.
Then set the opening angle against where the door sits. The Etichetta, Aversa V8.0 and T15-3D V5.0 open to 105°. Where a door will meet a return wall, a fridge housing or a neighbouring run, specify the Aversa 90° or the T15-3D-90, which stops at 85°, so it cannot swing into it.
2. Weigh the drawer, then add a margin
Estimate the loaded weight of the heaviest drawer in the run — a deep pot drawer with cast iron in it is easily 25 kg — and specify above it, not at it. A 25 kg-rated slide carrying 25 kg every day will feel notably worse in year three than a 60 kg slide carrying the same load. This is the single most common false economy in a kitchen specification.
3. Choose dish rack steel by where the kitchen is
For a typical inland HDB or condominium kitchen, SUS304 is entirely adequate. Move closer to the coast, or into a kitchen with poor ventilation and a rack that stays wet, and SUS316 earns its premium — the added molybdenum is specifically what resists the chloride pitting that produces rust spots around welds. Measure the internal cabinet width and height before ordering; these racks fit inside the carcass, not onto the door.
4. Weigh the lift-up door including the glass
A lift-up stay is chosen almost entirely on door weight, and an aluminium-framed glass door weighs far more than people expect. Weigh the finished door and pick the duty that puts you comfortably inside the range rather than at its edge — the Costanzo V3.0's three duties run 1.3–6.0 kg, 2.6–14.8 kg and 4.5–20.0 kg. Then check the door type: a flat overhead door takes the Costanzo V3.0, a tall door under a low ceiling takes the bi-fold Biforzo, and a folding door takes the Parallelzo.
If you would rather not work it out from a table, send the cabinet drawings to sales@excelhw.com.sg and Excel will specify against them.
For The Trade
Supplying Singapore's interior designers and carpenters.
Excel Hardware has manufactured and distributed cabinet hardware from Singapore since 1998, supplying interior design firms, renovation contractors, carpentry workshops and kitchen fabricators alongside direct retail customers. The Essential Items range exists because these four categories account for most of the hardware on a residential fit-out, and because the cost of a warranty call-back for a failed hinge is many times the price of the hinge.
For project work, stock depth matters more than headline price. These lines are held in Singapore rather than indented, so a specification does not become a six-week wait. Full specification sheets, installation manuals, salt-spray and durability test reports are published on each product page for submission to clients and main contractors.
Trade accounts, project pricing and specification support are available through the Excel Hardware contact page, and the wider range can be browsed in the Essential Items collection.
Questions
Essential items, answered.
Why does my kitchen cabinet door sag, and can it be fixed?
A door that drops or catches on its neighbour has almost always lost its alignment rather than broken. Doors are heavy, they are opened tens of thousands of times, and a hinge without proper adjustment slowly works out of position.
If the hinge has 3D adjustment — as every hinge on this page does — it can be corrected in place with a screwdriver. Height, depth and side alignment each have their own screw, so the door is brought back into line without removing it or re-drilling anything. A hinge without 3D adjustment usually has to be replaced.
Which cabinet hinge should I use for an HDB kitchen?
For standard HDB and condominium kitchen carcasses all five hinges on this page work — they share a ⌀52 mm cup and the same 3D plus door-height adjustment, so the boring is identical across the range.
That leaves two things to decide. Material: the Etichetta and Aversa are SUS304 stainless, the safer choice for cabinets beside a sink or hob, while the Designer T15-3D range is a steel and aluminium alloy. And opening angle: where a door opens against a wall, a fridge housing or a neighbouring run, specify the Aversa 90° or the T15-3D-90 so it stops before it makes contact.
What is the difference between SUS304 and SUS316 for a dish rack?
Both are austenitic stainless steels and both resist rust far better than plated mild steel. SUS316 contains added molybdenum, which significantly improves resistance to chlorides — the salts present in tap water, detergent residue and sea air.
In a normal inland Singapore kitchen, SUS304 (the Cipriana) is entirely adequate. For a kitchen near the coast, or one where the rack rarely dries out, SUS316 (the Colapiatti or the Progettista) is the more durable specification and is less likely to develop rust spotting around welds over time.
How much weight can Excel drawer slides hold?
It depends on the model. The maximum loads are 35 kg for the Mola Fermi, 35 kg for the Kucifer 5.0, 60 kg for the Robusto, and either 30 kg or 60 kg for the Vicenzo Nero depending on which of its six variants is specified.
Specify above your expected load rather than at it. A slide run permanently at its rated maximum will degrade noticeably faster than one with headroom.
What does soft-close actually do?
A soft-close mechanism absorbs the energy in the last few centimetres of travel. Instead of the door or drawer arriving at speed, a damper takes over and brings it to a controlled stop.
The obvious benefit is silence. The less obvious one is lifespan: most of the wear on a cabinet — loosened screws, split carcass edges, cracked door finishes — comes from repeated impact. Removing the impact removes most of that damage, which is why soft-close is standard rather than optional across this range.
How do I choose a lift-up system for an overhead cabinet?
Almost entirely by door weight. Weigh the finished door, including glass and any aluminium frame, then choose the duty that places you inside the range rather than at its limit.
The Costanzo V3.0 offers three duties spanning 1.3 kg to 20 kg — L at 1.3–6.0 kg, H at 2.6–14.8 kg and HD at 4.5–20.0 kg. A stay that is under-specified will drift closed; one that is over-specified will spring open.
Door type matters too. A flat overhead door takes the Costanzo V3.0. A tall door under a low ceiling takes the Biforzo, which folds in half as it lifts. A folding door takes the Parallelzo, which adds an adjustable opening angle and a telescopic rod. All three hold at any position rather than only fully open.
Will a dish rack fit my existing kitchen cabinet?
The cabinet-mounted racks install inside the carcass, so measure the internal cabinet dimensions rather than the door. They are designed for an internal height of roughly 565 mm and a carcass thickness of 16–20 mm, with internal widths running from 450 mm up to 970 mm depending on the size ordered.
If you have no suitable wall cabinet, the ceiling-mounted Nazzaro is the alternative. It requires professional installation to a true ceiling and carries roughly a two-week lead time.
Do you supply interior designers, contractors and carpenters?
Yes. Excel Hardware has supplied Singapore's interior design, renovation and carpentry trade since 1998, alongside direct retail customers. Trade accounts, project pricing and specification support are available.
Specification sheets, installation manuals and test reports — including salt-spray and durability reports where applicable — are published on each product page for submission to clients and main contractors. Contact sales@excelhw.com.sg to open an account or to have a set of cabinet drawings specified.