Apexstone Soft Close Hinges for Toy Box, Slow Closing Safety Hinges for Toy Chest, Storage Bench, Wooden Chest & Toy Box, Prevent Finger Pinch, Set of 2

They are not the easiest to install. I can back up the reviews struggling on proper placement. My hinge position was outside the box. I ended up having to notch a channel for the strut body to clear in the open position. The brackets are definitely the weak point. If not aligned properly they will bend. There is some slack in the top 20% (80-100% open). No pressure until a slight drop. They do not hold in the open position, they are not a lifter, they are for slow closure. They have great pressure on the way down though. You can’t force them closed faster. This installation is a very heavy lid (roughly 60lbs) and they work great. I read the reviews and anticipated the drawbacks I mentioned. For the price they actually exceeded my expectations.

Very easy to install and very good results. I used these on a relatively heavy lid (25 lbs) and the lid takes about 15 seconds to close. It closes very softly. I have seen a lot of negative reviews for this product saying they are flimsy and difficult to install. This is not correct. The most important thing to note is to make sure that the struts are vertical when the lid closes, we want the forces to be applied to the strong axis. If you have the struts angled or horizontal like some of the pictures on these reviews then they will likely underperform and break because the forces are being applied along the weak axis. Also, dont attach the struts directly next to the hinges on the lid. Ever tried to open a heavy door by pushing right next to the hinges? Doesn't work well. When attaching the struts, attach to the lid first, then extend the strut fully and mark the location to attach the bottom of the strut about an inch short of the full length of the strut. Last thing...make sure the black casing is up and the smaller, chrome portion is down.

I got these to match a pair of 100N Apextone soft-close struts purchased in 2017. The originals are a bit too slow, but that's because our storage chests have light lids, not because of a shortcoming in the struts. Otherwise they work perfectly and installed easily. Unfortunately the new ones are 150N and are way too strong for our chest lids, so we can't use them. What we really need are 100N strength or lower soft-close struts, preferably 50N (lifting struts won't work four our application), and I can't find them anywhere.

Installed these on a vintage Lane cedar hope chest I refinished... I looked at several reviews before purchasing and almost did not choose these due to people saying the instructions were confusing and that installation was difficult, the durability, etc...(actually I purchased another popular kind that I had to return because they would not install according to the included instructions). I followed the enclosed instruction sheet - I've saw several complaints on this, however the instruction sheet has multiple instructions included on it for their other products which are labeled "lift support gas struts" but these are the "soft close" struts and are listed first on the installation sheet I received (see pic) ... I also noticed people had installed these upside down in some of their reviews which could indicate that the "lift support strut" instructions were followed instead, SO make sure you follow the "SOFT CLOSE" portion of the sheet. Now, millimeters is the standard measurement they used, but inches are also included. Reading the instruction steps were a tad confusing, but for me, the illustration clarified the proper method to use. While the scale is off a bit in their illustration, I was still able to easily understand what to do. Due to this chest having a shelf insert, I had to do a little less than the 5.5 inch measurement for the lid bracket and came just right under the shelf. It lists to measure 9.1 inches from the top/opening of the box down toward the bottom, and 2.8 inches from the back of the box for the bottom bracket attachment (so I measured as close to that as I could, probably not perfect) and just made sure that with the strut extended, it met the open lid in an ok spot for me to mount the top bracket. I used a small level to make sure I had the strut level vertically. I do not have a scale to measure the weight of the lid, but I'd say it's around 10 lbs. It soft closes perfectly.... it may have created a small amount of resistance when opening, but it's not that noticeable of a difference since it was "heavy" anyway...I'm just glad I don't have to worry about smashed fingers now! Hopefully they will hold up well and last!

A video is worth a 100 words on this product. I purchased these struts for an old wooden chest. The lid is nailed/ glued pieces of pine that broke apart partly because it slammed down. After repairing the lid, I thought these soft close struts would reduce wear and tear. It was a partial success, but as illustrated in the accompanying video, the lid slams down from about 30 degrees. This definitely would not be a good choice for a toy chest with a heavy lid. The directions are confusing, but by reviewing the diagrams in the instructions and experimenting before drilling it was not that difficult to figure out the right set up. However, I did end up drilling 2 sets of holes for the first strut because my chest had supports on the underside of the lid and with the suggested bracket placement the lid would not close all the way. In other reviews I was made aware of the cheap hardware issue so I drilled pilot holes and used a Phillips head screwdriver to set screws by hand; no issues with hardware. The connectors are plastic and rotate on a ball at each end. One of the 4 plastic teeth inside one of the connectors broke during installation. It still works, but I have contacted the company’s customer service for a replacement. Overall I feel that this was worth the money, but suspect these struts will not be that durable with heavy use.

Works great for toybox

These Apexstone Soft Close Dampers are great… If you have a lid you don’t want to bang shut or punch fingers these are the ticket!!.. Easy to install with pretty good instructions… Have survived a very hot summer outdoors and still working… Highly recommend..

As stated by other reviews, these have about 30% before the piston actually engages causing the lid the slam down violently to that point. Once it catches to that point the soft close works just fine. To that note however, after a few open and closes, the ball joint L- brackets on both sides have begun to bend and twist inward due to being cheaply made. The lid is no where near outside the stated recommended tolerances for the pistons and installed correctly. I attempted to contact the seller to see if they could send a better bracket to make it right. I received zero response! All and all this product is grossly misrepresented and I would highly recommend you stay away.