Ikea Pax / Chipboard quality is not very good

It is no news that one is not necessarily enthusiastic about the 1 mtr. Pax. This has been discussed in various places on the Internet. The quality has definitely deteriorated in the last 5 years. As the owner of a Pax bought about 5 years ago, this three-piece set has already endured two moves without complaint. Due to the good experience, two more 0.50 and two 1 mtr. Pax were purchased the week before last. Unfortunately, I had not read any current news about Pax beforehand, otherwise I would have reconsidered the purchase.
Result: What a difference compared to earlier! The fronts (Birkeland) are still good, but the corps leave much to be desired:
The reasons: the bottom boards are not load-bearing. At the slightest, most careful load on the foot adjustment screws, the board immediately cracks at the eccentric connectors. By the way, this is not properly indicated in the instructions! However, it should be clear to anyone knowledgeable. The assembly instructions make it look as if the screws can be properly adjusted. But the weight rests entirely on the side panels. It is therefore only about one or two millimeters. Another reason for the design flaw:
The quality of the chipboards is now borderline. Anyone who compares a normal chipboard from retail with Ikea's sees too little chip, a lot of air and glue. In addition, the 1 mtr. bottom boards with 18 mm thickness are clearly too thin. In an unladen state, they already sag. The long side walls only get support when the bottom boards are inserted. But what if you want to mount a clothes rail? Without board connector screws, stability is out of the question when several cabinets are lined up. You notice this when they are finely aligned side by side. The side walls wobble in rhythm with the doors. Only with connector screws does some sort of stability appear, and you can properly adjust the doors. By the way, the fittings of the doors are top-notch!
The foil coating of the chipboards is so thin and sensitive that even with obviously careful assembly on carpet, damage becomes visible very quickly.
The 1 mtr. Pax back panel is a double of the 50 cm one fixed with adhesive tape. Incredibly thin and primitive.
My question: must it be like this? Cheaper and cheaper, more and more junk, supposedly to be inexpensive.
Wouldn’t it be a better way to calculate a few euros more and ensure an acceptable standard? That was my last Pax for the time being!

Always the same discussion. Apart from the fact that I definitely do not share your regrettable experience with PAX, we live in a "stinginess is cool" society with an "everything as cheap as possible" mentality. If IKEA takes the step toward "more quality for more money," that would certainly be economic suicide. Go to POCO or ROLLER, there you can buy real junk.

It is about a maximum of 1.00 - 1.50 euros material value for Ikea per 1x 0.58 bottom board, in order to produce a sufficiently good quality. This is the information from an experienced expert. There is no need to use Roller or other junk as a comparison, which does not play a role here anyway, as I am comparing Pax (old) with Pax (new). Why don’t you mention the even cheaper solution: self-construction from orange crates or the handle from bulky waste? Do you think Ikea gives anything away and is THE furniture benefactor of this so terribly “stinginess is cool” world?
2. Again: I complain about the significantly poorer quality of the new Pax compared to my five-year-old cabinets. I would be willing to pay ten euros per cabinet or even the usual inflation adjustment more for that. Therefore, I do not find your contribution constructive.

It is about a maximum of 1.00 - 1.50 euros material value for Ikea per 1x 0.58 bottom board to produce a more than sufficient quality. This is the information from an experienced expert. There is no need to bring in Roller or other junk as a comparison, which plays no role here anyway, since I compare Pax (old) with Pax (new). Why don’t you mention the even cheaper solution: self-construction from orange crates or the handle from bulky waste? Do you think Ikea gives anything away and is THE furniture benefactor of this so terribly "stinginess is cool" world? 2. Again: I complain about the noticeably worse quality of the new Pax compared to my five-year-old cabinets. I would be willing to pay ten euros per cabinet or even the usual inflation adjustment more for that. That’s why I don’t find your post helpful.

And you talk about things you have no idea about... IF the material value is as you stated (and I don’t believe that, aside from the fact that the material value is NOT the only problem), then how many corps produced 100,000 times should be calculated and how many of those would IKEA have to sell?

Just try to look beyond the horizon. Buy your cabinets somewhere else if everything is so bad and fine.

By the way, in our house with about 400 corps sold per week in the last 3/4 year, there were exactly 0 (!) complaints. I think that is significant and decisive enough.

Hello Napp, I can only agree with Ikeaner, I don’t understand the sentence, the floorboards are not load-bearing because underneath the floor there is still the base. The reason the coating of the parts is more sensitive than with the old Pax cabinets is because the new coating is made of paper and no longer of melamine foil. This was done not for cost reasons but for environmental protection reasons. That you should use the cardboard as an underlay and not a carpet is stated in the assembly instructions, because, for example, small stones and other things can be found in the carpet. The cabinet also gets the proper stability because you should anchor it to the wall so that it cannot tip forward. This is also stated in the assembly instructions. The feet are only for leveling; for the 1-2mm you should place something underneath. If you ever want to ask a "professional," ask me; we produce Pax, Faktum, and Metod in our company and not just a few but really a lot. One more tip to prevent the shelves from sagging: simply use one more. Regards, Mr. Rossi

The problem is that the floor breaks when the wardrobe stands on the feet. The assembly instructions do not indicate that the side walls should be underpinned in the case of larger floor unevenness. The wall fastening is only mentioned in the assembly instructions as a safeguard against possible tipping. In addition, IKEA also shows the possibility of building a walk-in closet with PAX by using PAX as a room divider. In this case, wall fastening is not possible.