Which fitting to use on a press-to-open cabinet is one of the most confused choices in the trade. Both options let you press a door open — but they fail in completely different ways.
Magnetic catch: cheap, simple, but alignment-sensitive
A magnet holds a steel plate. The door stays shut on magnetic pull, and you open it by pulling.
The advantages are real: simple, low cost, almost nothing to adjust.
The problems:
- Pull strength decays. After long exposure to heat or moisture, the magnet weakens and the door starts opening by itself.
- It does not push the door open. A magnetic catch keeps a door shut; it does not push it out. What actually pushes is a spring-loaded push catch — not a plain magnet.
- It needs consistent gaps. If the door-to-carcass gap varies, the pull varies with it.
A large share of enquiries are this exact confusion: the customer says "magnetic" but means "pops open when pressed".
Rebounder: press and it opens, by mechanism
A rebounder is a spring plus a latch. Press once to release, the door is pushed out far enough for fingers; press or push back to latch again.
Its advantages:
- It genuinely pushes the door out — which is the whole point of a handleless design.
- No magnetic decay. Failure, when it comes, is mechanism wear — gradual rather than sudden.
- The feel is designable — how far it pushes out is set by the mechanism's travel.
The cost is a more complex part at a higher price — and it has to be paired with a damper: the rebounder opens the door, the damper takes the last part of the closing.
The short version
- Door must stay shut, opened by hand → magnetic catch (cost-led)
- Door must pop open when pressed → rebounder
- Pop open and close slowly and quietly → rebounder + damper, the standard handleless pairing
The one thing most often missed
The two parts have different failure yardsticks.
Magnetic catches fail with time (decay). Rebounders fail with cycles (wear). So in a high-use location — a kitchen base unit, say — ask your supplier about cycle count, not just "how many years".
Our advice: give the expected cycle count together with the door weight. That is what lets a supplier choose the right grade, and decide whether a damper is needed.