What happened to the Bertby?

[Morgbug]

So I was finally to the point of revving up to pick up three Bertby shelves to display a bunch of my collection in.  This is a little more difficult for me than many of you since the nearest Ikea is seven hours away in Minneapolis and Canadian stores wouldn't ship Bertby's (or Detolfs for that matter) presumably because the glass would break in transit. 

I was planning on heading to Minneapolis this past weekend and wanted to verify that the store had stock so I went online to check.  Couldn't find the damn things anywhere and started asking a few people.  DSJ found this:

IKEA wants all customers who bought BERTBY glass-door wall cabinet from 2002 until today to contact IKEA.

Screws of the wrong size have been delivered with some of the BERTBY glass-door wall cabinets. The screws are used to attach the safety bracket to the top of the cabinet. The use of wrong screws may cause the safety bracket not to fulfil its purpose, which might result in that the cabinet is not properly secured to the wall.

All concerned customers should contact IKEA or visit their local store to receive screws of the right size and an instruction for how to replace the screws in a safe way.

Please note that many BERTBY glass-door wall cabinets have been delivered with the right type of screw. There is nothing wrong with the cabinet in itself, so there is no need to return the cabinet to IKEA.

At IKEA we are doing our utmost to secure the quality and safety of our products. To avoid future incidents we are now re-evaluating our safety and quality routines.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

So, does anyone know if or can they find out if Ikea intends to bring this back once the problem is resolved or is the Bertby dead forever?  And if so, is there a replacement for it in the offing.  And failing that does anyone have a good set of dimensions because I'll just build the damn things myself if I have to.

[Phrubruh]

I have one of those cases. Great case. I wish I had another but Ikea changed the coloring so it will never match with what I have.

[Jesse James]

Getting to Ikea's a bitch for me so I rarely do, but I really enjoyed when I was in one...  Could've plunked down a TON of cash in that place.  Loved the cases I saw.  I saw so much there though, I'd probably go nuts figuring out which cases I wanted to buy to display everything in.

[Morgbug]

So obviously no one really cares about this aside from me and that's ok.  But does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative that's available at Ikea or elsewhere? 

Or can someone measure their Bertby and give me the precise dimensions of the unit, the door, etc.?  Ideally I'm looking for:
Cabinet depth
Cabinet width
Cabinet height
Door width
Door height
Dimensions of glass in the door
Location of hinges
Shelf width
Shelf depth

Pictures would be great too.  Basically if Ikea doesn't want to sell it I'll build the damn things myself. 

[JesseVader08]

I found their assembly instructions, but it's little help without actual dimensions.

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/assembly/B/B38047210.pdf

I recently bought a couple Besta units and added some more shelves for a number of my smaller pieces.  But the Besta doesn't use glass shelves like the Bertby does.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20134046

[Morgbug]

No door either.  I think you could get doors for the Billy cabinet but it had wood shelves too.  Not a huge deal to get glass shelves cut really, so that can be swapped out in any of them but I'd like to have a cabinet with a door and if I build it myself I'd probably see about a lock as well.  But to build it, I'd like the approximate dimensions.  And thanks for the link to the assembly instructions, it may be useful.

[MikeT]

Hey Morgbug, have you seen these?

"Akurum"     http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19811863

"Billy Kiaby"  http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70166723

"Billy Nyckelby" http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S69838049 


Some kinda cool alternatives, since the Bertby has apparently been wiped out of existence.

[Morgbug]

Mike,
Thanks for the links.  I was contemplating a Billy with a glass door and the last one looks like a decent option, especially if I opted to replace the standard shelves with glass ones.  The only problem to me is that the Billy is quite narrow at just under 16". 

Jesse linked the Besta that has a better width but seemingly no glass door.  And both of those options lack the "class" of the Bertby, if you know what I mean. 

[MikeT]

No prob!

And both of those options lack the "class" of the Bertby, if you know what I mean. 

Yeah, the Bertby has so much more style. Dunno why Ikea stopped making it. Maybe the recall gave it a bad buzz.

[Morgbug]

I've been looking to see if there were any lawsuits (presumably in the US though I admit I don't know how common that kind of litigation is elsewhere) but haven't found any indications.  It sure seems like the problem existed for a while. 

I did stumble across a blog that indicated that if something was successful, sold well and well liked at Ikea it almost assuredly meant it would be discontinued and they mentioned the Bertby as another example of the tall foreheads inability to act rationally. 

I've got other things going on at the moment in the basement that are priorities so I've got a little time to see if they bring back the Bertby, otherwise I guess I will make my own versions that mirror their style.  From what I know about them it's likely mine would be sturdier anyway but it provides a really nice model so long as I can score the dimensions. 

The biggest hassle will be drilling the holes along the side walls without a drill press.  I could always just go through the boards and then cover the sides with veneer but I'd rather not do that.