As to the "extra effort", with a good name glide (like Blumotion), there's not that much extra.certainly not enough to bother someone w/arthritis. I like the fact that drawers cannot be slammed and that contents don't shift when the drawer is closed. Often, most of the "extra" $$$ is for the full-extension with some added cost for the "soft-close" feature.but that's not always the case.Īre they worth $700? To me, I think so, at least for the drawers. For me, it means no more knuckle-scraping when I need something from the back of a shallow drawer! These are the glides that allow the drawer to be pulled out completely (the back of the drawer clears the front of the cabinet).not 3/4 of the way. What is "required", at least IMHO, is full-extension glides. Soft-close is a "nice to have", not "required". There's at least one other that gets good reviews for less money, but I forget the name. They shouldn't break, however! A favorite brand here is Blum, and we've had some very disappointed people who were told that their closers were "just like Blum". Soft closers, at least good ones, are pretty pricey. They still need a good pat, however, to engage, and will otherwise leave your cabinets open. Soft close on cabinets however is the bestest thing ever, because those can bang, especially with Euro hinges. OTOH, if you don't give it enough of a pat to get it going, it'll still stay open, or even close up to the mechanism without enough oomph to engage the closer. Also, you can just give a pat, or a bump with your hip, and the drawer closes, with the soft close mechanism slowing it down at the end and shutting it well. What soft close does, however, is prevent rebound, which is an unintended consequence of good glides. glide and shouldn't bang unintentionally, though soft close does keep the contents from rattling. When they're first installed they take a tug, but that wears in, and can also be adjusted.įor us, it's not a matter of slamming or not. High quality glides are worth it, whether or not they're soft close. There is some "self closing" hardware out there that is definitely not "SOFT" close there was a loud slam at the close and it was even more difficult to open. Manufacturers use the term "self close" and "soft close" interchangeably. If you get soft close, make sure your cabinet maker is using Blum, they were the least objectionable ones I've tried. I will concede that they are are becoming the norm-and are probably expected in high end kitchens-so that is a consideration for resale. If you've never cursed the slamming of drawers/cabinets and have never pined for soft close drawers, you'll never know what you're missing and you'll have $700 to spend on something else. (If this changes once I'm using, I will update this post.) The drawers aren't yet majorlyloaded up with all our junk-which may make a difference-but so far you just open and close them-and they stay closed-just like the undermount non soft close hardware that were on our previous partial overlay drawers. (Are you doing inset?) I was warned with the inset cabinets that we have that using the undermount (but not self close undermount) that the drawers might drift out/not stay in well. I'm also an old house lover/owner who put cupboard latches in her kitchen (despite aging in place concerns!), so anything so obviously modern as self closing drawers just don't feel right to me.Īnd, you CAN get undermount non soft close slides/glides for your cabinet boxes, I'm not sure what your cabinet maker is talking about. They require more of a pull to open initially (which can be an issue for arthritis and/or carpal tunnel sufferers and/or someone planning to "age in place") but mostly I hate the creepy closing on its own. I do like the fact that they don't show and the beauty of the drawer is not distracted from, but are they really worth the additional $700.00. I know a lot of people on this forum swear by these drawer slides. I have been decisive and definitive for what I want for my kitchen so far, but I really haven't been able to make a decision about this. He says everyone wants the undermount, but he is not sure that they really aren't worth the extra money. He says that these new undermount slides have a plastic piece that sometimes breaks. We had our previous kitchen for 25 years and never had one problem with the side slides. He says he now builds his drawers differently than he used to. We had our previous kitchen cabinets built by him and we had the white metal slides on the sides of the drawers. He gave us a price of an additional $700.00 for the soft close slides? I saw them in his showroom and they seem okay. We have begun the process of remodeling our kitchen.
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