soft close drawer slide questions

[Jay Yoder]

My wife and I were discussing replacing the 20" white runner type drawer slides in our kitchen with full extension slides. Naturally this discussion morphed into full extension then to self-closing and soft close full extension. I was looking at the KV brand slides on the wwhardware.com site (www.wwhardware.com/kv-8450-soft-close-full-extension-slides-kv8450fm) and noticed that the soft close slides had the statement "12" slide extends 10-1/2". As I thought about this, the question arose, are these truly full-extension slides? It seems that the rear of the drawer will not come out to the face frame? Is this just something applicable to the KV or is this common to all soft-close slides? We went to the BORG and they had some display models which did extend past and had the soft close feature. Any help and insight is greatly appreciated.

[Sam Babbage]

From memory, as my German bible is at work, there is a minimum length to get true (as opposed to a smaller drawer box) full extension runners. I'm pretty sure Blum 350 soft closes are true full extension, but the same series runner in 250 has an awful short extension. It has to do with the space the soft close occupies and the number of "layers" in the slide.

[Dave Zellers]

No KV.

Blum.

[Sam Murdoch]

There are full extension slides which are truly that and there are full extension +1" slides which are truly that and then there are the 3/4 extension slides which is, I believe, what you describe. I am reasonably certain that KV offers a true full extension side mount slide. Accuride 3732s or 3832s are full extension. I can't say about the soft close. In that regard I only use the Blum full extension undercounts that are soft close Blum Tandems plus Blumotion http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/30/10/.

Depending on which slide you choose you may need to rebuild the drawers. It is not likely that your current KV mounted drawers will accommodate the Blum Tandems, though they might some full extension side mounts. You will need to study the specs.

[Jerry Miner]

We typically use Blum Tandems at work, but I did install the KV full-extension soft-close slides in my own bathroom vanity. The soft-close mechanism takes up some space, which is why the 12" slides only extend 10 1/2". I just checked my vanity. The 20" slides extend 19", so, "full extension" may be a slight exaggeration.

[Justin Ludwig]

As Sam said, check the specs. If you removed the traditional "self-close" white glides, they are usually a 1/2" margin. KV8450s are also 1/2" margin and side mounted; allowing you to use the existing drawer. Quick check is to measure face frame drawer opening and -1 for the overall drawer width. I subtract 1-1/16 for KV/TruTrac guides. The extra 1/32" on each side makes for much smoother operation.

If you need mounting brackets for the KV8450: front bracket is 8404 and back bracket is 8403.

KV8455 is a soft close with 1" overtravel.

If you're going to rebuild the drawer boxes, buy Blum Tandem +Blumotion 563H or KV 9400 In-line (both use same box construction). KV is about $5 cheaper per drawer. You'll be looking at $17-25 per box in hardware.

[John TenEyck]

I have used the KV8455 side mounted slides. They are soft close and have 1" of over travel, as mentioned above. They are very nice if you don't mind using a side mounted slide. For under mounts, the Blum Tandem with BluMotion are arguably the best. The 563/569 Series are very nice full extension slides. They have several locking devices, one which adjusts drawer fronts up/down, left/right, and forward/backwards which just about eliminates the frustration of installing inset drawers. The cheapest place I know of to buy the Blum slides is AH Turf. http://ahturf.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=26941_882_884_274_25244

John

[Jay Yoder]

Thanks for all the responses. I really don't want to rework the drawers if not necessary. Although, for some strange reason, the existing drawers are 20" deep for a 24" base cabinets. If I did rework, I would add the extra 2" min (to get to 22" drawer depth). But honestly, I really would prefer to just swap out the white euro slides for the full extension slides than remake all of the drawers. It seems that maybe we should be looking at the over travel soft close (KV8455) by KV which should allow for pretty darn near full extension. I am trying to keep the budget as low as possible, but still add the features that my wife would like. Is this soft/self-closing feature something that is a WOW factor when trying to sell house?

[Justin Ludwig]

Installing the KV8450 22" on your 20" drawers will bring your drawers all the way out and should hit your budget. There should be plenty of distributors in your area or contact a local cabinet shop to see if they'd order them for you. It will save you even more $$.

[Sam Murdoch]

Is this soft/self-closing feature something that is a WOW factor when trying to sell house?

How excited do you get when you look at a used car that has air bags?

Sorry Jay, but if your kitchen is old enough to have cabinets that used the white euro roller slides there isn't much you can do with it to WOW a prospective home owner. Still such an inexpensive upgrade as swapping out the slides will pay for itself.

[Steve Peterson]

You can add just the soft close part for about $3.50 per drawer. Search for "Indamatic soft close". I did the entire house with them about 2 years ago and so far all are still working. I also added soft close dampers to the upper cabinets. It is so nice to be able to just close the door or drawer and none of them will ever slam shut.

Of course if you want to retrofit to full extension, then you are better off getting everything built in.

Steve

[Charles Coolidge]

Be advised some soft close brackets are not that great. My sister has soft close on all her cabinet doors and drawers, they work awesome. She cooks for a large family and can give them a good fling and they work great. Therefore I had soft close installed in my new kitchen and they don't work anywhere near as good as hers. The drawer soft close are 'okay', my sisters are way better. My cabinet door soft close are pretty much a FAIL. It would take two of them to dampen my cabinet doors. I do have raised panel Hickory so they are heavy but most of the doors bounce on the bumpers even when you close them easily. Sorry I don't know what brand she has specifically but I could probably go over there and find out.

[Jeff Erbele]

Be advised some soft close brackets are not that great. My sister has soft close on all her cabinet doors and drawers, they work awesome. She cooks for a large family and can give them a good fling and they work great. Therefore I had soft close installed in my new kitchen and they don't work anywhere near as good as hers. The drawer soft close are 'okay', my sisters are way better. My cabinet door soft close are pretty much a FAIL. It would take two of them to dampen my cabinet doors. I do have raised panel Hickory so they are heavy but most of the doors bounce on the bumpers even when you close them easily. Sorry I don't know what brand she has specifically but I could probably go over there and find out.

I'm reading some are and yours are not. Its a matter of price and quality.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

We have full extension soft close drawer slides in our kitchen so I know they are available.

[Jay Yoder]

Thanks again for the input. Unfortunately the slides have taken a back door to finishing the gas piping in the house for a week. To clarify, the cabinets are about 8 years old and cherry. I was actually very surprised when I first opened them that they used the white slides. After living here a while I now see that the folks that built the home went for the exterior while going as cheap as possible on everything else. I am stuck with the side mount slides because I do not have the time to remake all the drawers. I have been very happy with the KV slides I have and have had great service from wwhardware.com. Does anyone have experience with the KV8450 or KV8455?