Need advice on soft-close, concealed drawer slides

[Cary Swoveland]

I am planning a project for which I would like to use soft-close, concealed drawer glides. These are ones that allow you to close drawers with a hip-check. When about 1.5" from the closed position, the drawer motion decellerates rapidly, almost to a stop, and then the drawer seems to be gently and noiselessly pulled to its fully closed position.

Blum makes this type of slide (maybe they invented it), using its patented Blumotion pistons. The parts that attach to the drawer go under the drawer bottom, one on each side. The drawer front and sides extend far enough below the drawer bottom to conceal the slides. They can be used for either face-frame and frameless construction.

The Blum slides are quite expensive, but no doubt are very good. I came accross another brand, "SV", that looks similar, but I know nothing about it. There are some no-name slides of this type on eBay.

I'd be interest in the experience others have had with this type of slide, including brands, sources, installation, reliability, etc.

Cary

[Roger Ronas]

Can't comment on any brand other than Blum, but I love the Blums.
Yes they are expensive but the best deals I've seen on them is at AHTurf.
A&H Turf & Specialties (http://www.ahturf.com/)

HTH

Roger

[terry hansen]

I'll second the Blums and also A&H - they are the least expensive by far and I've gotten great service (ship time and items in stock). You won't regret the extra $$ for the Blums

[SCOTT ANDREWS]

Accuride has one very close to the Blums called the Eclipse.Self closing,shock absorbing.Check out Rocklers website.

[Jamie Buxton]

Blum invented the undermount wraparound slide, and their Tandem slides are still the market leader. The hydraulic shock absorber they call Blumotion is now no longer an add-on accessory, but an integrated feature. There are now quite a few competitors -- Accuride Eclipse, Hettich Quadro, Mepla NT, and KV 9400. I might buy no-name slides of the side-mount ball-bearing kind, but I would buy name-brand equivalents to the Tandem. There are too many tricky parts in them to trust a no-name. The Blum is my usual cabinet slide. I've used the Hettich, and it is very nearly equivalent. The Eclipse is interesting because it is available in more lengths than the Tandem, but I don't have experience with them.

[julie Graf]

i used the blum version - worked flawlessly and the installation was fairly easy. once you deciphered the instructions, it was really easy to do.

i really like the way these work, even though they are expensive. not sure about the other brands.

[Pete Brown]

I'd be interest in the experience others have had with this type of slide, including brands, sources, installation, reliability, etc.

Cary

I've been using the Blum BluMotion slides on my kitchen project. They work extremely well. All my drawers are inset into what effectively turns out to be frameless cabinets (I have 2" maple frame attached on edge to the plywood)

I've found that, like many other things, you get what you pay for, so I didn't even bother with the cheap slides. The blum slides are pretty forgiving and include in/out adjustments.

I contracted out all the drawer boxes for my kitchen cabinet project(www.ccfdrawers.com (http://www.ccfdrawers.com)) and purchased the slides from them at the same time. Their prices were excellent. They build the drawer to spec, and handle the notch and bore on the back. If you're building your own drawer boxes, woodworkers hardware seemed to have pretty good prices on the Blum slides.

Hope that helps.

Pete

PS. I use both the 562H and 568H slides, and get good weight options and additional lengths. They both have identical installation.

[Greg Funk]

I've used the Blum slides and they are great. Richelieu carries them locally.

Greg

[keith ouellette]

Our kitchen has soft close drawers and the are still great after three years. I belive they are accuride.

[Dixon Peer]

I've used the Accuride soft close and they do the job as well as you could want. The Blums too are great slides. I would decide between the two on the basis of price alone as I think they work equally well.

[Dave Sabo]

Jamie - are you certain Blum invented the undermount wraparound slide???? The Tandem wasn't introduced until around 1990. Hettich's Quadro was shipping mid 80's best I can remember. They were the first to market with the soft close feature the OP asks about, and I'll grant they are the market leader in terms of sales.