Buying Guide for Choosing the Right Drawer Slides
In a house, it’s essential to have the right drawer slides, as these are among the most vital parts of your house hardware, and offer utility in all spaces. However, when the slides become damaged, the pull-outs and drawers don’t work well and can eventually frustrate you. Replacement of drawer slides can be either cheap or simple or could bear more costs and time. It all depends on the type of drawer slide you’ve got.
What type of drawer you’ve selected will determine whether you’ll need to bear years of drawer frustrations or you’ll be able to do the drawer tasks seamlessly. Most drawer slides are available in two arrangements, under mount and side mount. Evaluating the load capacity required would also be among the key factors in selecting the most suitable drawer slide.
Other vital factors for consideration also include the locking system type, the drawer disconnects method that you prefer, and whether you want any other special features or not. With a feature-rich good slide drawer, you can save yourself from years of inconvenience.
But we need to know what a good drawer slide is and how to choose drawer slides that are required? With the information stated below, you’ll be easily able to choose the slide, according to the appropriate requirement.
Extensions and Lengths
When looking at how to choose drawer slides, you must know that drawer slides are available in different lengths, ranging from 6 inches to 60 inches. By length, we mean total slide assembly length, when it is collapsed in a close position.
By travel or extension of a slide, we mean how far the slide can move or extend. In a simple drawer slide, you get only two slide members, an outer and an inner typically provides ퟀ� of travel. It means that moving drawer members can travel at 75% length of the slide. These slides can be seen commonly in residential use, like kitchen cabinets, or office cabinets, where full direct access to drawer contents isn’t required.
Two components are there with three-member slides, the intermediate members and the drawer. In combination, such members extend to either the total (100%) drawer slide length assembly or a lot more beyond it. Those exceeding length are known as “over-travel” drawer slides as they travel up to 100% assembly of drawer slide. Total extension slides would be ideal if you require simple access to the contents just like the utensil drawers in the kitchen and POS trays.
Slide Loading Capacities
In this regard, you need to know the weight that your application will bear on use. Drawer slides are generally categorized into three weight ranges: medium, heavy-duty, and light. A light-duty drawer slide has a load capacity of 75 lbs. and more. Light-duty drawer slide applications generally include office and kitchen drawer slides. A medium-weight drawer slide has a loading capacity of up to 100 to 150 lbs. Medium duty applications also include office furniture and large kitchen drawers. Load capacities for the heavy-duty slide drawers are around 600 to 1,300 lbs. or more. Some applications of heavy-duty slides include pulling trays from recreational or emergency vehicles, service/utility trucks, ATM machines, etc.
Drawer Detents and Locks
Would you like the drawer to get secured in a suitable position? In such a case, it would be better for the drawer to have a locking or detent feature. Two detents are available: detent out and detent in. A good buy for such slides would be the Accuride 9308e Heavy Duty Full Extension Slide.
A detent-in sliding drawer has engagement features on drawer member with a rubber-type molding fixed at rear end cabinet member. Such two features are ideal for frictionally holding a closed slide drawer in such a position, stopping the slide drawer from sliding open. Also, you can fix detent with the pull-on drawer while opening.
The detent-out drawer slide can also include collaborating components that can hold slide in a stretched position, until you’re able to withdraw the slide drawer or only the working platform, like the keyboard tray. The deactivating detent-out type slide also needs an easy “bump” of the protracted unit for releasing features before you push these back within the cabinet.
Mounting Method
Three basic slide types are available for metal drawers: under-mount, side mount, and center mount. The space available between the cabinet opening and the drawer box can impact your selection. For replacement of the current slides, it’s best to choose the type you’ve already got, as the drawer is meant for certain clearances for that slide type. When you’re building a new one, you’ve got the freedom of selecting the one according to your requirements.
Side Mount
The side mount drawer slides the mount to the drawer box side. These can be seen commonly in toolboxes and utility cabinets. The side-mount slides can be available in Euro versions/epoxy and ball-bearing ones with nylon roller riding in track. Ball-bearing types also provide benefits of high load capacities, smooth operations, and full-extension options. The best purchase for a side-mounted drawer would be the 3 section ball-bearing drawer slide.
Under Mount
With under-mount drawer slides, you get two main benefits that are not possible with the side mount: They’re concealed beneath the drawer and as they don’t need much space for clearance, they also get more storage area within the drawer.
Center Mount Drawers
These are older drawer types that are still used nowadays, and they’re although more often sold like older cabinets and replacements. Similar to under-mounted slides, they’re totally concealed but rather than being mounted under both the drawer sides, a single slide can run down in middle.
Look for Additional Features of Slide Drawers
Additionally, slides are available with features to make the closing and opening of a drawer convenient. These can include:
∙ Self-close
∙ Touch-Release
∙ Easy-Close
A simple to close slide also involves the closing device, which is equipped with damping cooperating springs and damping cylinder for engaging with drawer members and assists final inches in the drawer slide closing action. With easy or soft-close drawer slides you get assured that the sliding drawer will easily close in a smooth manner.
With a touch release slide, you get a simple drawer opening mechanism, without the requirement of pulling the drawer. Touch release activation slide is possible by pressing against drawer front, which releases spring-activated device to the drawer out of the cabinet in approx. 2 in.
Measurements of Slides
The most vital quality to look for when you’re in doubt about “how to choose drawer slides” should be its shape and size. Drawer slides are measured by calculating their length, height, and depth.
∙ The most vital measurement to look for is the depth of the drawer slide. Too much thick size or thin size drawer slides prevent the slide from properly working. It’s best to look for a drawer slide which is relatively thin, as you can insert a shim or thin material between the cabinet walls and slides for improvising the left-out space.
∙ The drawer’s length should also be equally considered while buying a new drawer. A sliding drawer which is too short or long not only prevents the drawer from closing and opening properly but also puts more stress on the drawer slides. It’s important to make use of longest possible slide for the project, without exceeding drawer depth.
∙ The Drawer slide Height is generally a preventive factor as it’s not possible to install a sliding drawer taller than the pull-out or the drawer. It is a cause of concern for thin mounts. The conventional silverware drawer might not seem tall to fit in a heavy-duty cabinet sliding drawer. When you’re mounting or planning pull-outs or thin drawers with short height mounting space, you must ensure that you’re choosing the sliding drawer of the appropriate height.
With these buying tips, you’ll definitely know how to choose drawer slides that are intended for the drawer project! The brief guide sheds light on what makes an ideal drawer slide and how you can get the one that serves well according to your requirements.