A client told me my drawer slides were too loud and it made me rethink everything

I finished a big kitchen job last month, and the homeowner pulled me aside. She said, 'Every time I open a drawer, it sounds like a robot fight.' I was using those standard full-extension slides from a big box store. I switched to a soft-close, ball-bearing style on my next project, and the difference is night and day. Has anyone found a good mid-priced brand for these that holds up under heavy use?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.james1mo agoMost Upvoted

Robot fight" is a bit much, right? It's a drawer. I get wanting things nice, but we're talking about a kitchen, not a library. People expect complete silence now from everything. Those basic slides work fine for years, they just make a bit of normal mechanical noise. The whole soft close thing feels like solving a problem that wasn't really a big problem to begin with.

ward.mason1mo ago

I switched to Blum soft-close slides last year and they're still silent. The price jump is worth it for kitchens that get slammed all day.