No matter how attractive the kitchen cabinetry in a show¬room may look, its appeal will quickly diminish in your home if its hardware is of poor quality. Just as you’d test drive a car before you bought it, test the kitchen cab¬inets in the showroom. Do the drawers open easily and quietly or do they rumble, stick, or tilt down when you open them? Do they make access more difficult by opening only part of the way?
Features of Various Glides for Kitchen Cabinets
The best-quality drawer glides for kitchen cabinets operate on nylon wheels or ball bearings made of polymer or steel. They also have built-in bumpers to cushion the impact of the drawer front closing against the kitchen cabinet. The top-of-the-line glides allow for full extension, although three-quarter extension glides can be a practical alternative. High-quality drawers are self-closing when they’re within about an inch of being closed. Load ratings are also important—not all slides can support the same weight.
How Drawer Glides are Mounted onto Kitchen Cabinets
Drawer glides are side-, bottom-, or corner-mounted. The bottom-mounted glides can be used only on face-frame cabinets. They should include a pair of rollers mounted to the face frame, so that the drawer won’t tip when it’s opened.
The better kitchen cabinet manufacturers now offer a wide choice of drawer glides, as well as hinge types. Side-mount drawer glides with heavy metal tracks housing lubricated rows of steel ball bearings provide exceptional smoothness, longevity, and weight capacity. Some drawer glides are also available with a polymer ball bearing that will never rust or lose smoothness. Full extension drawer glides are also available, making it easy to extend a drawer its full length for maximum access and easy cleaning.
There are several excellent drawer glides based on a nylon roller and epoxy-coated steel track. Novel features include detents to stop the drawer at various positions, as well as feather-touch closing with shock absorption.
Another consideration is the load-bearing amount. Some cheaper glides can only handle 50 pounds or less. For roll-out shelves loaded with heavy cookware, these may fail to provide the expected strength and smoothness of operation over extended periods of time. For extra weight capacity, drawer glides are available for weights in excess of 100 pounds, similar to those used on filing cabinet drawers.
