Today, nearly every piece of residential and commercial furniture is equipped with specialized hardware that allows drawers to extend and retract smoothly. However, there is a stark difference in quality between cheaply manufactured drawer slides and those made from the finest materials and to high precision standards. The simple telescoping slide is nothing new and has been around for over a century.
However, advances in machining, ball bearing technology, lubricants, and other areas have allowed drawer slide manufacturers to create slides that are perfect for modern furniture. Sleek, quiet, and requiring little effort, these slides are the future of furniture design.
Spending a little more money on quality drawer slides will pay off over time in the long run. Think about every time you open your kitchen drawer to get out some dishes. Every time you try to get a tool out of your workshop pantry. Low-grade slides create more friction, making it harder to pull and noisier. They also don’t come with features that make your life easier, like soft close. So every time you push the drawer back, it slams against the frame with a deafening thump. But before we explain the benefits of quality drawer slides in more detail, let’s first understand what these things are and why you need them in the first place.
Why do you need drawer slides?
Before standardized drawer hardware, cabinet makers would often install proprietary slides on the sides of each drawer. These take up more man-hours and are more difficult to replace when something breaks, costing you more money. Some cheaper cabinets don’t have any hardware at all, so the drawers sit directly on top of the cabinet frame.
Not having a drawer slide can cause problems. Because wood expands and flexes depending on the climate. So unless the dimensions are perfect, the drawer will get stuck when it’s wet. Or, you can go with loose tolerances and have the drawer wobble all over the place, and it’ll pop out if you tilt the cabinet even a little bit.
Once slides (also called runners) became standardized as mass production became available, the price dropped and everyone wanted one. Almost all slides follow the same basic principle – you have a set of rails that mount to the drawer body or cabinet frame, which has a telescoping rod mounted inside that attaches to the actual drawer. There’s also a slide stop that keeps the drawer from sliding out and falling out. Cheaper slides use plastic rollers, while higher quality slides rated for heavier loads often use ball bearings nested in a bed of grease.
The Importance of Good Drawer Slides
Now that you understand why drawer slides are necessary for the smooth operation of your cabinets, let’s talk about the difference a good one can make. When you pull or push a drawer, the telescoping parts within the slide are constantly rubbing against each other. Depending on the manufacturer’s tolerances and the materials used, it can be as soft as a breeze or harder than gravel in a cement mixer. If you’ve ever found yourself startled by the sound of a squeaking door hinge during a nap, you know what we’re talking about.
Good slides are also made with the user’s convenience in mind. Not everyone is an expert carpenter, but it’s easy to install a well-designed drawer slide using the most basic of tools as per the instructions in the manual. With cheaper options, you won’t have to spend extra money to hire someone to do the job for you if you’re not that lucky, thus negating your savings in the process.
Another thing worth noting is that everyone has different applications and requirements. Some may need a light-duty nightstand drawer to store some reading glasses and books, others may need a heavy-duty drawer to store workshop tools. You can find cheap slides rated for high loads, but they won’t be able to sustain that strength over the hundreds of cycles you’d expect in a busy workshop. They’ll also use lower quality steel, which makes them more susceptible to corrosion, especially if you live in a slightly damp area (or if your cabinet is in a basement）
What will it be used for?
The first is the load rating, or how much weight you can put on the slide. The heavier you go, the wider and thicker the slide will have to be. This means you’ll have to increase the clearance between the drawer and the cabinet frame, reducing the drawer’s internal volume slightly. Typically, a half-inch clearance is sufficient for most slides rated up to 30kg. Note that the load rating isn’t valid unless the slide can also handle that weight when fully extended. This is another area where investing in a quality slide will pay off in the long run
Where will you put it?
If you want a slide for a bookshelf, you probably don’t need a very high load rating. However, you will want a fully extending drawer, which means the drawer can be pulled out completely. Cheaper slides only partially extend, so the last 15% to 20% of the space is hidden under the table, where you can hide it. You don’t have to reach down to get to anything that’s there. For the same reason, kitchen cabinets also come with full extension slides, so you can easily access cookware without it getting stuck behind the drawer.
Our YAOSHUN 45mm Soft Close Drawer Slides fully extend and are a great choice for kitchen cabinets and bookshelves. The soft close system gently retracts the drawer in the last few inches of its travel, protecting your utensils. Because we use best-in-class ball bearings and hydraulic dampers, our slides are also some of the quietest in the entire industry
Do you want maximum convenience?
Features like soft close and push to open can significantly enhance your experience. They are great when you’re already holding something and can’t grab the handle to pull the drawer out like you would in the kitchen. Modern kitchen cabinets are also designed to be very sleek and minimalist. So if you don’t want to ruin the look by having handles sticking out of every drawer, push to open slides are your best friend.
Soft close is another lifesaver, using a combination of springs and hydraulic dampers to slow down the speed at which the drawer approaches the fully retracted position. This prevents the back from slamming hard against the cabinet frame if you accidentally apply too much force. It’s also a very elegant way to close a drawer, as you only need to tap the panel gently and the drawer will close automatically.
Easy to Install and Remove
A good drawer slide only requires a few basic tools and a few minutes of your time to install. Removing a drawer should be easier so you can easily check everything and add/remove things as needed. Our bottom-mount slides excel in this regard because you can simply reach to the bottom and pull a pair of plastic tabs to remove the entire drawer from the rail.
What we recommend
Ultimately, you should buy the slides that best suit your needs, which may be different from those of most people. We make recommendations for you, and you make your choice based on your budget and where you’ll be installing the slides. Is it a workshop? Or maybe you want drawer slides for your kitchen cabinets? It could be that you’re building a bookcase and want a couple of inexpensive low-profile slides. In this case, you should contact us, as we offer a wide range of slides that meet German quality standards in every category.
Our SGS qualification means that everything you get from YAOSHUN has been proven to work under the most stressful conditions. Our slides will continue to perform – whether they’re enjoying a comfortable living indoors, or exposed to the elements in an outdoor workspace. If all this knowledge about drawer slides inspires you to buy a set for your home or studio, feel free to contact us. We cater to cabinet makers, professionals, and manufacturers for bulk orders.
