Drawer Slides-Side-Mount vs. Under Mount

14 years ago

After weeks of lurking, I have finally taken the plunge and am posting a question. I need to decide by the end of the week which sort of drawer slide to use. I am looking for maximum storage capacity and my custom cabinet maker favors side-mounted slides. I have read some pros and cons of each type of slide here but am still not sure what to do. My cabinet maker will use either type.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and opinions!

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Comments (9)

pharaoh
14 years ago
My favorite is the blum undermount selfclose/softclose full extension. Once you live with those ...
colibri5
Original Author
14 years ago
I will get full extension, soft close for sure. Just can't decide on Accuride side-mount or Blum under-mount. Decisions, decisions!
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dickross
14 years ago
blum undermount use 3/8" total side clearance. The slide mechanism is mostly in the 1/2" wasted space under the drawer bottom.
side monted slides use around 1/2" per side or 1" total side clearance. so you loose 5/8" drawer width with side mounted slides.
Side mounted looks stronger, but the standard models have similar rating to the Blum undermount. For some extra money you can get sidemounted slides with a load rating far higher than anything Blum has to offer. If you store concrete blocks or gold bullion in your kitchen drawers they may be worth looking into.

5/8" more or less is probably not going to be noticeable.
colibri5
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the info! Guess the space difference between the two types of slides is negligible as far as space goes. As for my gold bullion...no room in the kitchen for that!
blackchamois
10 years ago
Colibri5 - not sure if you're still out there, but wondering what you decided to go with. I am at the same cross-roads. Can you post a picture of what you did?

Thanks!
colibri5
Original Author
10 years ago
BlackChamois,

Sorry for the delay, I don't use the email account associated with Gardenweb much anymore. Hope I can help you - I ended up using side-mounted drawer slides, the brand I used are Accuride. I'm happy with them, though I have to say that the soft close feature does not always work perfectly. On some of my drawers, I need to give the drawer a nudge to get it to close properly, not a big deal. I will say, though, that my carpenter did say that he thought the Chinese knock-offs really worked better than the Accuride brand. Against his advice, I insisted on Accuride, as my research convinced me they were the best. But, keep in mind that my installation was 4 years ago now.

I am happy that I went with side-mounted slides as maximum depth has made the drawers more useful.

Hope the photos help!
blackchamois
10 years ago
Colibri5 - Thank you. My cabinet maker is coming by tomorrow with some samples of drawers mounted with KV and Accuride. I know that some can be stiff and difficult to open/close. Hopefully one of these will work. Not sure why he doesn't use Blum. Thank you again!
deedles
10 years ago
Blackchamois: Just wondering which slide you decided to go with? My cabinet guy used KV on my bedroom wardrobe drawers and I pretty much hate them like poison. Terrible. Don't glide at all. I wonder if it's his install that is the problem as I've had way crappier glides that worked way better. Heck, my current kitchen drawers have wood runners and they work better than those things.

Anyway, can you tell me what you picked and how you like it?
blackchamois
10 years ago
Deedles - Hi! I actually decided to switch to the Blum undermount glides. My cab maker had done a prototype of a cab box and drawer so I could "test" the side mount glides. We tried two different brands (I can't recalll which) but both were very difficult to open and would not pull shut without SEVERAL pushes.) Let me know if you need addtional info or if I can be of any further help!