Drawer Glides: Blum vs. Hettich (worth the upcharge for Blum?)
Carrie B
8 years ago
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Carrie B
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Blum drawer glides just installed--hate them!!
Comments (46)This thread is old, but I found it when googling custom cabinet BLUM drawer. FYI for anyone else wondering about this: All Blum Glides are ORANGE - it is actually the lock that is orange, not the glide itself. You CANNOT just install Blumotion bottom-mount soft-close glides onto any drawer box - the bottom / back of the box must be CUSTOM notched to fit the glide! EVERY SINGLE variety of glide on the market requires DIFFERENT notches to fit the glide! This includes different styles of Blum as well as the cheaper (of which that green glide is one) glides. Custom wood drawer boxes notched for Blum soft-close undermount Blumotion glides will cost AT LEAST $100 a piece - and that is for small, shallow drawers! The glides themselves are not very expensive, but unless you have a well-equipped woodwork shop do not even bother trying to DIY these! If you do decide to get custom Blum drawers, make sure the cabinet maker NORMALLY uses BLUM, and preferably ONLY Blum! I'm just trying to find 12" deep Blum drawers made of solid wood with 1/2" thick bottoms for a shallow dish cabinet, and having trouble finding 3 drawers for less than $400 - and I'll be building the actual cabinet to fit them! I'm almost considering buying Ikea, using the drawer as a template, ripping out the glides and making my own out of wood. For some reason the Ikea entire cabinet is less than just a drawer!...See MoreSoft-close side-mount drawer glides? Or stick with Blum?
Comments (19)ash5181 - We bought several different slides and tested them on drawers. These were the best of what we could find (either online or in big box stores). They were a bit stiff at first, but repeated use has mellowed the resistance from the soft-close mechanism. I'm really glad we installed soft close, but I wish we had researched more before building the drawers. Turns out, undermount slides require a higher mount for the drawer base (to provide room/mounting surface for the Blum slides) - and DH was NOT going to rebuild or start again. A few slides are giving us trouble, but that could be installation error, as they are tricky to shim/balance. We learned a lot, and will be uber-prepared for the next kitchen :)...See MoreBlum Tandembox vs. wood drawers
Comments (8)I might actually be able to help with this one! I have both - at least I think I have the Blum Tandembox. They have so many types with similar names that I'm not totally sure. I have some drawers that are wider than 36" and my cabinet maker insisted that I use the Tandembox for those because they are stronger (he also used the 150 lb slides for these large drawers). Ditto for my pantry roll-outs as they are 42" wide, although they look a little different so might not be tandembox. I didn't care all that much one way or the other, but I did wonder about resale value as others have, too. I know the Tandembox are considered an upgrade, but not to those not in the know. My cabinet maker loves them and has them in his kitchen. He showed me how the drawer fronts are adjustable with these drawers vs. screwed in on the dovetail wood boxes. He did not charge me more for tandembox, but I only have 2 tandembox drawers less than 36" wide where I could have gone wood anyway. I'm not sure if there would have been an upcharge if I had done ALL of my drawers in tandembox. Now that I have used both, there isn't a real driving reason for me personally to use one or the other. I don't think the sides are any thinner, so they aren't any bigger (if they are, it's VERY minimal and my kitchen is small so every inch definitely counts for me!). They are slightly less noisy, but this might depend on how much weight is in the drawer. They don't pull out quite as far, about 1/2 inch less (both of my types are full extension). None of these small differences makes a hill of beans difference to me. There are some differences that do matter to me, however. The tandembox are easier to clean because they have a small curve in the metal side where it meets the bottom - the crumbs don't get stuck in the corner. Also, my tandembox bottoms are melamine which is a little easier to clean than the wood bottoms. The tandembox accessories are very nice (called orga-line, I believe), but also very expensive. I didn't want to spend that kind of money to organize my drawers (the cheapest website I found for these accessories was ahturf.com - the website is hard to navigate and I haven't ordered anything from them, but the prices are good). I never found out if the Ikea organizers would work in the tandembox drawers - do you know? And while the organizers are nice, they only come in limited sizes. I wanted to use the brass channel type organizers from Lee Valley to totally customize my dividers, but they only work in wood drawers. So, the bottom line is I prefer the tandembox drawers for food storage and wood drawers where I wanted to use the Lee Valley custom organizers. For other drawers, I don't have an opinion. Here's some pics, although I don't know how helpful they are. There's a few more in photobucket if you click on one. 42" pantry cabinet to the left of the fridge - pot and pan drawer (I know, pots and pans don't go in the pantry - but in my small kitchen, they are in a nice location close to the range). The 2 smaller 21" drawers above are wood: 42" Pantry roll-outs: The 48" base cabinet to the right of the fridge has tandembox on the bottom drawer and the 2 24" drawers, and wood on the top 3 drawers: And and example of the Lee Valley dividers that wouldn't work in tandembox: Good luck with your decision!...See MoreAre the soft close drawer slides worth it?
Comments (66)As someone who has been actively involved in the cabinet industry for more than 40 years, I find this discussion interesting. Blum is certainly a well-known brand for good reasons - good quality, innovation and gererally a good competitor in the marketplace. But, Blum's product is nowhere so superior to several competitive brands to command the premium price they do. Don't be misled because of extensive trade advertising - someone has had to pay for each ad after all. Yet there is one question I have yet to find well answered - WHY should a homeowner want to have soft-closing slides or hinges installed? Maybe that is a question for another forum. There are some facts designers, cabinetmakers and consumers need to consider: 1. Soft-close and self-close action are two totally different mechanisms. Be sure you know the difference and are not confusing them. 2. There are major differences between under-mount and side-mount soft-close drawer slides in terms of weight capacity, installation and adjustability, and price. Some applications clearly call for one type of slide versus another - but one type of slide may not be well-suited for every application. Also, know the true difference between slides referred to as "full extension" and "full access" - big difference in function and price/value. 3. Realize there are major differences when evaluating the required pull-force, closing speed, dampener length (at what point does the closing mechanism take over), and dampener design. Look for hydraulic dampeners,they are superior to air-filled dampeners as they eliminate drawer bounceback much better. 4. Finally, acknowledge many cabinetmakers have been experiencing hardtimes for the past several years and have sought opportunities to get something that looks and works like the quality brands. Buyer beware still rules - slides may look alike but have vastly different quality aspects. From a competitive point of view I'll give credit where credit is due, in my opinion the two soft-close slide programs that merit equal consideration are Blum and KV. They have many of the same design charactistics, both companies have drawer slides as a core competence, and both companies have reputations for superior quality and excellent service. Hope this helps the discussion with specifics....See Morehomepro01
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Carrie BOriginal Author