Warning: cheap drawer slides at $8 per pair almost cost me a full kitchen redo

Bought 20 pairs of soft-close undermounts from a random Amazon seller for $160 total and three pairs jammed up within the month, has anyone else had luck with a specific mid-range brand or am I just stuck paying $25 a pair from now on?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronb5222d ago

My cousin put those same $8 slides in his entire basement bar and they're still going strong three years later. The jammed pairs might have been a bad batch or maybe the mounting surface wasn't perfectly level which is common with particle board cabinets. I've had good luck with the $12-15 range from Home Depot and never saw the point of paying more than that for something that just slides in and out. Soft close is a gimmick anyway if you ask me, a decent pair of standard ball bearing slides will outlast any cheap hydraulic mechanism. You probably just got unlucky with three duds out of twenty which is actually pretty good odds for budget hardware.

jamiekim18d ago

Right, because the real problem is the earth not being flat enough for $8 drawer slides. Maybe I need to level my whole house before I'm allowed to open a cabinet without it turning into a wrestling match. I've got three slides that are basically art pieces now - they slide exactly zero inches. One of them is so jammed it's actually holding the drawer shut tighter than any lock ever could. But hey, "good odds" I guess, if your idea of a good time is playing furniture roulette every time you need a spoon. Three out of twenty is 15% garbage. That's not good odds for hardware, that's bad odds for a bag of chips. Imagine buying a 20-pack of hot dogs and three of them are just moldy sausages you have to throw away. Everyone would be screaming about it. But sure, it's probably the particle board's fault for not being a perfect mirror. My cabinets are just being dramatic. Next time I'll install the slides with a spirit level and a prayer, see if that fixes the ones that are physically stuck in place.

karen_nelson4022d ago

That "good odds for budget hardware" line is how we justify everything being kinda broken now.