Side Mount Soft Close Drawer Slides: Any Good?

Side mount soft close drawer slides have a less-than-stellar reputation. June 13, 2011

Question
I usually use Blum tandem soft close, but I have a customer that would like to upgrade her side mount slides to soft close. Changing out the drawer boxes to go with the tandems is not an option. How well do the KV side mounts work with the soft close? I'm thinking KV just because HDL carries them. Is there a better brand?

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor R:
I've yet to use a side mounted soft close from any manufacturer that works, period. I have KV side mount SC in my own house, and they truly suck. After numerous and lengthy complaints from the wife, and struggling myself with drawers stuck about 3" out of the case I finally took a chisel and removed the closers. This upgrades them to requiring more effort to close than a standard side mount slide.


From contributor C:
If your side spacing and alignment are good they will work fine. This is a little more critical than for undermounts

From contributor B:
I've used the Fubaba GS soft close slides and they work well if and only if you get the proper alignment which can be a pain depending on how you construct your cabinet. Since it sounds like the cabinets are existing it's going to be tough, and you could end up with an unsatisfied/disappointed customer. I wouldn't go this route.

From contributor T:
I concur with side mount soft close. They just don't work well. I tried them on a few jobs to help save the customer some money and we were both very unsatisfied with the results. One job the customer had me take them out and build new drw boxes with Blum soft close. They paid for the new drw boxes because they had made the decision to go cheap in the first place and regretted it.

From contributor S:
I have not had any problems with the KV 8450 soft close side mount. I have even added them into existing cabinets and they work really nice. The difference between them working well or not is taking extra time to adjust them correctly. You cannot just install then walk away and expect them to work well. I have not used them much but on the three jobs I did I have not had any callbacks. That said I always prefer Blum tandems.