Trash Pullout Install Hassles
Advice on making the necessary minor tweaks and adjustments to get a trash pullout operating correctly. August 31, 2009
Question
Has anyone successfully installed a Rev-A-Shelf 5349 series trash pullout? I have just spent 2 hours trying to make one of these work. The cabinet door is mounted to the basket that holds the trash can. Apparently the vertical alignment for the door is achieved by loosening nuts on the basket and misshaping the basket until you get a plumb face.
My door is square and flat and the cabinet is too. All custom cabinetry for a kitchen that includes a Hafele pantry pullout 80" tall x 11" wide and a Hafele blind corner cabinet system, also with the doors mounted to the units. These all came out great. My only problem child is the trash pullout. I had to break my rule about not taking anything to the field that hasn't already been set up in the shop. The first Rev-A-Shelf unit I received had its basket so misshapen that it was out of square 3/8" in its 20" x 11" dimension. I sent that one back but had to get going on the delivery and the install of this kitchen before the replacement arrived. So it was a field set up after all.
Are there any trade secrets to making this work? This is my first Rev-A-Shelf install and I am reluctant to spec this stuff out again. Did I miss something obvious? My frustration was pushed to the breaking point by the fact that this was a face frame cabinet which meant that I could not access the rear nuts of the basket without taking the unit off the slides entirely - 28 times - and never knew what progress I had made until I set it all back up again. Oh, and the wrench they give you would make a good person homicidal. I'm very glad I had the appropriate sized nut driver.
It is all installed, as good as I can get it - not very good. The soft close feature doesn't fully close. I guess that is why it's a "soft" close. To be fair, the Hafele ones don't work any better. I just remove them.
Forum Responses
(Cabinet and Millwork Installation Forum)
From contributor A:
I've found these to be super expensive however I really think they're worth it. On the front of the basket about half way up there is a bolt and nut on each side. The pullout should have come with a little wrench. The bolt on the inside of the basket is mounted like a cam. Keep adjusting that till the door is perfectly vertical.
From contributor B:
As Contributor A said, there is a bolt (upper one) that is like a cam. Use the supplied wrench. I always find this pull-out to be a pain to adjust, with not much room to play. I always have to tweak around with these products. Make sure the floor of the cabinet is not too low, compared to the bottom rail. You may have to shim up the whole thing to clear that bottom rail. Even a 1/8" can make the pull-out hard to open and close.
From contributor C:
I've done 4 or 5 in the past year and am still trying to figure out the tricks. I usually set the mechanism in place inside the cabinet, mark where I'll be putting screws, slide the rack out and attach it to the door, then put screws in the fixed part of the slide on the bottom interior, and slide the door/rack back in.
From contributor D:
I just put in two of these and it took me about 20 minutes to do both of them. I put the unit in the cabinet, mounting it back from the face frame about 1/4" and only the front screws. Then I put a ledger board on the face frame at the height that I want the door to be. Set the door on this board and line up for width and then hold it in place and screw the door to the bracket from above. After you have it on the brackets you can adjust for fit to the face frame. Then put the back screws in the slide and you are done. It is much easier to do with the top off.
From the original questioner:
To Contributor D: I did exactly as you described. Face frames flush with cabinet all around, no top to contend with and my 3/32" spacers locating the door with even clearances all around. This is a tried and true technique for all kinds of hardware installs, including two of the
Hafele units in this kitchen. Just 10 minutes of work and a little fine tuning and move on. Not this time though. I could not get the door to stand plumb. It was leaning out of the cabinet at the top, though just right at the bottom. To avoid the logical next question, yes, the cabinet is square and the door is flat. No amount of tweaking the "adjustment nuts" made it move. There didn't seem to be any cam action at all. I finally settled on placing a flat washer behind each bottom screw between the door and the basket frame. Bogus, but it worked. I was not impressed with the Rev-a-Shelf adjustment system.
From contributor E:
I also found them difficult, however there is an answer. Instead of buying something from Rev-a-Shelf, use a
Blum metabox drawer guide and gallery rails. The cost to you is about $15.00 and about five minutes of labor and it fits perfectly every time with the possibility of adjustment already built in.
