I have one on my trash drawer. Should have gotten one on the below-the-sink drawer too. It rocks.

We really thought a LOT about whether to get this. However, the video actually convinced me not to. If you've watched it, did you see the part where the dog opens the drawer himself. Very cute... except not in real life. If you have or may get pets, I'd think about that issue seriously.

We decided to use the Hafele foot pedal instead and it was a lot cheaper. It doesn't have that fun coolness factor of the Servo drive, but I can't see how it is any less functional and we had plenty of other things to go over budget on.

We had a lot of discussions of these a few years ago and pretty much concluded what Beagles did for the trash, and that the servos are a great idea for people with disabilities. There is also a mechanical hip bump opener that has a spring and socket system, like a retractable ball point pen.

I bought a house with a new kitchen 4 years ago. All drawers in the kitchen are fitted with the Blum servo drive but 3 of the drives are now not working and the drawers only open and close manually.
Is this short life to be expected with these and just fixed with replacements?
Alternatively, is there anything simple to be done with them that will get them working again?

I am still intrigued by the servo drive, especially on my trash drawer.

Hope someone will post about service Petere

I have it on my trash p/o and love it.
Our dog does not open it.
No experience with service.
It was easy to install.
Relatively inexpensive for how useful it is for us.
We would have broken the foot pedal.

I have bought and installed them on several projects, easy to install and relatively inexpensive would not be something I would say about them....sorry, they are a pain to install and keep adjusted and they are for sure a bit expensive

I have that in our trash pull out. Love love love! I don't think it is hard to install although I didn't install it myself. My cabinet guy did. I saw him take it out for adjustment and it seemed to be a snap. As for not working... Did you check all cables are connected and nothing came lose? Is the red light (for power) still on? Power is supplied to the unit? May also want to call Blum and ask for help. The customer service is actually quite good when I was enquiring about their products.

Ajc that's so interesting. Maybe we just got lucky? I am not so handy, though DH and I did the kitchen DIY other than electric and the countertop. It really was super easy to install.

From our perspective, for about $300 we got a great garbage solution in our small, very heavily used kitchen. The garbage is a hot spot: we have a small home and the kitchen garbage is the garbage/recycling spot for the entire family. I would have loved a 18" drawer stack instead. But I had no good location for a garbage can. My sink base is only 27" wide. And it's very crowded at and under the sink. The tiny can that maybe would have fit under my sink would have been too small for our needs. All other areas for a free standing can were in a doorway; we literally tripped over a can in a 30" doorway entry for 7 years! So many friends' pull out garbage cans have been broken; my kids broke my MILs. So the added $300 was genius. It really encouraged my kids to use the garbage hands-free rather than yanking on the pull-out and pressing on the garbage. Yes, $300 isn't cheap. But, it was totally worth it. That's why I said relatively inexpensive for what function it has given us.

What IS servo-drive? I assume some kind of automatic opener. Can it be installed after-the-fact?

Yes, here's ours.

It's by Blum. In ours, the wire runs through a small hole to the sink base adjacent and is plugged in there. It's uses minimal lower. There are small clips that get attached to the front of the cabinet. It's hard to get a photo of them w the iPad, very inconspicuous. The Servo Drive was very easy to install for us.

Yes, I imagine, you could probably add it after the cabs are installed. You just need to have a power source.

I think Ikea offers something similar, though I have no experience with it: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30238703/

Our cabinet dealer had a bunch of these on display ... VERY cool but we couldn't use on our uppers because we're going right up to the ceiling (needs too much clearance).

I already get yelled at because I've put too much automation in the house with lighting, motion sensors, and iphones as TV remotes ... I think that adding push buttons to automated cabinets might be the final straw :)

I'm the one that started this thread 3 years ago.

We did install it on our trash pull out. It has not required any adjustment in 3 years and continues to works great.

Califkitchen, thanks for reporting back. Glad it has worked well for you. We love ours too. Before we purchased and installed it, I couldn't find any reviews. It's so helpful to her how things have worked, or not, for folks.

Hi @califkitchen @jennifer132 if you are still ‘here’, do you still love the servo drive? No issue?

I'm very interested as well. Would really like to install it, and new kitchen is in process of electric installation, so now is the time to decide!

I just came across this thread as I am now planning a kitchen with Servodrive on all drawers. I have been using the servodrive on garbage drawers for three years now and would not go without it. The unit another posted that is at IKEA is actually the BLUM item simply branded as "Utrusta" for IKEA. For my install it cost much less. Very simple to install if you have access to a power outlet. An interesting aspect of the Servo Drive is that it gives it's kick whenever the position of the drawer is disturbed, normally by pushing with your knee, but, it also reacts to a slight pull so it will act as an assist. Very nice in the case of a heavy drawer.

I went with the BLUM TIP-ON system for another kitchen recently and have been very disappointed. The mechanism is a wonder of engineeriing and design but alas the way it works is annoying. With both the Servo Drive and the Tip-On, make no mistake, you will experience unintentional openings. The difference is that with the Tip-On the drawer must be "thown" closed with just the right force to overcome the spring and reload the mechanism. The Servo Drive closes just like a normal self closing drawer, much less annoying.

I have two trash drawers, the cullery drawer and the plate drawer on Servo Drive. You can't imagine how often I find myself standing in front of one of the other drawers pushing it and wondering why it isn't opening. After a few tries I figure it out but have forgotten what I was looking for. Seriously though, don't even consider a mix of Servo and Tip-On unless you want to end up in the looney bin and as for our Miele dishwasher that you must "knock" to open, that's another bit of madness.

In closing, Servo Drive is an absolute pleasure for the trash drawer. You probably have power right beside it under the sink. Get it at IKEA

We did get the Blum servo for our trash drawer. It exceeds expectations!

We had it i our entire kitchen (14 or 14 drawers) for 5 years and it never skipped a beat. we are now huilding a bew house and will install again.