The soft close mechanism (Blumotion) is an add-on, just tell them not to use it. I'm not sure what you mean by it being yanked out of your hand, etc. We have them in the kitchen and bathrooms and glove them. There is a little resistance when you open it, but you get used to it quickly.

Yes, grabby, that's the perfect description! I didn't want soft close, didn't see the point, but DH really wanted it, so I went along, expecting it to annoy me for the rest of my life. I'd say it took me about a month to become accustomed to drawers with a mind of their own and 4 months in, I hardly remember having drawers that only did what I made them do. I had a harder time switching to an automatic transmission, I think.

But I'm pretty sure the other posters are right and the soft close mechanism can be removed.

growlery, if you do end up removing your soft close mechanisms, please send them to me. I'm so tired of slamming drawers in my bathroom. ;)

Good to hear.

This kitchen has taught me that the hardest, most expensive thing to get is often the simplest, plainest option, so I don't take anything for granted! I had to ask, because it was possible the measurements are totally different for one kind of slide and he would totally have to redesign the drawer stack. Which would be silly.

I would probably adjust eventually, but why should I pay extra for something I don't value if it's not much bother for the cabinetmaker to remove? (Which it sounds like it isn't. I'll obviously talk to him.)

It's nice to know I'm not alone. Thanks everyone!

My Mom's, shall we say, inexpensive cabinetry uses metabox drawers but the rails are notched\sloped so at about 2-3 inches from being closed they slide shut on their own. It wasn't a something the display vignettes had but it is quite nice and very different feeling from the bluemotion hardware. Of course the intensity depends on how much weight is in the drawer so on her pantry pull outs with cans in them it is a little jarring. That isn't to suggest that track and roller drawer mechanisms are nearly as nice as the ball bearing system that is probably standard on your custom cabinets but maybe there is some middle ground.

Soft close and self close are two different things. Which feature do you not want?

Blum drawers (undermount) are made differently than other drawers. This changes the entire production process of the drawers.

Basic push in drawer mechanism (side mount) cost about $3 per drawer. Blum soft+self is closer to $50 per drawer!

Also do you care about undermount, full extension?

Blum makes both a soft-close and a self-close. The soft close has the grabby bits.

Because of a minor mixup, I have one soft close drawer. The hoods mounted under the drawers are one kind or the other, but the drillings, etc. are the same.

If you switch to another mfg, the cabinet and drawer box may need to be made differently.

Hmmm.

My specs are buried somewhere, but I'm pretty sure they say blum soft close.

I had no opinion on this until I was in a showroom later and actually tried one.
I knew then that there would not be enough coffee in the world to keep me from taking a crowbar to those things one morning. "I (whack) SAY (whack) WHEN (whack) YOU (whack) CLOSE! (whack)"

I'm not going for full extension.

I expect it will still be a blum product, that appears to be what they use -- I don't expect to see any change back. That's OK. It's not the money, I am trying to keep design changes down.

LOL. That's too funny. It's how I feel about the soft-close hinges. Can't stand the things. The drawers I kinda like, but that's because I'm a mad-dash multi-tasking kitchen person who is apt to just lightly bump a drawer with her hip in passing.

I'd reconsider the full extension, though. I'm switching over to full extension from standard and it's just soo nice veing able to see and access everything in the drawer easily.

We have Blum soft closers and I wouldn't get them again, but I MUST have full extension...especially on pot and pan drawers, and on dish drawers, and on silverware drawers, and on utensil drawers, and on dishtowel drawers, and on plastic wrap/aluminum foil drawers and on... you get the drift? Being able to see everything that is in the drawer and also to be able to get at it easily is worth the extra bucks.

-Babka

This must be the thread then for us ultra-neurotic control freaks. I could've written pbrisjar's post. Heck, I could've written growlery's ... so much so that rather than risk bodily damage to my drawers in a fit of pique, I went through the trouble of removing the soft-close bits after going through the trouble of installing them. I have the Blum tandems (in the blum tandemboxes) and went through the nuisance of modifying a few drawers to put the self-close mechanism in back when (3 years ago) you had to go through the nuisance step of modifying the drawers in order to insert the soft-close. After a day of living with it, I realized that it was best that I put in no more of them and that I best remove the four or five that I had put in.

That said, I too heartily recommend the full extension. Seriously. It's almost not worth opening a drawer now if it doesn't open all the way. I even purchased a chest of drawers (for the bedroom) recently based on the fact that the one that I got DID indeed open all the way. Seriously growlery - do a rethink on the full extension.

Shucks, can you even get the soft close without a full extension? I thought the blumotion stuff came for the tandems and that all tandems were full extension. Is that not correct?

Growlery -- While just like me, you may not want self-close or soft-close drawers (I'm not quite sure of the difference between the two).....but believe me, you definitely want full-extension!

Specify the best full-extension drawer hardware (without the self-close or soft-close feature) that you can find. Good drawer hardware will be a pleasure each and every time you open a drawer. Cheap hardware may be okay initially, but a year or two down the road, you'll be kicking yourself when drawers become balky and don't glide shut. You absolutely get what you pay for when it comes to drawer and cabinetry hardware.

Happy New Year's Day!

On your many kind recommendations, I will reconsider the full extension.

It's funny, I don't think of myself as being an ultra neurotic control freak. Wanting to close a drawer myself?

But apparently my cabinet guy finds me very funny. So I must be.

I have no plans to cheap out on the hardware, wa8b, have no fear. Things like that are a false economy -- saving $10 or whatever on a slide you'll curse for decades. I have better ways to economize: using salvage and antiques, picking up materials at the warehouse to save delivery charges, doing my own painting, phasing projects etc.

Thanks again, drawer self-control support group!

Growlery,

I suspect you of sharing my tastes in many things, so I'll add my 2â. I, too, spent a lot of $$ on the Blum soft-close glides, only to discover that they're really not necessary for my needs. But I will also emphasize how fabulously handy the full-extension feature is.

As a brief test of my new camera's video quality, I'll share a little clip of me sliding a drawer. These are pantry drawers we crafted ourselves for a tiny 9" space next to the fridge. The glides are Blum full-extension soft-close (not self-close):

Original Video

(if GardenWeb doesn't allow embedding, you'll see a link to the video instead)

CP,
Ramen noodles?!
You don't do a fabulous new kitchen and then stock your kitchen with ramen noodles. Nothing less than basilic, EVOO from virgin growth olive groves, and white truffles is acceptable.

Shameful!

*grin*

Ok, now to the actual point of my post - can you tell me if that pantry has a door? If so, how does it appear closed? I'm thinking of replacing my 36" wide fridge which we never replaced at remodel time coz it was then still quite new, with a 30" wide unit. I was thinking of appropriating the 6" to the side of the fridge with a tall skinny thing of shelves and cubby units (wine-like although in general perhaps non-ideal for wine next to a fridge) . But I've wondered how I'd make this work between the finished ends and the wood required to make this cubby thing itself.

That's why I ask what is the "presentation face" of your skinny storage unit here. It actually looks rather good to me so if that is the finished face, then perhaps my indecision is for naught.

OK, circuspeanut. This is starting to get weird.

The third time I obsessively watched your video of you closing your drawer (I give up. There is obviously something wrong with all of us.) I realized I was WEARING AN IDENTICAL SWEATER.

My one stack of drawers is also small, like yours, so yours is a good comparison. It may be that for people with huge drawers full of crockery or pans that they're a godsend, but for my 8-inch drawers for foil and dishtowels (even cutlery goes somewhere else), used by an adult who can be trusted not to slam it, I think a regular, good-quality slide should be sufficient.

I would also, as an adult, like to preserve the therapeutic option of slamming a drawer if I want to.

The video did come over as a link, and worked fine. Quality was good, even with motion. Thank you!

This is funny because I don't like them either, but subconsciously must have felt inhibited about vocalizing it! I install them at work, and they're really easy to install. But my boss thinks the spring mechanism is just something that is prone to fail down the line. I'm still confused about the difference between self- and soft-close. Can anyone explain it?

Because neither my Mom or I knew anything about kitchens when we started we spent an inordinate amount of time on the cabinetry. When it came to full extension she ended up feeling there were other places she wanted to put that money. In her case she was going to be going from having one drawer base with 4 drawers to 13 drawers so the cost to upgrade to full extension was significant and her increase in drawer space was already so profound she didn't think she really needed to have more easily accessible space in each of her 9 new drawers. The other often heard refrain was "I've never had it I'm not going to miss it". Lots of drawer inserts are still made for standard drawers so they are not designed to utilize that part of the drawer you gain access to with full extension anyway.

Not to be contrary but with deep drawers utilizing the full depth of the drawer is very easy as is seeing and accessing everything without full extension (unlike in shallow drawer) so you don't end up losing items or scratching your knuckles as you might with a shallower drawer (without inserts). Full extension is going to give you more usable space but depending on your wants\needs it might not have all that dramatic an impact on how your kitchen functions. Just another perspective.

I agree.

Ha, Growlery! I told you we have similar taste. Although I now worry slightly about having singlehandedly created a new kitchen porn genre (as it were...). Am always a little unnerved at what they choose to recommend as "related videos" when you post on a free site like TinyPic.

I think you're solidly on top of your drawer issue. Caryscott et al make good points, but I myself don't have a single drawer without full extension where I don't wish I had it. Blums may all be tandem full-extension anyways, so the issue might be moot.

---- warning, with apologies to Growlery, extreme mid-thread digression from original topic --

Mindstorm -- nope, no door on the pantry shelves. We basically built a big narrow box out of cherry plywood to the right of the fridge box and then trimmed it out to match.
I should think your cubby idea would be great, for wine or jars of truffle oil or pigeon pâté, etc. ;-)

I'm very pleased with mine overall, it's not at all intrusive and fairly easy on the eye -- with the caveat that I'm not someone who wants everything tidied away and don't mind the odd bottle top leering at me. It has added a surprising amount of new storage to my small space.

A few pictures, if these help -- ignore the ignominious ramen noodles *hangs head* and focus on the wholesome home-canned tomatoes and apple sauce!

Here's how the stack fits in on the wall. My fridge is also narrow and tall, so it's a good preview for you perhaps:

The drawer housing, from inside:

We still have two drawers to install at the top of the stack (for 8 total), but I lost steam (drawer-slide levelling is a nightmare for the impatient) and actually rather like having the extra space on top. You can also see how we raised the bottom of the drawer box and trimmed it out to the height of the toe-kick elsewhere, for a little congruity.

Here's a drawer prior to installation (I'm fairly proud of having designed and made these - cherry front with painted ply innards):

Finally got my bin for potatoes and onions, yay:

Oh holy mother of ...! With extreme apologies to growlery for the OT but that's just fantastic! That is almost just what I'm considering doing - with fixed shelves perhaps instead of drawers - or such was my deliberation except I wasn't sure about the execution! Oh golly, I'm going to have to clip this post. Thank you thank you oh thank you! And yes, of course, truffle oil is just what I intend to showcase in there. Yards and yards of it. ;-) If you don't mind, may I email you for some specifics since it sounds like you made these and then we can stop the OT.

And that is also just the very fridge I'm currently considering, so this is perfect. That is the 30" liebherr, yes?

Growlery: have you lived with softclose, or only tried it in the showrooms?

Because to me, once you've lived with them for a while, you won't want to live without them.

It isn't a solution in search of a problem, it's the case of the solution for one problem creating a new problem needing another solution: the self close is great-- no more drawers left open, no need to carefully close them *all the way*: just give them a nudge, and the mechanism draws them shut-- draws them shut with enough force to make them bang, the silverwear inside rattle, and the lighter items migrate to the back. I had this for about 7 years in my old house.

So, softclose: give the drawer a shove-- even a forceful one-- and closed it goes silently and gently, nothing inside gets banged around.

I've been keeping all my glassware in a large drawer with no padding and no dividers. I simply don't think it would be practical without self/soft close.

On my Ikea cabs, the softclose is easily installed [and therefore, one assumes, removed] without tools. On my Kraftmaid, I'm not certain-- I've never wanted to remove it...

Mindstorm -- but of course, email me with impunity. Happy to answer any questions I can & see if I can't drag out some more pix for your reference. Yes, that's the 30" Liebherr, most expensive part of my remodel and worth every pfennig. :)

I chose to go with regular close drawers because I tried out some of the soft-close ones and just didn't like the feel. I also don't like the drawers banging though, so I went to Lowes and bought some little adhesive clear rubber bumpers. I stuck them on the cabinet where the drawers hit when they close and no more banging!! The drawers close quietly now.