Just hit 5000 custom drawer boxes and realized something about soft close slides

I keep a tally on my shop wall in Akron, and this week I passed 5000 drawer boxes built since I started keeping track back in 2020. What surprised me is that about 700 of those came back for adjustments or had issues, and almost all of them were because the customer bought their own slides off Amazon. The cheap ones just dont hold up as well over time, especially with heavy cookware. Has anyone else noticed a big difference in failure rates between budget and premium undermount slides?

2 comments

2 Comments

alexlewis7d ago

...and that's exactly why I started charging a $50 premium for install if they bring their own slides. Had a guy last month who swore his $12 Amazon specials were "just as good as Blum." Three weeks later the drawer was sagging on one side and the soft close stopped working. Meanwhile I've got Blum slides in my own kitchen from 2016 that still feel brand new. People don't realize those cheap slides use thinner metal and weaker plastic parts that just give out faster.

the_kelly7d ago

$50 is a bargain honestly. Had a customer bring in slides that bent just from me tightening the screws. They learn the hard way every single time.