On 1/19/2021 12:28 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
About 5 years ago I installed 8 sets of the Knape & Vogt GS4270 full extension, soft close drawer slides.

One set, the one on the most frequently used drawer, no longer fully closes on its own. When I give the drawer its normal push, it glides to about 1/2" from fully closed and then stops. The soft close mechanism does engage, it just doesn't pull the drawer all the way closed. A gentle push gets it closed, but it's a "manual close" i.e. I don't feel the mechanism taking over.

I can "fix" the soft close issue by fully extending the drawer (the standard full extension reset method) but this only solves the soft close issue for a day or two, probably some X number of usages.

I called KV tech support and other than "make sure all the screws are tight" and "make sure nothing has shifted inside the cabinet", he had no other suggestions. When I asked about lubrication, he was pretty emphatic about not trying that.

Unless someone has a suggestion, I think replacement may be my only option.



Ohhh.. GSlide slides. I have about 7 drawers in as many pieces of
furniture that have this issue.

And I know what the problem is. Mostly product design.

The drawer side of the slide has a plastic guide that engages the
plastic pin on the cabinet side of the slide. The cabinet side pin
slides into a hole on the plastic piece of the drawer side of the slide.

After time and in particular after 3~6 years, the pin wears down on the
cabinet side of the slide and or the hole wears on the drawer side of
the slide. When this happens the pin does not properly engage the hole
and "slips out" because of the spring loaded resistance on the self
close feature.

The solution is to replace the whole slide because both the pin and hole
are worn

OR shim either the drawer or cabinet side of the slide to force a closer
fit. And this will likely be short lived. And difficult to determine
where the shim needs to be placed.

When you open the drawer it has resistance and then you probably hear a
slick and the drawer opens more freely. This happens in the first inch
or two of travel. The pin is engaged in the beginning but slips out of
the hole before it reaches its outer travel limit and locks in place.
It slips out and returns to the closed position. When you close the
drawer the other side of the drawer slide works as designed and pulls
the drawer closed up until the last quarter inch or so. This is where
the bad slide tries to reengage the pin and hole, there is more
resistance at that point.

You can manually reach in there and pull the pin forward to its forward
limit of travel and that will work a few times.

Take a look at this. It pretty much explains what I have said above.

And this is the brand slide I am currently using on.

The actual KV 8450 slides are a better design too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOIlJYlcXXk