On Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 3:24:43 PM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 1/22/2021 3:16 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Friday, January 22, 2021 at 10:44:29 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
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

"I have about 7 drawers in as many pieces of furniture
that have this issue. "

I knew you'd jump in here eventually. ;-)

How come you didn't know about the design flaw back in 2016 when you
recommended the slides to Mike? (Don't worry...I'm kidding!)
Well IIRC they were still mostly working and could be reset. I thought
it was a fluke back then...
Then I thought it was global warming and the effects on the pieces I
built. Then, you know, it turns out it might have been climate change
instead of global warming.
Then seeing the video for the first time a few weeks ago, hummmm, the
slides are poop!
If you defeat the self close/soft close feature the slide still work well..

Or call KV and tell them you have their slide that has failed. Life
time warranty.

From Feb 3, 2016, 12:44:56 AM

"I have been using these side full extension soft close slides for about
5 years."

http://www.cabinethardware.com/G-Sli...ose-p/1012.htm

Is Mike still around?
Mike?

Yeah, actually -MIKE- was his handle. The drummer. Mike Radcliff, per his
website. Doesn't look like his drum site has been updated in a while.

His sig was:

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

I did a quick search in the wRec for mikedrumsDOT.com and it
looks like he vanished mid-2019. No new posts after that, at
least according to a Google Groups search.


Cabinet makers hardware years ago became Cornerstone and they still
operate under that name. BUT they were bought out by Richelieu 4~5
years ago and there was a big turn over on employees.

The KV MUV+ HD undermounts I just bought came from Woodworkers
Express. They had the best price this time around. I spoke to their
customer service reps a couple of times and they were real nice.


BTW...I'm getting ready to install a couple of drawers in my daughter's base cabinets
using the KV Undermount slides that I used in my own kitchen a few years back. The
KV MUV+ HD (120lb) slides are beasts. The drawers are 22" d x 31" w.

Swingman used that style slide when he and I were building kitchens for
the houses he was building.
IIRC they are kinda finicky/particular about drawer size but work like a
charm when installed. And he was using a brand that I do not recall,
close to $40 a pair, and the drawer sides had to be 1~2 inches shorter
than the opening.

It must have been the KV's. If I recall correctly, he recommended them. And yes,
you loose some width. Interior drawer width for 5/8" material has to be
cabinet opening minus 1 5/8". It varies by material size. $37/pair for 22"
plus ~$3/pair for the mounting clips.

What I found with my drawers is that the loss of width and depth doesn't
really matter. With the drawers you can keep the contents so much more
organized that you don't need as much space. e.g. *Always* re-nesting the
mixing bowls when you put one or two away - because it's so easy - as
opposed to just shoving them back into the cabinet because you don't
want to get down on the floor to find their mates.


One of our drawers has been filled with glass baking dishes, large ceramic bowls, etc.
Heavy stuff. 3+ years and the drawer still glides like butter. The design of those are
totally different so I hope they won't develop the same issue as the G-Slides.
I think the GSlide issue is that the "catch" pin on the cabinet side has
to engage the hole on the side of the drawer side of the slide. Most of
the better ones including the one that is from Hardware Resources have a
pin that engages the end of the slide attached to the drawer. And the
those have steel pins.

The last coat of finish goes on my daughter's set tonight and then it's 2.5 hour drive to
install. Sure hope I got my measurements right the last time I was there. :-0

Boy howdy. I just finished 5 drawer carcass units to fit inside the
bottom of the bottom cabinets. I left myself 1/4" clearance to slide
them in. 4 have 3 drawers, 1 has 1 drawer. And after that 9 more
regular drawers to build.

As noted earlier, the measurements on the KV undermounts have to be
pretty exact. As long as the sizing of my daughter's house is perfect or
too small, I'll be fine. *My* stick built cabinets had a fixed bottom shelf and a
fixed top shelf. I just laid the slides on the shelves and screwed them down.