Choosing the correct side mount drawer slide for your pre-existing drawers can be a daunting task. In the world of drawer slides, side mount drawer slides are a precision instrument. Each side mount drawer slide has a required side clearance that must be met in order for your drawer to operate smoothly. If the required side clearance is even 1/16” too wide or too narrow this will cause problems with most side mount slides. In the case of being too narrow, the slides will bind. This is most often an issue with self or soft closing slides as they will not close properly and smoothly. If your clearance is too great, the slides will surely come apart and you’ll have ball bearings lying all over the floor and that’s never a "good time".

In addition the proper side clearance you’ll need to ensure that both your drawer box and your cabinet are consistently square. If you find that your front clearance is correct, but the clearance at the rear of the drawer is too wide or too narrow, this too will cause problems with the operation of the drawer slide as described above.

The drawer slides on our website(www.drawerslides.com) are available with several different features and benefits, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. The information provided below is intended to help you understand how to calculate the clearance provided by your preexisting drawers.

To determine which drawer slides will properly fit your pre pre-existing (retro-fit) drawers use the following formula:

X = Overall width of opening
Y = Overall width of drawer
D = Delta (difference between X and Y)
C = Clearance (this is the number you need)

Y - X = D
D / 2 = C

If your clearance(C) is less than 3/8” than a side mount slide will not fit. You may still be able to use an undermount drawer slide or center mount drawer slide but typically you’ll have to rebuild your drawers in order to accommodate these slides. If you have any questions, please call us at 888-300-8020.

Now that you know your side clearance you can shop for a slide that will fit your application.

For a 3/8 side clearance(C) we recommend using the Fineslide 3501 series drawer slides. If you have more than 3/8” but less than ½” you’ll need to “build out” the inside of the cabinet to reduce the clearance to 3/8” in order to accommodate the 3501 series drawer slides.

If you have 1/2”-17/32” side clearance, we have a large number of drawer slides that will work for your application.

[reference to side mount selection article]

We’ll briefly cover a few common slides that will work for your application. If you have additional questions, please contact our customer service department and tell them that you've taken your measurements and you have ½" side clearance. From there our team can help point you in the right direction.

In general, all of the following slides will work for your application:

All slides in the 80lb category
All slides in the 90lb category
All slides in the 100lb category
And the Fulterer FR 5210 series (200lbs class)

The 100lb capacity drawer slides are the most common in kitchen construction. As a result you’ll find the greatest number of features and confusion while trying to select a drawer slide within this category of products. Here are a few suggestions from our experts.

Fulterer FR 5000: This is an outstanding quality side mount drawer slide that will offer many years of use. The FR 5000 is a standard side mount ball bearing drawer slide with detent(helps keep the drawer closed) and smooth operation. This drawer slide offers the bare feature set but also the most reliable for long term enjoyment.

Fulterer FR 5000 ECD: The FR 5000 ECD offers the same quality construction as the standard FR 5000 but adds a soft closing module referred to by Fulterer as the “Easy Closing Device(ECD)”. The FR 5000 ECD is a self closing drawer slide but includes the soft closing module so that your cabinet front doesn’t slam against your cabinet. This is one of the hottest features available in drawer slides today.

Fulterer FR 5210: This is a great slide for heavy pot and pan drawers. It features a disconnect feature for easy installation as well as rubber post deten to keep your drawwes closed.

A Note about Drawer Slide Length vs Cabinet Depth

Drawer slides should be purchases in accordance to the length of the drawer box, not the depth of the cabinet.

For Example:
Cabinet depth is measured from the front edge of the cabinet face to the inside rear of the cabinet. If the cabinet is 23” deep but the drawer is only 18” long than you’d purchase 18” long drawer slides. Because the slide is not long enough to reach the back of the cabinet you’ll have to build out the inside rear of the cabinet with piece of wood from the floor of the cabinet to the ceiling (inside) of the cabinet. If your cabinet lacks the structure for the vertical support you may build a horizontal support attached to the walls of the cabinet to flush out on the side of the drawer opening. If you’re unable to accomplish either of the suggestions above then you may have to block out the inside of the cabinet so that there is one flush continuous support from front to back.

REMEMBER:
Your slides are going to perform best when the drawer box/slides have a square and true relationship with the cabinet face.

If you can’t find a slide with your required clearance, or need help clearing up all the cabinet shop talk, please call tech support 888-300-8020