Guide To The Best Heavy Duty Drawer Slides

13 thoughts on “Guide To The Best Heavy Duty Drawer Slides”

1. Not a single link to any 72″ drawer slides.

2. Thank you for pointing this out! With COVID a few products have disappeared and this was an oversight. I have updated this article with a (hard to find) 72″ slide for your reference.

3. Great content for those of us deep into this rabbit hole. Cheers.

   Has anyone found a product or clever way to combine a heavy duty handle with the “release” of the lock tabs on the HD slide hardware. I got the updated Fulterer 450# locking sliders and the lock release pushes down rather that up to release. There’s obviously one on each side and I have found it awkward to always need to depress both and pull out at the same time, kinda making the handle I’ve installed useless until the drawer is already on it’s way out. I’ve seen some rope and eye-bolt configurations but I guess I’m just wondering if there was something more discrete and low profile. Appreciate any advise or insight. Thanks again.

4. Adam – this is a great question. I did some digging and shy of a lever as you suggest haven’t found anything. Similar in concept to the stabilizer bars on wider drawers to keep things in motion together, but with a movement to unlock the slide.

5. Missed the part about 1/2″ side mounted heavy duty(preferably rated @200-250lbs ea) 16″ slides
   for a 48″ wide drawer. Any heavy duty 16″ drawer slides I find only suggest a max 42″ wide drawer. Have replaced 3 times already and no success over a year of use yet. Have spent hours online looking for this Holy Grail ending in failure every time. It is only drawer in my box that is suitable in size for my sockets(and jeez do I have allot of sockets so it the most used drawer in my box daily)
   Drawer Dimensions 16″id deep x 48″ wide x 3 1/2 tall
   Slides 16″ closed 31″ fully extended.

6. Hi Deano,

   Thank you for submitting this question. I haven’t seen a 1/2″ slide with a rating over 150 pounds – but I did update this article to include one as it was missing.

   Other than rebuilding your drawer to support a 3/4″ side clearance there aren’t many options. The 600 pound capacity Accuride do lay flat, at a less capacity if those are a retrofit option.

   Best,
   Eric T

7. hello , I am looking for two sets of drawer slides for a spice rack on each side of micro wave.
   Since the micro wave protruded 4 inches from the cupboards ,i am looking for 10″ slides 1/2 “clearance but the slides must extend 4 ” past the regular full opening.

   Can you supply such slides

   Thanks

   Hubert

8. Hi Hubert,

   That’s a unique application and I haven’t seen a slide that will do this. You could, however, use an “articulating box” with double the slides where a frame would pull out first, then another slide would extend past the microwave with the spice racks. You could consider mounting one slide flat or use a pantry (overhead) slide.

   Best,
   Eric

9. I am looking for a full extension drawer slide for a really wide drawer sounds like the same project Deano is working on. A toolbox with a wide (48-52) inch drawer with a 5 inch height and 22 or 24 inch depth. Since I am at the beginning I can use 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch wide slides. But most if not all say they cannot do that width. Yet virtually every large tool rolling base found in mechanics shops has a large drawer like that with full extension slides. I would have to assume they are ball bearing as well. They are mounting 3 drawers on top of each other 4 or 5 inches and two shallower drawers like 2 inch tall. but full width. PLease take a look at the offering by rockintoolboxes of the extreme tools RX552512RC. Those top 3 drawers have got to be near 52 inches wide as the whole thing is 55 inch long. Any idea what they use. Then there are SnapOn, Milwaukee, and several others just to name a few. All with really wide drawers at the top of their rolling chests. Used for sockets.
   My project is entirely in wood. Plan on using 3/4 inch baltic birch for the sides/front and back of the drawers and 1/2 thick baltic birch for the drawer bottoms. (dimensions approximate as they use metric).

10. Hi Brian –

    For wide drawers you can use a stabilizer kit like the 4180-0753-XE that pairs with the Accuride 3160EC slides. The reason for the stabilizer is to reduce wracking and keep the slides aligned. This combo of slides and connector kit are the only slide on the market for ultra-wide drawers.

    Thanks,
    Eric

11. Hi Eric,
    Thanks for getting back to me so quick. The stabilizer kit appears to be only for undermount. Is there a product for side mount slides. I was planning on having an opening in the carcase for THREE drawers that are super wide with no in between drawer surfaces.
    Fortunately, I am at the beginning of this project so I can made changes on paper.

    Brian.

12. Hi Brian –

    The two options I see are making the drawers narrower; or buying a 250 or 500-pound slide and testing out the motion with a fully loaded drawer.

    Note, however, that 60-inch wide drawer may have its own structural issue (especially the bottom). Narrower drawers may make more sense.

    Thanks,
    Eric

13. Eric,

    I was almost expecting to use a slide with much higher ratings that I need. So a 500 # slide would be ok. As for the drawers, I intend to make them out of 3/4 inch Baltic Birch plywood. That is strong and stable stuff. The bottom will most likely be 1/2 inch Baltic Birch ply also. The carcase will also be made of baltic birch but multiple pieces thick laminated together. So it will be much stiffer than any normal cabinet.

    Thanks for your input so far.

    Brian.