Question about drawer slides: 100 lb rating vs 75 lb rating, is the jump worth $6 more per pair?

Derek Walker · 2026-10-03T05:05:04.064341+00:00

I was pricing out slides for a kitchen job in Reno last month and noticed something. The 75 lb rated pair runs about $9. The 100 lb pair runs about $15. Same brand, same length, same soft close. So here is the debate I keep having with myself. One side says a silverware drawer never sees more than 20 lbs, so the 100 lb slides are just money burned. The other side says you never know what a client shoves in a drawer five years down the road, and the heavier slides hold up better over thousands of cycles anyway. I did the math on a 14 drawer kitchen. That $6 difference adds up to $84. Not huge, but not nothing either when you are trying to win a bid against two other shops. Where do you all land? Do you just default to the heavier slide on every job, or do you decide drawer by drawer? And has anyone actually seen a 75 lb slide fail under normal kitchen use, or is that fear mostly made up?

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Question about drawer slides: 100 lb rating vs 75 lb rating, is the jump worth $6 more per pair? | Cabinetmakers - The Design Community Hub