How Do Soft-Close Cabinets Work?
Soft-close cabinets and drawers are a huge improvement when it comes to upgrading your kitchen space. They’re more pleasant, and you can say goodbye to accidentally slamming the cabinet when getting a glass of water in the middle of the night and waking the whole house – plus, they’re easier on your kitchen. Soft-close technology reduces wear and tear so your kitchen doesn’t have to take an unnecessary beating. If you have kids, these are an even bigger blessing as you can save yourself the racket of clumsy kitchen searches. Virtually everyone can benefit from soft-close cabinets and drawers. They’re one of the smaller yet most significant upgrades in recent years, but how does this awesome technology work?
Soft-close cabinet hinges and soft-close drawer glides are a bit different, but still operate using similar principles for practical applications. When soft-close technology is employed, it allows the door or cabinet to reach a certain point before a secondary system takes over to finish the job and ensure no slamming ever happens. In most cases, this secondary system uses small hydraulic hardware that engages at the last moment before a drawer or cabinet closes. For drawer systems, these used to require oil-driven pistons, but have since been upgraded to air-driven systems that offer improved longevity. For hinges, the soft-close mechanism is a part of a piston which can either be built into the hinge itself or as add-ons that can be used and snapped onto existing hardware systems if compatible. It’s important to note that there are differences in the dimensions of the drawer builds when it comes to traditional versus modern soft-closing slides, and it is difficult – virtually impossible, even – to retroactively fit an existing drawer system with soft-close technology. Previously, drawers were built using side-mounted glider systems, but virtually all modern drawers offer the much sleeker under-mounted option, which also offers the added benefit of wider drawers.
Soft-close technology is a new, but highly effective piece of modern technology that can create a big impact on the quality of your kitchen!
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