Fulterer vs KV drawer slides?

https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/311116

This is a thread I started a year ago, they have since showed up and are working fine. Long story short. Fulterer was more expensive so I only bought one of them and 7 of the Hettich. They are both basically the same and work fine. I considered KV as well but couldnt find the size I needed.

I’ve replaced most of my kitchen cabinet shelves with drawers and have used the KV8400 series slides. The drawers are opened and closed daily and some are large and loaded with can goods, etc. I’ve never had a problem. I only buy the KVs made in the USA. KV came out with less expensive (made offshore) slides to offer a lower price point and compete with cheaper brands. I don’t know anything about Fulterer slides.
You’ll get what you pay for and if you don’t need heavy duty or frequently used slides then the less expensive slides may do the job for you.
I bought a Gatehouse slide from Lowes by mistake and the metal was light gauge and the slided noticeablely flimsier than the KVs.
Pick up a KV and Fulterer and check the heft and build quality. Also be interested to see where the Fulterer is manufactured….they appear to be an Austrian company.

Never heard of Fulterer’s so can’t say. KV’s work well.

What I was here to say is a call back is the worst thing to happen on an otherwise happy job, and slides/hardware can be a frequent reason. You have to return to a job you will not be paid for, and usually have to fork out more money for product, instead of just putting in good product to begin with. No value in junk parts.

-- Think safe, be safe

Thanks all. Yeah I also bought some at either Lowes or Home Depot. The slides themselves work fine. However, the “soft close” mechanism gets stuck sometimes and keeps the drawer from closing. you have to pull the lever and completely remove the slide/drawer. Reach in and push the little “pin” in the soft close mechanism. Kind of a pain, and happens once every few months.

I have used both. And several others.

The main discerning difference after cost, is in the bearing carrier materials and the number of bearings.

One is a plastic bearing carrier with fewer bearings and the another is a metal carrier with more bearings.

Most plastics might dry up and wear out after a decade or so.

For a while, with the metal carriers, there was a failure mode where you could strip the bearings when inserting the drawer box member into the cabinet member.
The front plastic positioning guide was modified to remove that failure mode.

They, and most of their counterparts are pretty well set as for standards of construction and reliability.
They are pretty much reduced to commodity status for the most part.

If it is my choice and all other considerations are equal, I am buying the one with the metal bearing carrier and the higher bearing count.

Also, I am not a fan of soft closing side mount guides in general.
I use undermounts for soft close exclusively.

My $0.02

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS