Child Item

How to fix soft-close drawers that won't stay closed?

Hi, We have a soft-close drawer in our kitchen bench that all of a sudden decided it was no longer going to close all the way. You can push it all the way in, but it just springs out again. Can anyone please offer advice as to what the issue might be?

Thanks in advance

Find more posts tagged with

Tools and Materials

Repairing

Organising

Accepted answers

All comments

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @tsc1611. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

If it was one of our brands like Kaboodle then I would be happy to contact them for you to work out what the issue is. Alternatively, I would advise removing it as well as another functioning draw and having a look at what is different between the two track systems. Perhaps that might identify broken parts on the draw that keeps opening.

Do you have any excess weight in the front of the draw versus the back of it? Or do you have more weight in this draw than others? If you do you might like to shift the contents into another draw and see if it has the same self-opening issue. That would clarify if it is a weight distribution problem.

Let me mention @redracer01 to see if he could add to the discussion.

Please let me know how you go or if this is one of our cabinets units.

Mitchell

redracer01

Hello @tsc1611

Looks like a metal sided drawer? Is this correct? The release switch is either located at the bottom of the rail at the front or the right hand side of the covered rail. You will have to do some investigating in order to find out. Once you have removed the drawer, it will now be just a matter of eliminating possible causes of the jam. A wayward cutlery tool shoved in the back perhaps? Bearing failure? It could be any number of causes, what we do need to find out is to see if the rails still work and the soft close mechanism has not failed. Once you've determined the cause it will now just be a matter of repair ( if possible ) or a total replacement of the unit. Good luck and stay safe.

Cheers,

Red

tsc1611

Hi Mitchell,

Thanks so much for getting back to me. We have had the same amount of weight and distribution for a number of years, and the problem has only started to occur recently. Just to verify, I took all the items from the drawer, but it didn't still didn't close. I also compared the track system to another similar drawer, and I couldn't see any major differences.

Thanks again,

Tim

tsc1611

Hi @redracer01,

Yes, it is a metal-sided drawer. I was able to remove the drawer from the unit, but couldn't see any obvious reason for the cause of the failure. You mentioned possible bearing failure. What are the steps to verify if the bearings have failed?

Thanks very much,

Tim

redracer01

Hello @tsc1611

Its possible that the drawer has pulled out from the slide mechanism as well.

- Pull the left and right sliders all the way out.

- Clip the drawer back on to the runners with the rails all the way out.

- The end of the rail must be as close as possible to the front of the drawer and locked in to place.

Upon testing the drawer must now go all the way in.

- Still not working? Unlock and remove the drawer again and look at the rails and push back in to cabinet till it reaches end. If does not go all the way back then it is a drawer runner problem and must be replaced. How ever if it goes all the way in with no hint of catching, it must be the way the drawer sides are attached and is cathing on something. You may have to do some trial and error to find what is causing the failure to close.

Cheers,

Red

MitchellMc

@tsc1611,

It's great to see @redracer01 is now also assisting with your issue. Please follow their instructions and let us know how you go.

After following the provided instructions you might like to swap the drawer with another one. If another drawer is placed in that position and the issue continues it would narrow down the possibilities of what could be the problem.

Mitchell

tsc1611

Thanks very much for the feedback @redracer01 - I will give your suggestions a try and let you know how I go.

Cheers,

Tim

tsc1611

Hi @redracer01, @MitchellMc,

Thanks for all your input - really appreciated. I believe I have found the issue with the draw. When I looked at the rails more closely, it appears as though the plastic clips have broken on the spring housings on both rails, and as a result, the springs have retracted, and are no longer attached in the correct place.

The rails are Harn Triomax, so I will endeavour to find some replacement spring housings or rails, and hopefully that will resolve the issue. I looked on the Bunnings website, and it appears as though Bunnings don't stock Harn rails or parts?

Thanks again for your help,

Cheers,

Tim

MitchellMc

Hi Tim (@tsc1611),

Great work on locating the issue with the drawer. I've had a look myself and you are correct that we do not carry Harn rails or parts. If you have difficulty replacing the rails or parts, perhaps you could consider replacing them with one of our systems.

Mitchell

SiFi

The same thing happened on one of my brand new Kaboodle kitchen draws. Eventually, I identified the issue as a small piece of broken plastic on the draw part of the runner. Toward the back of the runner is blue plastic piece with a nib on either end that engages with the sprung opening device fixed to the inside of the cupboard wall. The nib broke off one end on both runners on the draw - see the pic below, the blue piece should be bone-shaped but you can see one nib is missing. On inspecting other draws, one nib had broken off on some draws, which allows them to still work, but means they too will probably stop working at some point when the second nib breaks off. Disappointing that Kaboodle again has opted for poor quality parts. Can't believe I'm already doing repairs on my 3-month-old kitchen.

Jason

Many thanks for sharing your experience @SiFi. I'm sorry to read that your Kaboodle drawers haven't met your expectations but I am sure the Bunnings team will be more than happy to assist. Would you like me to ask one of the team to contact you?

Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're really pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading all about your projects and plans. We have clever and creative members sharing helpful advice and inspiring projects on the site every day, so we're sure you will get plenty of value from joining in the discussion.

Thanks again,

Jason

SiFi

Hi Jason

Thanks for the quick response and offer of help. Do you know if KAboodle has a warranty and if something like this might be covered? OTherwise, I'll have to buy a replacement runner.

Jason

Absolutely @SiFi, I would expect the team to be able to assist you under warranty. Let me ask our resident Bunnings team member @MitchellMc to contact you when he is back on Friday. Apologies for the delay in the meantime. If it's urgent, please just let me know and I can organise an alternative.

Jason

MitchellMc

Hi @SiFi,

I've made contact with Kaboodle, and this is definitely an issue they would like to assist you with. I'll reach out via PM to provide information on the warranty process.

Mitchell

holl

Hi tsc1611

I have the same issue with this brand, did you find where to order replacements parts from?

Cheers

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @holl. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and many thanks for jumping into the discussion.

Let me mention @tsc1611, so they are alerted to your question. Hopefully, they'll be able to fill us in on whether they could get replacement parts.

Have you tried contacting the supplier? I'd imagine it would be best to start your search with them, as they would have details of anyone supplying spare parts. Alternatively, I'd be more than happy to try and find runners that you could replace them with. If you can't easily get spare parts, that might be the next best option.

Mitchell

holl

Thank you, I did contact them but they have not made these for four years so I might need to replace complete sliders

Cheers

Gail

MitchellMc

Let us know if you get stuck @holl. If you can remove one and provide us with the dimensions, I'm sure @EricL and I can work out some suitable replacements. Alternatively, you can take a slider into a store, and a helpful team member will match it up for you.

Mitchell

holl

Thank you, I have been in contact with them but they no longer make these or have spare parts so back to square one. I have removed the runner and will take it into Bunnings and see if I can replace it with one of theirs.

Cheers

Gail

EricL

Hello @holl

It's great that you've decided to replace your drawer runners. I recommend bringing one of your drawers with you. This will make the matching process a lot faster as the kitchen specialist will have another point of reference for the replacement. If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please let us know.

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your drawers functional again.

Eric

kt44

Sorry for being so late to the party. I've now had about 10 Harn Triomax soft close mechanisms fail in a normal home kitchen. They started failing after about six years. According to the supplier parts are no longer available in Australia and no one offers a similarly sized runner. That means you need to resize the draw in order to fix it. Hopeless.

EricL

Hello @kt44

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us.

Can you please tell us what drawer runners did you end up replacing it with? Did you have to majorly adjust the size of your drawers? Would it be possible for you to post a photo of your modified drawer with the new runners?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Eric

kt44

Hi Eric, Thanks for the warm welcome. The first 2 were generously replaced with free runners from the supplier. I then bought a set of Triomax online from somewhere. I then had to resort to buying a Haefle(?) set from Bunnings which meant cutting down the back and base panels. Recently I have been experimenting with 3d printing a new "shuttle" and trying to repair the old shuttles. (The poorly designed, tiny white plastic part/s below.) This is the part that fails on the original slides.

Triomax soft close broken.jpg

EricL

Hi @kt44

Thanks for that extra information about the drawer runners. It's good to know that Hafele drawer runners can be used as replacement set. If you have any other projects on the go, please make sure to post an update. I'm sure our members are keen to see what you are working on.

Eric

jezzadj

This is almost exactly where I've had 6x Harn soft close drawer slides fail now. All in that same spot.

And mine are integrated into the drawer sides so it'll be a project to retrofit a new brand of slides in...

Really helpful to hear it's not just me.

That plastic shuttle/catch mechanism must be designed to fail imho

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @jezzadj. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for joining the discussion.

It appears that @kt44 has had some luck swapping their slides out for our Hafele drawer slides, so you might like to try them. From their post, I understand that the slides might need modification, depending on your cabinetry.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

Child Item