What type of runner should I choose for my drawer?

Article : What type of runner should I choose for my drawer?

Wondering which drawers to choose? This article is for you.

You're currently making your furniture on our configurator and you're hesitating between our two types of slides? If you can't see the difference between the two, this article is for you.

What type of runner should you choose between blum tandem runners or standard ball bearing runners? The answer depends on your needs. We've put together a comparison chart so you can better understand the differences and make your choice.

Our drawers with Blum Tandem runners

Maybe you're already familiar with blum drawers, they're very common in kitchen furniture. These are drawers with open sides, which can be a disadvantage when you want to fill your drawer to height.

At DessineTonMeuble, we combine the Blum system with drawers closed on the sides. In fact, our blum Tandem drawers have a wooden plank on each side to form a box and allow you to use your entire drawer while keeping the comfort of the mechanism.

Choosing blum drawers for more comfort

For more comfort when opening and closing your drawers, the blum tandem system is ideal. The runners allow for smoother, quieter opening and closing, as well as cushioning when your drawers close.

Beware, sometimes user comfort doesn't match your needs. Differences in drawer capacities may perhaps make you choose one type of runner over another.

Drawer interior differences

From the outside, drawers with blum runners and drawers with standard runners are identical. The differences are on the inside.

The internal dimensions are not similar, this is due to the position of the drawer on the runners.

Drawers with blum runners are wider than drawers with standard runners.

Blum drawers come to rest on the runner, the advantage is that the drawer will be almost the width of your column unlike a drawer with a standard runner.

Inversely, they lose a few centimetres in height compared to drawers with the standard runner system. So the drawers with standard runners are higher than the drawers with blum runners.

The drawers with standard runners are deeper than the drawers with blum tandem runners.

The length of blum tandem runners range from 5 cm in 5 cm up to 75 cm long. As we saw earlier, the drawer rests on the runner and stabilises it at the back. This means that the drawer can't measure the full depth of the cabinet, but will take up the depth of the runner in 5 cm increments up to 75 cm.

Ex: Your cabinet is 39 cm deep, your blum drawer will be 35 cm

The standard runner system, on the other hand, keeps the depth of the cabinet.

Beware, in both cases, the drawer will open to the maximum capacity of the runner, i.e. 75 cm. This means that blum drawers will always open all the way, whereas standard drawers will depend on the depth of the cabinet.

Ex: Your cabinet is 88 cm -> Your standard drawer will be 88 cm deep but will only open to 75 cm.

Let's recap, who's the tallest?

In width: drawer with Blum Tandem runner

In height: drawer with Standard runner

In depth: drawer with Standard runner

Do not hesitate, on the 3D to remove the bottoms and fronts to see the inside rendering of your drawer. In particular to see the depth of the drawer.

The colour of the inside of the drawer

The choice of colour for the inside of the drawer is not possible with the blum system, as we use panels of different sizes that we only have in white. The inside of the drawer will therefore be white. You can, however, choose the colour of the drawer fronts.

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Drawer capacity

Standard ball bearing slides can support a weight of 30kg, while blum tandem slides can support a weight of up to 60kg for the largest slides. Push slides, on the other hand, support less weight due to their mechanism.