28 Inch Soft-Close Ball Bearing Slide Built for High-Volume Cabinet Work

The Knape and Vogt 8450FM series is a full-extension, side-mount ball bearing drawer slide rated 100 lb per pair, with an integrated Force Management soft-close damper that settles the drawer quietly in the last inch of travel. This 28 inch length suits deeper base cabinets, pantry pull-outs, and utility drawers where a longer slide is needed and damped closing matters. Sold in bulk packaging for shops ordering in quantity.

Key Features

• Force Management soft-close — a patented damping cylinder with balanced spring technology catches the drawer near closed and guides it shut without slamming.
• Full extension — the three-member telescopic design brings the entire drawer out to the cabinet face, making the back of the drawer fully accessible.
• 100 lb weight rating per pair — handles a fully loaded kitchen, pantry, or utility drawer at this length.
• Non-handed design — one slide fits either side of the drawer, so there is no left/right sorting when loading the bench.
• Lever disconnect — the drawer lifts free from the cabinet without tools, ideal for delivery day and service calls.
• Bulk-Pack packaging — slides ship loose in a carton for shops pulling from a bin rather than opening individual retail boxes.

Where a 28 Inch Soft-Close Slide Earns Its Place

Most base cabinet drawers run 18 to 22 inches and never need a 28 inch slide. The 28 inch length is for deeper applications: full-depth base cabinets in a 24 inch or 30 inch deep run, pantry pull-out trays, utility room cabinets, and shop storage where the drawer box is built to match the full interior depth. At this length, the soft-close damper becomes especially useful — a deep, loaded drawer carries more momentum, and the Force Management system absorbs it rather than transferring it to the cabinet box or the contents. The slide mounts on the side of the drawer box and the cabinet interior, so it stays visible when the drawer is open. It is not a concealed undermount application.

Steel Construction with a Zinc Finish

The slide members are cold-formed steel with a bright zinc finish. Zinc is the working standard for side-mount ball bearing slides: it resists the light corrosion of a typical indoor cabinet environment, blends into most cabinet interiors without drawing attention, and holds up through years of daily cycling. The KV FM series is tested beyond 50,000 cycles, including the soft-close module, exceeding KCMA, BHMA, and BIFMA performance standards. This is an indoor finish suited for kitchens, pantries, mudrooms, and shop cabinetry. For installations in wet or exterior environments, zinc-plated steel is not the right choice.

The Right Buyer for This Slide

Cabinet shops building deeper runs — full-depth pantry towers, laundry room cabinets, garage storage, utility furniture — reach for a 28 inch slide when a 22 inch would run short. The 100 lb per pair rating covers the everyday load range for residential and light commercial work at this depth. The bulk carton format suits shops that install soft-close slides as a standard specification and want to pull from stock without unwrapping individual sets. Designers specifying a uniform soft-close experience across a kitchen and pantry combination will find this length completes the range when the shorter sizes are already in the plan. The 1/2 inch side clearance per side is the same as the rest of the 8450FM family, so the drawer box formula stays consistent across the job.

Consistent Soft-Close Performance Across Every Deep Drawer

For shops that specify soft-close as a standard and need a 28 inch length to finish the run, the KV 8450FM bulk carton delivers tested, damped performance in a zinc finish that works in any indoor cabinet — without the retail markup or the individual packaging waste.