Zinc Soft-Close Ball Bearing Slide for Kitchen and Utility Drawers

The Hettich KA 5632 is a 16 inch (400mm) side-mount ball bearing drawer slide with integrated soft-close damping, full extension, and a 90 lb weight rating per pair. It is the right choice when a drawer needs to close quietly and reach full depth without exposed undermount hardware.

Key Features

• Integrated soft-close damping catches the drawer near the end of travel and settles it shut silently, eliminating slam noise.
• Full extension brings the entire drawer out to the cabinet face, putting every inch of the interior within reach.
• 90 lb weight rating per pair handles a well-loaded kitchen, bathroom, or utility drawer.
• Non-handed design means both slides in the pair are identical — no left/right sorting required.
• Steel ball bearings in full-length raceways deliver smooth, consistent travel from the first pull to the last.
• Zinc finish on cold-formed steel provides reliable indoor corrosion resistance without a decorative profile.

Where Soft-Close Makes the Difference

A 16 inch slide fits the shorter drawers that turn up most often in kitchen base cabinets, bathroom vanities, and built-in workstations — spice drawers, shallow utensil trays, and nightstand drawers that get used dozens of times a day. In those high-frequency applications, a damped close does two things a standard slide cannot: it keeps cabinet finishes from rattling loose over time, and it removes the single loudest noise in a quiet kitchen. Full extension means the back of a 16 inch drawer box comes all the way out, so nothing disappears into the rear of the cabinet. The 90 lb per pair rating handles those drawers comfortably without stepping up to a heavier-duty class.

Build and Finish

The KA 5632 is built from cold-formed steel with a zinc plated finish — the working standard for side-mount ball bearing slides in indoor cabinetry. Zinc protects the steel members through years of kitchen humidity and regular use; it is a functional finish, not a decorative one, and it sits largely out of sight beside the open drawer box. The soft-close mechanism is integrated into the slide body, so there are no separate damper clips to source or install. Side clearance is 1/2 inch per side, which is consistent with the standard side-mount format and keeps the drawer box formula straightforward.

Who This Slide Fits

Cabinet shops building kitchens or bath vanities with shallower drawer stacks will find the 16 inch length covers a wide share of their standard drawer count. Designers specifying a quiet close throughout a kitchen — without moving to concealed undermount hardware — can use the KA 5632 in the side-mount positions where the undermount footprint does not fit. Homeowners upgrading an existing drawer bank can drop a KA 5632 into the same mount position as a standard side-mount ball bearing slide of the same length, as long as the soft-close damper clears the cabinet interior. The non-handed format means ordering is simple: one quantity covers both sides of every drawer.

A Quieter Drawer, Start to Finish

The KA 5632 brings damped closing to a standard side-mount format — full access to the drawer, 90 lb capacity per pair, and a close that never slams, in a non-handed zinc slide that installs the same way as any ball bearing drawer slide you have mounted before.