Hot off the manufacturing line: We just improved our Kitchen Essentials’ Professional Series’ Pull-Out Pantry Rack. An optional soft-close mechanism is now available to upgrade the full rack frame. This will be a great bonus to many customers. I asked Charles Costa how it worked and what the benefits of soft-close are to the consumer. Here’s his comment after running a test drive on it:

“This ‘device,’ provides a really smooth and silent closure of the rack inside the cabinet. One of the things that upsets people about their kitchen cabinets is the loud clank they make when the door closes. It dings up the wood or finish because they don’t have door bumpers, or it makes a loud noise. Or both! Not to mention, with a tall unit, when someone lets go too far away, or pushes it too fast or hard to close, it rushes back into the cabinet. Then you’ve got all that metal clanking as well as the loud door bang. That will not happen with the soft-close mechanism. It automatically takes over the closing movement about two inches or so from closure and silently controls the complete retraction back into the cabinet. It is a great feature!”

So there you have it. The soft-close device is an optional add-on to SKUs B01130, B01140, B01145, B01150 and B01160. Charles says that down the road the feature will be standard on the SKUs, but not yet. Check it out to see what you think. –MM