46 Kilograms of Pull-Out Load Held by a Fulterer FR775 Slide in a Larder Column

46 kilograms is the working figure for a Fulterer FR775 in a larder pull-out. The number refers to load carried through a full extension cycle, with the slide moving under weight from closed to open and back again. A 500mm wide larder column with five wire or solid baskets can reach 30 to 40 kilograms once it is filled with tinned goods, oil bottles and dry stores. The FR775 sits in the hardware class that can carry that kind of column. A lighter ball-bearing runner rated to 25 kilograms is likely to bind, sag at the nose, and push the front baskets out of plane over repeated use. Fulterer, an Austrian maker, positions the FR775 against the Blum Legrabox and Hafele Matrix ranges for heavy-column duty, and the pull-out load rating is the specification that decides whether the column still works cleanly in its third year.

How pull-out loading differs from fixed shelving

A static shelf sends weight straight down through shelf pins, battens or side supports. A pull-out sends the same stored weight through a slide that is cantilevered as the unit comes forward, so the runner bearings see a much harsher load case than a fixed board would create.

At full extension the load has moved out from the carcase. The front third of the runner carries the visible sag risk, the rear fixing sees an upward pull, and the mid-section carries compression. This is why a casual reading of a kilogram figure can mislead a specification.

Fulterer publishes the FR775 rating as a tested full-extension value. That is the useful way to state it, because partial-extension ratings usually read higher and say less about the moment on the front bearings. Blum Legrabox drawer systems quote capacity in the same way, in 40 and 70 kilogram tiers, and the Legrabox 70 is the direct competitor when a deep larder column is expected to run heavy.

The FR775 earns its place on cost per column against the Legrabox 70 tier. It holds a comparable rating at a lower hardware line item, which matters when a kitchen carries six to eight pull-out columns.

Cycle-count claims also deserve a careful read at this weight. Rated cycle counts on heavy runners come from unloaded or lightly loaded test rigs, and brochures do not publish a confident ten-year bearing-life number for a basket carrying 40 kilograms through daily use.

The site test is still blunt and useful. Load the column to its intended weight, extend it fully, and press down on the front basket. Any measurable droop at the nose shows that the runner is under-rated for the fill, whatever the box label says.

Depth, damping and alcove fit

Fitted alcove shelving depth is where many larder columns run into trouble before the runner has even been challenged. A chimney breast alcove commonly measures 280 to 340mm deep, while a full larder pull-out wants 500 to 550mm of internal travel to justify the mechanism. When a deep pull-out is forced into a shallow recess, the baskets can foul the reveal as the unit returns.

The controlling measurement is clear internal depth behind the door line. Take it at three heights, because old plaster reveals are rarely parallel. A 12mm variance from top to bottom over a 2000mm column is common in pre-war housing, and that much movement decides whether a 500mm carcase seats square or racks in the opening.

A genuinely shallow alcove suits fixed shelving at 250mm depth with a Hafele push latch handleless door. That arrangement recovers front access without asking a runner to deliver travel that the recess cannot provide. The push latch also removes handle projection, which a tight alcove cannot spare, and keeps the door face flush with adjacent cabinetry.

Depth also affects the soft close specification. A 550mm deep drawer closing at speed under 40 kilograms of load carries real kinetic energy, so the damping curve matters more than the marketing tier. Blum’s Blumotion and Hafele’s Smuso both stage deceleration across the last 50 to 60mm of travel. In a heavily loaded larder basket, the damper has to act through the runner path, because that is where the moving mass is being controlled.

A hinge damper can slow the door leaf, yet it leaves the loaded basket movement to the slide. Runner-integrated damping is the correct detail for this application, especially when bottles and tins are stacked toward the front of the basket.

Levelling feet carry the moving column

Cabinet levelling feet are the component nobody photographs and everybody blames after the fact. In the more severe case, a larder column loaded to 40 kilograms per tier puts several hundred kilograms of dead load onto four feet. A foot rated to 80 kilograms static is already marginal on a five-tier column.

The number to check is the per-foot dynamic rating. Opening a full pull-out shifts the centre of gravity forward and briefly overloads the front pair. Hafele and Blum both supply feet in the 100 to 130 kilogram class for exactly this reason. The fixing into the carcase base matters as much as the foot itself, because a foot screwed into a 15mm chipboard base with a bare screw can pull through under repeated forward loading. The correct detail is a threaded insert or a steel mounting plate spreading the load across the base panel.

Levelling has to be checked again after the stores go in. An empty carcase can level true, then settle two or three millimetres once it is filled, throwing the door reveals out and putting the runners under a twist they were never fitted to carry. The discipline is to level empty, load fully, and relevel.

Under-sink pull-outs have a different limit

Under sink pull out storage is governed by the waste trap and supply pipes. A 30 kilogram basket is plenty when plumbing eats half the usable volume, and the basket needs a notch that clears the trap on every stroke.

Worked example: specifying a 500mm five-tier column

Take a 500mm carcase with 560mm internal depth and five tiers intended for dry stores and bottles. Estimate 8 kilograms per tier for baskets plus contents on the lower three, and 5 kilograms on the upper two. The result is 34 kilograms total. That sits inside the FR775’s 46 kilogram figure with a 12 kilogram margin, which is the sort of buffer needed because real households overfill.

Now compare the Legrabox 70 alternative. It clears the same load with a larger margin and adds tandem synchronisation across the pair, which keeps a wide basket square through the stroke. The FR775 achieves squareness through its own paired-runner geometry at a lower unit cost, so the decision comes down to column width. Once the column exceeds 600mm, synchronisation becomes essential. Below 600mm, the FR775 keeps its place on cost and capacity together.

The feet carry 34 kilograms of column contents plus perhaps 25 kilograms of carcase. That puts the static load near 60 kilograms across four feet, or 15 kilograms each, with the front pair moving closer to 25 kilograms under extension. A 100 kilogram-class foot leaves headroom. For an alcove install, the space needs 560mm clear plus a 15mm service gap, so 575mm minimum. That rules out most chimney recesses and pushes the column onto a stud return instead.

After all the arithmetic, the awkward detail is still physical fit: a column that is safe at 34 kilograms on paper can feel wrong if a 12mm alcove twist and a few millimetres of settlement put the runners out of square.