How to measure a cabinet for a pull-out can

A cabinet sold as 18 inches describes the carcass. The clear opening — which is what the hardware has to pass through — is that figure minus the face-frame stiles, minus the door thickness where it folds back, and on a sink cabinet minus the center stile if there is one. On a face-frame cabinet that can be an inch and a half narrower.

Manufacturers publish minimum openings precisely because of this, and the two worth knowing are the numbers we will check against throughout this page:

1. Step 01

   Clear opening width

   Open the cabinet door fully. Measure between the inside faces of the frame at the narrowest point, which on a face-frame cabinet is between the stiles. Do not measure the cabinet's external width and do not measure between the door hinges. If there is a center stile between two doors, measure to it — that is your limit, and it is what rules out most double pull-outs in a sink cabinet.

2. Step 02

   Clear opening height

   From the cabinet floor to the underside of the frame rail at the top of the opening, or to the underside of the counter if there is no rail. This is what the frame and the buckets have to pass under, and it is why 20 to 21 inches is the figure the manufacturers quote.

3. Step 03

   Depth to the nearest obstruction

   The one that catches people out. In a sink cabinet, measure from the inside of the door to the front of the trap or the waste pipe, at the height the buckets will occupy — not to the back wall. The plumbing eats into the cabinet at exactly the wrong height. If the trap is central and low, a bottom-mount frame may pass under it; if it is at bucket height, it is your depth limit.

4. Step 04

   Cabinet floor condition and thickness

   Not a dimension, but the measurement that decides whether the install holds. The whole load goes through screws into the base. Press it: if it flexes, or if the particleboard is swollen or crumbly from a past trap leak — extremely common in sink cabinets — it needs repairing or reinforcing first. A pull-out fitted to soft board works loose within a year.

5. Step 05

   Clearance in front of the cabinet

   The unit extends forward when open, and simplehuman states up to three feet of extension on its 35-liter dual. In a galley kitchen, check that an open pull-out plus a person does not block the walkway, and that it does not foul an oven door or a dishwasher door opening at the same time.

Under a sink, the trap is the whole problem, and there are three configurations with three different answers.

If the plumbing rules it out — and with a disposal unit it usually does — the honest alternatives are a pull-out in a different cabinet (the one beside the sink is often better anyway, because it has no plumbing in it), or a narrow freestanding can in a gap. Moving the can to the next cabinet along is the option people overlook.

Now compare. Write your five figures down and check them against the published minimum for whatever you are considering, with a margin.

• Allow half an inch of margin on width. A frame that exactly matches the opening is a frame you cannot get square.
• Allow an inch on height. You have to lift the buckets out past the top rail, and doing that at exactly the minimum is a daily annoyance.
• Allow two inches on depth past the trap. Pipework is not straight and you need room to work.
• If you are within margin on two or more dimensions, buy the single-bucket version rather than the double. A single that fits properly is better than a double that binds.

The three units whose published minimum openings we have cited: the dual, the single-bucket version for tighter cabinets, and the Blum-slide double for a 15-inch opening.

Best pull-out overall

simplehuman 35L Dual Compartment Under-Counter Pull-Out Can

The pull-out that is easiest to install and hardest to break: an all-steel frame on commercial ball-bearing tracks that arrive as one pre-assembled piece.

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Best single-bucket pull-out

simplehuman 30L Under-Counter Pull-Out Can

The single-bucket version, for a household that recycles elsewhere and wants all the cabinet volume for trash.

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Best slides

Rev-A-Shelf 4WCSC-1835DM-2 Bottom-Mount Double, 2 x 35 Quart

The version fitted with real Blum Blumotion heavy-duty slides — the same hardware that goes into high-end cabinetry.

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Once it is fitted, the things that make it last are here — particularly re-tightening the fixings at six months, which is what prevents the misalignment that eventually makes a drawer bind.