I just put in 36" when we redid our small galley, so I don't have a huge beautiful kitchen like a lot on here. But for me that was the best size, and I still have to carefully put my pots and pans in in a certain order or they won't fit. On another cabinet run I have my second set of 36" drawers--snack drawer and Tupperware drawer. Works perfectly. Any smaller would be too small.

Agree with your kitchen designer. In most cases you need to divide it to use it efficiently. Additionally, it's tempting to load it up, damaging the face of the drawer since its attached at the sides of the drawer. I would go to 27. Much more stable if you plan on using heavy loads.

Search for A2gemini's thread about her 42 inch disaster. I manhandled 2 30 inch stacks into the new kitchen plan, plus one 27. I'm not concerned about them much, but I don't get them until May so no data yet. There seems to be a decent number of people on GW that use 36 inch just fine. I would not go bigger than 36 inch unless it is all shallow drawers that will not be holding heavy pans.

I did make sure to ask about slide ratings and weight before I ordered, thanks to A2gemini. Cabinet guy was not concerned at my sizes even though I pointed out one is specifically for pot/pans including All Clad and cast iron. We'll see. Got everything in emails should it come to that.

We'll have one set that will be 39" or so - huge! But our cabinet maker has ones in his kitchen that are similar and he went so far as to weigh the stuff in them to make sure the under mount slides would be ok. Hope so - we just picked out the wood or them today.

I have a stack of 40" drawers. I love them. They used heavy duty slides and thicker-than-normal bottoms. They work wonderfully. Despite the naysayers above, quite a few people on GW have and love large drawers.

I don't feel that my 36 inch drawers are too wide at all. If the drawers are well built and have the appropriate glides you should have no problems. My 36 inch drawers are located under my cooktop. It is a 3 drawer stack. The drawer top drawer holds miscellaneous utensils. The second drawer holds all of my everyday dishes. The complete set would not have fit in a smaller drawer. The 3rd drawer holds my pots and pans. The 36 inch drawers did not needed to be divided to be used efficiently. The drawers have not had any issues with sagging or the soft close feature. I do have smaller drawer stacks on each side of my 36 inch drawers. Below is a picture of my dish drawer and one of the entire run with the 36 inch drawers

This post was edited by badgergal on Thu, Mar 7, 13 at 8:21

Below is a recent thread on wide drawers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread on wide drawers

Badgergal - the picture (only one is showing) convinced me. That looks perfect.

I think I'm in a minority here, but I prefer 30" to 36" wide drawers. For me 30" is plenty big.

You might want to consider not only what you will store
in the drawers but also how you use your kitchen.
When two cooks are working next to each other both will have to step aside when opening a very wide drawer.

For this reason I particularly wish I had divided a 30" wide top drawer in our main prep area into two smaller drawers as Breezy did in her kitchen.

My two pots and pans drawers are 30" wide and they are just right. I use the top drawer for utensil storage.

Like badgergal's, my cooktop is in a 36" base cab, and below it is a stack of 3 drawers. Because they're framed, they actually measure 33", but I guess they would count as 36" drawers, right? They are great, not overloaded. No other size would work under the cooktop.

Badgergal, is your second and third draw the same height? I am thinking of making my 36 base with 3 heights. 6, 9 and 15.

My second and third drawers will be different heights. I measured what's going in the bottom drawer, and my builder is sizing that drawer accordingly. #2 drawer gets the space that's left. I haven't seen the latest plans since we talked about this, so I don't know what the exact dimensions will be.

My 36" drawers look like badgergals. I wish my 30" were 36" as I could use a few extra inches.

My second and third drawer are the same height. Those drawer fronts are 12 inches and the top drawer is 6-1/2 inches. My cabinets are framed so as Ginny20 noted the drawer boxes are not the same measurement as the drawer fronts.
Also be aware that if your drawers are going under a cooktop you will need to check the cooktop specs for the clearance needed for the drawer immediately below it. Some people have been surprised to find they couldn't have a drawer below their cooktop. My cooktop only needed 1/4 inch clearance to combustibles below it but the sides of my drawer box still needed to be cut down a little. The drawers needed some further adjustments in the front to back length of the drawer box to clear the gas regulator or some such part that hung down below the cooktop. The carpenter then fashioned an angled piece of wood to the drawer box so that the drawer would be attached properly to the glides and still be able to have the soft close feature. Hope the picture helps clarify what I said.

I installed many 36 drawer units in the kitchen as well as the closets. It worked great. And... was the most economical.