There are people on this board who will tell you that having to BOTH open a door and pull out the shelf is too inefficient. I have the roll-out trays in a 36 inch pantry, so I have to open two doors, then roll out. I find that I don't have to roll-out every time though, since frequently used items are stored towards the front. At any rate, I just don't cook fast enough to feel slowed down by my "inefficient" pantry.

I do think accessing lower shelves will be easier if they roll-out separately instead of pulling out with the upper shelves still above them.

My suggestion, since your pantries are narrow, is to maximize useful storage space. The roll-out or pull-out glides will take up some space.

How wide are the shelves if they roll-out separately? How wide are the shelves if they pull-out together? Which way is it easier to adjust shelf heights for different types of items? My roll-out drawers can be moved up or down, but it is quite the process to do so. My guess is the pull-out has certain shelves which are fixed to help support the frame, and only some shelves are adjustable.

Good luck with your decision!

--Janet

I have a 24" pantry with roll outs on the left of the fridge and a 15" Pullout pantry on the right. I personally like having both. I love the pullout pantry, I find it very convenient. I also don't find the pantry with the pullouts inconvenient either. As janet said you don't always have to pull out the shelves because frequently used itmes are in the front.

Kim

Pillog nailed the issues with pullouts. Plus 18"x93" will be very heavy when fully loaded. Give a lot of consideration to how difficult it will be to put items away especially tall items. We have a 6 inch pullout and ours has a very low rail on the sides of each try. You have to leave more space between the trays in order to get taller items in. With an 18" how easy is it to put away an item in the middle? Remember, you can only access a pullout from the sides.

Are you sure your 93" pantry is one piece? I believe that is unusual. My 15" wide pantry arrived this morning, and it is segmented about 2/3 of the way up. The upper area will be our "Costco" storage and is a cabinet door with a shelf or two. I bought a Rev-a-Shelf pullout for the lower section. The lower section door is 48" tall, if I recall. We also abut a wall on the left and the fridge on the right, so I had concerns about being able to open the door (left hinge) and not hit the wall with the handles (style TBA) and be sure I could get into the pantry. Now we will pull straight out and have no worries about hitting our fridge or the wall. Also, ours is narrower than yours, but I tried to stick my arm into a 24" deep showroom cabinet and realized that it would become a black hole of canned goods or whatever if I didn't do a pullout.

I also hate hate how trays gouge your cabinet doors. What we have now are shallow wooden trays that have thin metal rails and they really gouge the doors. My parents have white thicker picket-fence looking pullouts with big padded front corners, and it is still a bit awkward to always be careful to open the doors far enough to not have the trays scrape the doors, while not opening them so far that you infringe upon the fridge or cabinet that is adjacent. Rollout trays would drive me crazy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rev-a-Shelf wood pantry pullouts

Are you sure that you can get or want an 18" x 93" pull out? That would be extremely heavy to operate. Can you have it made in two separate sections? There are some great quality pullouts with smooth mechanisms but pulling a pantry out each time that you wan to use it that is loaded with all of your items would be a chore.

I understand the benefit of being able to see into it from both sides but you can look down as easily on the roll out shelves. The thought of having to open the door each time to get to the shelves doesn't sound too appealing but once you have it open you can go right to fully organized shelves as you need them.

I think that roll outs have a definite cool factor but I would suggest that you try one in a showroom before deciding.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen cabinet storage

Our last kitchen had a 17" wide pantry with roll out shelves. The lower part of the cabinet (with the ROTS) ended 6' above the floor. There was a separate 21" high cabinet stacked above that had vertical dividers for storing cookie sheets, wire racks, platters, etc.

I really liked the ROTS because I could view items from the top, side or front to easily find what I wanted. I did not find it a chore to open the door and then pull out a tray separately. I would be bothered if I had to pull out a huge unit every time, rather than just the shelf I wanted to access. The door hinges were placed in between ROTS, so they did not interfere with each other. We had really good hardware, so the ROTS rolled in and out easily. We also had a 2" spacer between the cabinet and the side wall, so the door could open just past 90 degrees, and we did not have trouble with the ROTS hitting the open door.

Wow! Thanks for the insight and suggestions. I realize I wasn't as succinct as I could have been in the original post. The upper 1/3 portion of the 93" unit is a cupboard with a separate door and fixed shelves. Kaysd, I'm going to copy your layout and specify vertical dividers in the upper portion for trays. Rikerk, I'm leaning toward your solution: one of each.