Alright, I'll be the dissenter. I hate soft close drawers. They require more of a pull to open initially (which can be an issue for arthritis and/or carpal tunnel sufferers and/or someone planning to "age in place") but mostly I hate the creepy closing on its own. I find it very disconcerting.

I'm also an old house lover/owner who put cupboard latches in her kitchen (despite aging in place concerns!), so anything so obviously modern as self closing drawers just don't feel right to me.

And, you CAN get undermount non soft close slides/glides for your cabinet boxes, I'm not sure what your cabinet maker is talking about. (Are you doing inset?) I was warned with the inset cabinets that we have that using the undermount (but not self close undermount) that the drawers might drift out/not stay in well. The drawers aren't yet majorlyloaded up with all our junk-which may make a difference-but so far you just open and close them-and they stay closed-just like the undermount non soft close hardware that were on our previous partial overlay drawers. (If this changes once I'm using, I will update this post.)

If you've never cursed the slamming of drawers/cabinets and have never pined for soft close drawers, you'll never know what you're missing and you'll have $700 to spend on something else.

I will concede that they are are becoming the norm-and are probably expected in high end kitchens-so that is a consideration for resale. But we did not put them in ours.

If you get soft close, make sure your cabinet maker is using Blum, they were the least objectionable ones I've tried. Manufacturers use the term "self close" and "soft close" interchangeably. There is some "self closing" hardware out there that is definitely not "SOFT" close there was a loud slam at the close and it was even more difficult to open. Ask for the Blum by name.