Bern latch snapped on a live job in Arlington this Tuesday

I was fitting the last drawer bank and the Bern latch on the side panel just cracked clean off, maybe 40 minutes before the homeowner came home. Turns out I had the catch plate mounted a hair too tight, so the plastic was under stress every time it closed. Has anyone else had these latches fail on them, and do you swap in a metal replacement or stick with factory parts?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

jake_hall881mo ago

Wait, is this really worth losing sleep over? You had the catch plate too tight, that's on you, not the latch. Ive snapped a few of those plastic ones myself over the years, but usually it's because I rushed the install or forced something that wasnt lining up. Sure, metal replacements exist and they wont crack, but they can also bind up and wear out the drawer slides if you're not careful. Honestly, if you set the plate with the right gap, the factory plastic ones last years. Sounds like a one off screw up, not a design flaw. Fix the gap and move on.

1