What's the difference between glides and castors?

Table leg glides or small castors? Glides and castors each have their own purpose. This guide is designed to help you understand what they are, the different types, and when to use each. This will help you make the right choice for your application. We’ll cover:

• Castors or glides?
• What are glides?
• What are castors?
• Types of glides and castors
• Properties of glides and castors
• When to choose glides
• When to choose castors

Castors or glides?

At first glance, glides and castors attached to the bottom of furniture, appliances and equipment can appear to perform the same function. But take a closer look at their individual attributes and you’ll discover that they have very specific purposes, making them suitable for different applications.

As well as doing their job effectively, glides and castors form an integral part of the overall design concept, so they also need to be as unobtrusive as possible. Let’s get to know our glides from our castors by looking at some of the key operational differences between the two.

What are glides?

Also known as slide glides, these are lightweight flat feet. The key purpose of foot glides is to provide stability by ensuring that the item it’s affixed to doesn’t easily slide out of place. Machine and furniture glides are a great example. 

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What are glides on a chair?

Glides are generally small discs. They’re attached to the bottom of the chair leg and help your chair glide over surfaces, which protects the floor from damage as you move it.

What are glides on a sofa?

There are no differences in the glides you choose for your chair or your sofa. Your choice won’t be based on application, but on the flooring and your sofa’s leg material. For example, plastic glides for chairs will work just as well on sofas. Felt chair glides, or felt pads, are also felt sofa glides. You’ll learn more about this in the section on different types of glides. 

A look at glides: 
●    Low profile appearance – integrates harmoniously into the design
●    Noise dampening – by selecting the right glide material for the hard or soft floor surface
●    Self-levelling – allows users to easily correct balance and positional issues in equipment and furniture
●    Scratch protection – used as floor glides, protecting expensive floors from becoming scuffed or marked
●    Easily replaceable – easy and relatively inexpensive to replace for a component that receives the most wear and stress
●    Stable – the larger the contact area with the floor, the better the pressure is distributed across the floor (eg. Floor contact of 16mm diameter = 12.4kg per cm² whereas floor contact of 22mm diameter will reduce the weight to 6.6kg per cm²)
●    Quick fit design – a choice of easy fittings makes them easy to apply
●    Smooth and continuous motion – for precision movement and control

What are castors?

Castors have single or twin wheels. The key purpose of a castor is to facilitate an item that it’s affixed to being moved easily. 

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What are castors on a bed?

Think of hospital beds. Bed castors are attached to the bottom of the leg to enable patients to be moved while still in bed. Castors for bed can be used at home too, if you need the bed to be mobile. 

Castors:
●    Multifunctional – wide choice of tried and tested castors, with hard and soft designs to suit different floors (according to DIN EN 12529, hard castors are for soft surfaces and soft castors are for hard or elastic floors)
●    Mobility – ball castors have 360 degree rotation allowing them to move in any direction
●    Easily customised – make them suit a specific application with swivel, rigid, braking and locking options
●    Weight bearing – by calculating the load capacity and fitting the optimum castors, it’s quick and easy to move heavy loads
●    Environmental specific - optimise the performance of your castor by choosing a material suited for particular extreme temperatures or floor surfaces
●    Smooth movement – refined and complex working parts balance speed of movement with balance

You might find it helpful to read Demystifying castor terms.

Types of glides and castors

Choosing the right product for the right situation depends on whether something needs to be pushed, rotated, fixed, rolled or positioned. 
 

Glides

Glides come in a range of different materials and styles. Plastic glides for chairs and other furniture includes: 

Glide materials: pros and cons

Felt		Metal		Plastic
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Possesses special sound damping characteristics and can compensate for unevenness in the floor.	Wears out easier and requires regular cleaning.	Has the best gliding characteristics for carpeted floors and old hardwood parquet.	Can have a tendency to develop surface rust unless it’s stainless steel.	Offers different gliding properties, from almost resistance-free gliding to anti-slip characteristics.	Can cause streaks on the floor surface if using PVC or polypropylene alone.

 

Castors

Light-, medium- and heavy-duty castors come in a range of different materials, from rubber castors to stainless-steel castors. They’re also available with different features: braked castors, locking castors, screw-in castors, levelling castors for uneven flooring, carpet castors, and adjustable castors. 

We’ve included some examples below, but you’ll also find it helpful to read Five different castors and their jobs. It explains important points, such as the difference between lockable castors and those with brakes. 
 

What are castor weight classifications?

Before you can choose a castor, you have to know what you’re looking for. That means you need to know the weight of your application. 
●    Light-duty castors: can support up to about 145 pounds of weight. These types of castors are commonly used for computer or laundry equipment.
●    Medium-duty castors: can support anywhere from 140 to around 325 pounds of weight. They are commonly used in hospitals or for display racks.
●    Heavy-duty castors: can support from 300 to about 3500 pounds. These types of castors are even used on trucks and transport trailers.
 

What are the properties of glides and castors?

As we’ve discovered, both glides and castors excel at different operations for different reasons. Your choice will depend on your application, the level of performance and specific attributes you’re looking for.

This at-a-glance guide is a helpful way to compare and contrast 10 key attributes covered above, helping you start your decision-making process. To help you put these attributes into context, think of a simple office chair. 

What are the differences between office chair glides and castors?

Attribute	Glides	Castors
Mobility		✓
Stability	✓
Low profile	✓
Heavy loads		✓
Floor protection	✓
Noise damping	✓
Customisable		✓
Self-levelling	✓
Replaceable	✓	✓
Speed		✓

When to choose glides

Glides are ideal if you're buying heavier office equipment that will be stationary. If the item does need to be moved easily, you can do so without damaging your flooring.

When to choose castors

Use castors when you need the item to be mobile. A nice attribute of castors is that they’re designed for specific purposes – there are even medical castors designed for the healthcare industry.

 

Download free CADs and try before you buy

Free CADs are available for most solutions, which you can download for free. You can also request free samples to ensure the solutions you’ve chosen are exactly what you need. If you’re not quite sure which product will work best for your application, our experts are always happy to advise you.

Request your free samples or download free CADs now.

Questions?

Email us at sales@essentracomponents.co.uk or speak to one of our experts for further information on the ideal solution for your application 0345 528 0474.