Solid Brass Appliance Pulls: Sizing for Panel-Ready Doors

An appliance pull is an oversized bar handle, usually 10 to 24 inches long, fitted to a refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher or full-height pantry door. It is not a different product category from a cabinet pull. It is the same bar at a larger hole spacing, and the number that decides whether it fits is the centers, not the length.

In short

• Studio Timeless lists every pull as centers / overall length, for example 16.37"/19.68" (416/500mm). The first number is the hole spacing. The second is the bar end to end.
• At the same 6.29" (160mm) centers, overall length across our ranges runs from 6.69" to 8.66". That is a spread of almost two inches on the same drilling.
• The longest brass pulls in the catalog reach 19.68" (500mm) in the knurled range and 23.62" (600mm) on the two dedicated door pulls. One round-rod T-bar reaches 39.37" (1000mm).
• Single-sided or double-sided is the real appliance-pull fork. Double-sided costs roughly 92 to 93 percent more on both door pulls.
• ANSI/BHMA A156.9 asks a pull to carry a 75 lbf static load without the part or its screws failing.

An appliance pull is a use, not a product type

No pull in the Studio Timeless catalog is sold under the word refrigerator. The Appliance Pulls collection gathers the pulls that are long enough and deep enough to work on an appliance door, and most of them also appear in Cabinet Knobs and Pulls at shorter sizes. The knurled T-bar is a 2.16" drawer knob at one end of its range and a 19.68" appliance pull at the other. Same bar, same knurl, same brass.

That changes how you shop. You are not looking for an appliance-specific product but for the largest size of a profile you already chose for the rest of the kitchen, which is the argument of our guide to cabinet knob and pull sizing and spacing.

The two numbers on every listing, and which one you measure

Every Studio Timeless pull size is written as two measurements separated by a slash. The first is center-to-center hole spacing. The second is the overall length of the bar. A listing that reads 12.59"/14.01" (320/356mm) is a pull you drill at 320mm and that occupies 356mm of door.

Order by the first number. Plan your reveal with the second. A pull whose centers are right but whose overall length you did not check is how a handle ends up fouling a cabinet stile or crossing a door edge. Only one-piece knobs and short T-bars carry a single figure, such as 2.16" (55mm), because there is nothing to space.

At the same centers, overall length varies by almost two inches

Overhang past the screws is a design decision, and it is not consistent across our ranges. Here is every family we offer at 6.29" (160mm) centers, read from the live catalog on 11 October 2026.

Six times the overhang from the tightest family to the widest, on identical drilling. On a run of drawers nobody notices. On an appliance door flanked by a 1.5" stile, it is the difference between a clean reveal and a handle that touches the frame.

The five ranges that reach appliance length

The knurled T-bar climbs through eight sizes to 16.37"/19.68" (416/500mm) at $71.90, in Brass, Antique Brass and Black. The classical door pull and the linear door pull bar are the two products built for doors rather than drawers, both reaching 23.62" (600mm). The round-rod T-bar goes further than anything else at 39.37" (1000mm). And the knurled accessories range includes a Pull Bar at 19.68" and 23.62".

Longer costs less per inch, not more. The knurled T-bar runs about $7.67 per inch of centers at 3.77" and about $4.39 per inch at 16.37". The tooling and the finishing dominate; the brass does not.

Single-sided or double-sided, and why the price nearly doubles

Double-sided means two matched bars drawn together through the door on common fixings, so the handle reads the same from both faces. It exists for a door you pass through from either side, such as a pantry, a pass-through or a glazed cabinet. An appliance door has one visible face, so a refrigerator almost always takes single-sided. Prices read from the catalog on 11 October 2026.

Ninety-three percent more on the classical pull at 600mm, ninety-two percent on the linear bar at 534/600mm. You are buying a second complete handle, which is exactly what you get. Ordering double-sided for a refrigerator is the single most expensive mistake available on this page.

What a panel-ready appliance takes

A panel-ready refrigerator ships without a door front. You supply a cabinet panel, and you drill it. That is the good case: the holes go where you want them, so you choose centers by proportion rather than by constraint. A tall French-door panel pair usually takes two vertical pulls between 16" and 24" of centers; a single full-height door takes one.

Measure the panel, not the appliance. Set the centers so the pull sits at roughly a third of the panel height, centered on the stile, overhang clear of both edges. Our step-by-step on installing knobs and pulls in alignment covers the drilling, including why a template beats a tape measure.

The one thing you cannot do

You cannot retrofit a pull to a factory stainless appliance door. The skin is a formed panel over insulation, the manufacturer gives you no backing to draw a fixing against, and drilling it voids the warranty and can breach the vapour seal. If your appliance has a welded or integral handle, nothing on this page fits it, and no honest answer makes it fit. Replace the appliance with a panel-ready model, or leave the handle alone.

Screws, panel thickness and backing

Appliance pulls are the one place in a kitchen where the fixing is under real load, because the handle is also how a 300-pound door gets opened. Our pulls use the standard American machine-screw thread, and the length you need is set by your panel, not by the handle. A nominal 0.75" cabinet panel and a 1" appliance panel do not take the same screw.

Order screws to the panel you have, and confirm the appliance manufacturer permits through-fixing on a supplied panel before you drill. Where longer fixings are needed, brass screws and extensions are stocked separately. We do not publish a load rating per pull, and we will not confirm a fixing method for a specific appliance without the manufacturer saying so in writing.

What a pull has to survive

The American standard for this hardware is ANSI/BHMA A156.9, which covers close to one hundred types of cabinet hardware and sets operational, cyclical and strength tests. For pulls the headline figure is a static load: BHMA states that pulls shall support a 75 lbf test load without chipping, disassembly or breakage of the part or screws. The same standard asks 100,000 cycles of a Grade 1 hinge.

Seventy-five pounds is not a lot next to a loaded refrigerator door, which is why the fixing and the panel matter more than the bar. Solid brass does not shear at an appliance door; screws pull through thin panels.

Reach, grip and the accessibility question

A long bar is easier to use than a knob, and that is a measurable advantage rather than a stylistic one. The ADA Standards require operable parts to be usable with one hand, without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist, and with no more than 5 pounds of operating force, under section 309.4. A 19.68" bar satisfies the grasp requirement at any height a user can reach; a 1" knob on an appliance door does not.

Knurling earns its keep here: a cross-hatched bar stays usable with wet or oiled hands, which is the practical case for the cross-knurled range in a working kitchen.

Finishes: the appliance pull vocabulary is not the switch vocabulary

This is the fact that catches whole-house specifications. Studio Timeless electrical hardware carries eight finish names, including Aged Bronze, Stainless Steel, Unlacquered Antique Brass and Hammered Brass. Cabinet and appliance hardware carries a different and shorter set: Brass, Antique Brass, Black, Gold, White, Gunmetal Black and Black Brass, depending on the range, with the finish fused into the same option value as the size.

There is no Aged Bronze appliance pull. No Stainless Steel one. No Unlacquered one, and no Hammered one, even though hammered brass exists on both the cabinet range and on knurled switches. Names that appear in both lists, such as Antique Brass, are not a guarantee of a visual match either, because the electrical finishes are hand-brushed and specified separately. Read Our Finishes, then settle it with the Finish Sample Set at $50, credited against your first order. Our note on verifying a finish before you order explains what the set does and does not cover.

The only place in the catalog where Gold costs less than Black

The round-rod T-bar is the longest pull we make and the only one offered in just two colors, Gold and Black. Gold is cheaper at every length: $64.90 against $70.90 at 23.62", $81.90 against $88.90 at 31.49", and $117.90 against $128.90 at 39.37". It is also the only product in the catalog where Gold is a finish name rather than a word in a title, which is worth knowing if you arrived from our piece on what gold light switches really are, where the answer is that no gold plating exists on the electrical side at all.

Note the trade-off honestly: this range has no Brass or Antique Brass option, so it will not coordinate with a brass kitchen. It is the right pull for a black or warm-metal scheme and the wrong one for everything else.

Cost for a whole panel-ready kitchen

A typical panel-ready run is a French-door refrigerator pair, a freezer drawer, a dishwasher and two pantry doors: six appliance-length pulls. In the knurled T-bar at 16.37"/19.68" that is $431.40. In the classical single-sided door pull at 17.71" it is $893.40. In the round-rod T-bar at 23.62" in Gold it is $389.40.

Order one spare: a seventh pull bought now is cheaper than matching a finish later. The same logic across a full house is in our room-by-room specification guide, and specifiers should look at the Trade Program and our note on specifying Studio Timeless on a client project.

Where we are the wrong choice

If your appliances are factory stainless with integral handles, buy nothing here. If you need a pull certified to a published per-unit load figure for a commercial specification, we do not publish one and you should buy from a manufacturer who does. If your kitchen is built around polished nickel or oil-rubbed bronze, we make neither.

Where we are the right choice is narrow and real: solid brass rather than plated zinc, a profile you can carry from a 2.16" drawer knob to a 19.68" appliance pull without a visual break, and ten sizes of the same bar so the drawing can change without the hardware changing. Brass itself is an alloy family rather than one metal, as the Copper Development Association sets out, which is why a solid-brass pull can be refinished and a plated one cannot. Our guide to cleaning and maintaining solid brass covers that side.

One last point on origin, because it is the question we are asked most. An unqualified Made in USA claim is regulated: under 16 CFR 323.2 the final assembly must occur in the United States, all significant processing must occur in the United States, and all or virtually all components must be made and sourced there. Studio Timeless does not make that claim, and you should treat any brand that does as owing you the evidence.

Frequently asked questions

What are appliance pulls?

Oversized bar handles, typically 10 to 24 inches long, fitted to refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher and full-height pantry doors. At Studio Timeless they are the longest sizes of the same pull families sold for cabinets.

How are appliance pulls different from cabinet pulls?

Only in size and fixing load. The profile, the brass and the finish are identical. An appliance pull is a cabinet pull at 416mm centers instead of 96mm.

What does 16.37"/19.68" mean on a pull listing?

The first figure is center-to-center hole spacing, the second is overall bar length. Drill to the first. Plan your clearances with the second.

What size appliance pull do I need for a refrigerator?

On a panel-ready appliance you choose: 16" to 24" of centers suits most full-height panels, set at about a third of the panel height. On a factory door you have no choice, because you cannot drill it.

Can I put an appliance pull on a stainless steel refrigerator door?

No. A factory stainless door has no backing to fix against, and drilling it voids the warranty. Panel-ready appliances are the only ones you can fit.

Are oversized appliance pulls available in solid brass?

Yes. The knurled T-bar reaches 19.68" overall and the two door pulls reach 23.62", all in solid brass. The 39.37" round-rod T-bar is offered in Gold and Black only.

What is the longest pull Studio Timeless makes?

The round-rod T-bar at 39.37" (1000mm). The longest brass-finish options are the classical door pull and the linear door pull bar at 23.62" (600mm).

Do you make custom appliance pulls?

Not as a bespoke length. The custom work we do is engraving on switch plates through the Custom Configurator. For pulls, the range is the ten to twelve stock sizes of each family.

What is a double-sided door pull for?

A door used from both faces, such as a pantry or a glazed cabinet. It is two matched bars on common fixings and costs about 92 percent more. A refrigerator takes single-sided.

Do you make a dishwasher pull?

Any pull from about 10" to 19.68" works on a panel-ready dishwasher front. There is no separate dishwasher product.

Can I match an appliance pull to my light switches?

Only in black. The cabinet and electrical finish vocabularies differ, and there is no Aged Bronze, Stainless Steel, Unlacquered or Hammered appliance pull. Order the Finish Sample Set before committing.

What is a T-bar pull?

A straight bar on two standoff posts. At short lengths it is sold as a single-post T-bar knob; at appliance lengths it is the same profile on two posts.

Choosing without regret

Pick the profile first, because it has to survive the whole kitchen. Then order by centers, check the overall length against your reveal, and buy single-sided unless the door is used from both faces. Start in Appliance Pulls, or in Extra Long Cabinet Pulls if you want the full ladder of sizes in one view.

Last updated: 11 October 2026