In depth Bisley and Helmer side by side review (PSA: Haunted bottles are too tall for Bisley drawers)

I have a blue Helmer but since it's discontinued, and frankly, I'd like something a little more sturdy, so on this sub's recommendation, I purchased a Bisley in Oxford Blue.

The Oxford Blue is a bit darker than the blue Helmer, with the former closer to a navy blue, but slightly lighter. The Bisley is shorter than the Helmer, with measuring 23" v 26" (not counting wheels). And that height difference comes from the fact that each drawer in the Bisley is 1/2" shorter (3.5" v 4"). This isn't a huge deal…EXCEPT for Haunted Polish bottles, and anything taller. Additionally, it's also ever so slightly too short for mooncat in its boxes. You can kind of get it to work because it's paper boxes after all, so there's some give, and if you put it in the top drawer (where there's no sag from above), you can close the drawer without the boxes getting knocked over. But not so for Haunted and their freakishly tall bottles.

The Bisley drawers internally measure 9.25" x 14.24" while the Helmer is about 1/8" narrower and 1/2" deeper. There's a lip at the back of the Helmer drawer that points backwards but the sliver of metal at the back of the Bisley points into the drawer, so the last 1/4" of the drawer is covered by this "lip." Taller bottles (like Morgan Taylor, Orly, China Glaze, etc.) can't be pushed all the way to the back because of the lip even though they aren't too tall for the drawer otherwise [Pic #3]. The OPI juuuust fit but I hadda shove it under), while the BKL fit with no problem. Just don't store your tall bottles in the back row.

The build of the Bisley is clearly sturdier and I'd be much more willing to stack one on top of another together (although I know some people did this with Helmers too). The drawers slide out smoothly, even when it's completely full of polish and it doesn't have that friction that Helmer drawers have when you pull out a full drawer. There's no pull catch so it's pretty easy to pull the entire drawer out, but it's not so fast that you'd do it accidentally that easily. Even if you do pull a full drawer out accidentally, the drawer itself is sturdy enough it won't immediately bend all out of shape (which happened to one of my Helmer drawers, and I had to bend it back into shape).

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. The Haunted issue is a real bummer because it makes me feel like it's possible there will be other brand bottles that don't fit in the Bisley drawers. While a Bisley is the price of 3 Helmers (or 2x other Ikea drawers), I'm pretty sure it'll last my next move, whereas my Helmer got dented on top and in the back from my last move. I do plan on buying another one to replace the Helmer at some point in the future, probably in a more fun color than Oxford Blue and maybe destashing all my Haunted 😂

Anyway, if the price point isn't an issue for you and if you don't have a ton of Haunted Polish, I think it's a great storage solution!