Open Front Storage Bins: Sizes, Types & Buying Guide

An open front storage bin is a plastic bin with the front face cut away so a worker can see the contents and reach in without moving the bin. Open front storage bins come in two kinds: stackable bins, some of which also hang on louvered panels, and nesting shelf bins that do neither. This guide covers how they differ, what sizes exist, and how to order the right one.

What is an open front storage bin, and why does the catalog call it a hopper bin?

The reader and the catalog use different words for the same part. People search for open front storage bins, front opening storage bins and open bins. Quantum's line calls them stack and hang bins, hopper front bins and shelf bins. A stack-and-hang bin is an open front bin. A hopper front is an open front.

What they all share is the cut-away face, so stock comes off the shelf without unstacking anything. In almost two decades of selling to industrial customers, that one feature has decided most of these orders. The rest of the mechanism is family-specific, which is where buyers get tripped up.

• Stacking ledge and anti-slide lock. Quantum's Ultra Stack & Hang bins carry both, so a column stays put while a picker reaches into the bin below it.
• Rear hanger lip. The QUS 200-series and the SSB stackable shelf bins have a rear lip that drops onto louvered panels and rails with no hardware. The QMS, QGH, QUS 900-series and QRB bins do not. Nesting QSB shelf bins have something different: a rear hanglock that secures the bin to a shelf and lets it tilt out, which is not a louvered-panel lip.
• Divider slots. Every family except QGH and QRB publishes a divider-slot count, so one bin holds several part numbers. Dividers are sold separately.
• Optional covers and windows, never lids. Nothing here ships with a lid. The QUS 200-series lists optional dividers, clear covers, clear windows and labels; the QUS 900-series and QMS drop the covers; QGH lists only windows and labels; the QRB rack bins list no accessories at all.
• Material. Injection molded from high density polypropylene, strong enough for bulky parts and a busy industrial environment. Most of the range is listed waterproof, autoclavable to 250 degrees F and resistant to extreme cold. The QUS 200-series adds FDA-approved materials. Front, back and side grips are published on the QUS 200-series, SSB, the QUS 900-series and QRB for easier carrying; the QGH and QMS pages do not list them.

Stackable vs nesting: which one do you need?

Where the bin is going to live decides the type.

• Line-side, a pick face on louvered panels, or stacked columns with no shelving. Open front stacking bins, the QUS 200-series and the SSB stackable shelf bins. These are the stacking bins, open front and hopper faced, that most people picture: they stack, they hang, and the contents stay reachable either way. Stacking is what buys vertical space back when floor space is at a premium: the column grows upward and every bin in it stays reachable.
• Rows on stockroom or back-of-line shelving. Nesting shelf bins, the QSB line. No hanger, no stacking ledge, built in 12, 18 and 24 inch depths to line a shelf in dense rows. The shelf carries the load.
• Pallet rack and bulk positions. The deep open front storage containers: QUS 900-series at 24, 30 and 36 inches, QRB rack bins at 42, plus wide QMS Magnum bins and tall QGH hoppers.

Now the line customers quote back to us: non-stackable bins are always going to be less expensive than their stackable counterparts. That holds, with a condition. We matched every nesting shelf bin to the closest stackable open front bin in our catalog and found 25 pairs on comparable footprints. The shelf bin was cheaper per piece in 25 of 25, by 4% to 72%, most of them between 30% and 55%.

Here is the closest pair, priced 2026-09-16. A QSB101 shelf bin is 11-5/8" x 4-1/8" x 4" outside and ships 36 to a carton, or $1.57 a bin in the opaque colors. A QUS224 stack-and-hang bin is 10-7/8" x 4-1/8" x 4" and ships 12 to a carton, or $3.51 on the same basis. Same shelf position, 2.2 times the money. Prices move, so treat that as a snapshot.

The reason is structural. A stack-and-hang bin has a stacking ledge, an anti-slide lock and a rear hang lip; a shelf bin has none of them, so there is less to mold. Several stackable bins also carry a published load rating, which shelf bins do not, because the shelf does that job.

Every nesting shelf bin is molded with 7 divider slots, so one bin subdivides into as many as 8 compartments, and takes Quantum's DSB width dividers. A QUS stack-and-hang bin takes DUS length dividers and has 1 slot up to 8-1/4" wide, 3 once it reaches 11". Slot counts vary by model on the other stackable families, so check the model you are buying: SSB423 is 8-1/4" wide and has 3. The 18 inch QUS248 has one slot; the 18 inch QSB808 has seven. If your constraint is part numbers per shelf foot, that gap matters more than price. Empty shelf bins also nest inside one another to conserve space, which stackable bins cannot do.

Sizing cheat sheet: how to choose

Five rules cover most of the mistakes we see on incoming orders.

• Order by inside dimensions, then confirm the outside footprint. A QUS997 is 35-7/8" x 23-7/8" outside but 33-1/4" x 21-3/8" inside, so two and a half inches of width goes to wall thickness. Pick the inside space your part needs, then check the outside against the panel or shelf.
• Match depth to shelf depth. Shelf bins come in 12, 18 and 24 inch nominal depths; deep stackable bins in 24, 30, 36 and 42. Too shallow wastes the shelf, too deep hangs into the aisle.
• Height is the expensive dimension. In the 11-5/8" x 4-1/8" shelf-bin footprint (QSB101, QSB201, QSB801), the same 36 bins cost about 2.6 times as much at 8 inches high as at 4, opaque colors, checked 2026-09-16. Inside height equals outside height on every shelf bin, so buy height only where the part needs it. A taller bin also costs you a shelf level.
• Buy cartons, not pieces. Everything is priced and shipped by the carton, and carton quantity runs from 3 to 36. A QUS270 ships 3; a QSB101 ships 36. The 3PL job below was 2,508 bins, or 209 cartons.
• Capacity does not scale with size. The 24 inch QUS953 is rated 350 lbs; the much larger 42 inch QRB246 is rated 180 lbs, and SSB, QMS and QGH publish no rating at all. Do not infer one from the footprint.

Bins across a shelf is the shelf width divided by the bin's outside width, rounded down; the shelf-bin table below prints the count for a 36 inch shelf. Size to the quantity you want at the pick face between refills, not to the part itself.

Stackable open front bins

Model	Outside L x W x H	Inside L x W x H	Capacity	Per carton	Best for
QUS210	5-3/8" x 4-1/8" x 3"	4-3/4" x 3-7/16" x 2-13/16"	15 lbs	24	Fasteners and electronic smalls
QUS224	10-7/8" x 4-1/8" x 4"	10-1/4" x 3-3/16" x 3-3/4"	35 lbs	12	Narrow single-SKU pick positions
QUS238	18" x 5-1/2" x 5"	17-1/8" x 4-3/8" x 4-3/4"	45 lbs	12	Dense louvered-panel pick face
QUS248	18" x 8-1/4" x 7"	17" x 6-1/2" x 6-1/2"	80 lbs	6	Parts rooms, retail shelving and counters
QUS235	10-7/8" x 11" x 5"	10-1/4" x 10" x 4-3/4"	55 lbs	6	Wider stock, 3 divider slots
QUS270	18" x 16-1/2" x 11"	17-1/8" x 14-3/4" x 10-1/4"	80 lbs	3	One bin per shelf position
SSB423	12" x 8-1/4" x 7"	11-1/2" x 7-3/8" x 6-1/2"	Not published	6	Shelf runs that also stack and hang
QMS531	19-3/4" x 12-3/8" x 5-7/8"	17" x 11" x 5"	Not published	6	Wide shallow bulk at a workstation
QGH700	15-1/4" x 19-7/8" x 12-7/16"	13-5/8" x 17-1/2" x 12-1/4"	Not published	12	Tall bulk hoppers, stack up to 6 high
QUS954	23-7/8" x 16-1/2" x 11"	21-7/8" x 14-1/4" x 10-3/4"	350 lbs	6	Flush fit on 24" deep shelving
QUS997	35-7/8" x 23-7/8" x 17-1/2"	33-1/4" x 21-3/8" x 17-1/4"	300 lbs	6	Flush fit on 36" deep shelving
QRB246	41-7/8" x 23-7/8" x 17-1/2"	40-1/8" x 21-1/2" x 16-1/2"	180 lbs	6	Pallet rack and 42" deep shelving

Nesting shelf bins

Shelf bins are published as depth by width by height, and every footprint below except the narrowest comes in all three heights at the same carton quantity.

Model	Outside depth x width	Height options	Per carton	Fits across a 36" shelf
QSB100	11-5/8" x 2-3/4"	4"	36	13
QSB101 / 201 / 801	11-5/8" x 4-1/8"	4", 6", 8"	36	8
QSB102 / 202 / 802	11-5/8" x 6-5/8"	4", 6", 8"	30	5
QSB107 / 207 / 807	11-5/8" x 8-3/8"	4", 6", 8"	20	4
QSB103 / 203 / 803	17-7/8" x 4-1/8"	4", 6", 8"	20	8
QSB108 / 208 / 808	17-7/8" x 8-3/8"	4", 6", 8"	10	4
QSB110 / 210 / 810	17-7/8" x 11-1/8"	4", 6", 8"	8	3
QSB105 / 205 / 805	23-5/8" x 4-1/8"	4", 6", 8"	16	8
QSB114 / 214 / 814	23-5/8" x 8-3/8"	4", 6", 8"	6	4
QSB116 / 216 / 816	23-5/8" x 11-1/8"	4", 6", 8"	6	3

Who benefits from open front bins

These are settings our own customers have built, with the bin type each one landed on. Our guide to organizing small parts on a manufacturing line splits the same decision into line-side, stockroom and kitting zones.

Setting	What goes in the bins	Bin type that fits	Why
3PL or high-volume fulfillment	Client SKUs across many brands at the pick face	Stack-and-hang QUS on louvered panels	Most SKU positions per foot of aisle, no mounting hardware, and color blocks do the wayfinding for new pickers
E-commerce brand packing its own orders	Small precision components: bushings, bearings, wheels	Stackable QUS built into a pick cell	Label holders plus an open face, so one picker confirms and grabs without leaving the workstation
Hardware store sales floor	Pipe fittings, screws and fasteners, hand tools	Stackable QUS on shelving, counters and freestanding racks	The front label slot reads to staff and shoppers, and the interlock keeps a public-facing display orderly
Manufacturing line and stockroom	Production hardware line-side, slower movers behind the line	QUS hung line-side, QSB shelf bins in the stockroom	The zone decides the type: hanging at hand height for every-cycle parts, shelf rows where SKU density beats wall mounting
Repair and MRO shop	Hydraulic fittings, connectors, adapters, seals	Open front shelf bins on steel shelving	One labeled slot per near-identical part, and vertical shelving buys capacity without taking floor from the work area
Behind-the-counter retail	Small retail products pulled while a customer waits	Shelf bins with divider slots on counter-height shelving	Dividers put several SKUs in one bin and retrieval stays a single reach
Clinical supply room	Sterile packs, single-use items, PPE and bulk supplies	12" deep QSB shelf bins, plus extra-large stackers for bulk	7 divider slots per bin, waterproof, listed autoclavable to 250 degrees F, and sized to shelving already in the room
Walk-in cooler or freezer	Product held by prep stage, lab and pharmacy cold storage	Stack-and-hang QUS and deeper SSB stackable shelf bins	The QUS 200-series is listed FDA-approved, autoclavable to 250 degrees F and resistant to extreme cold; SSB lists the same temperature range without the FDA claim. Front, back and side grips help with gloved handling

The largest of these is a New Jersey 3PL that had a new brand landing at the dock with no pick face to receive it. They built the whole thing from 2,508 QUS238 bins, 209 cartons in four colors: 1,092 blue, 696 yellow, 492 green, 228 black. Thirteen pallets, ordered Tuesday and delivered the following Monday. The bins hung on louvered panels mounted in pallet rack with no hardware, and the four colors were deliberate, so the wall itself tells a new picker which SKU family they are looking at.

A skateboard-parts manufacturer packing its own orders had the opposite problem: disorganized storage and picking errors on bushings, bearings, wheels and pivot cups. They arranged QUS250 bins in a U shape around one workstation, with bulk reserve on shelves directly above the pick area, so the picker never leaves the station.

Retail is a different test, because the bin is on display. A hardware store put red QUS248 bins across built-in shelving, countertops and freestanding racks so fittings, screws and specialty tools each have a fixed home with a readable front label, and color carries department information.

For sheer SKU count, a Georgia hydraulics shop is the clearest case. They stock fittings, connectors, adapters and seals that look nearly identical, and run red bins on vertical steel shelving so a technician grabs the right one mid-repair without stopping the job.

The one hard outcome number we can point to is an automotive parts plant in Stow, Ohio. No component had a dedicated slot, so parts went missing and pickers spent hours searching. After switching to a high-capacity bin shelving system, that plant documented a 40% increase in picking speed. That figure belongs to that customer, not to bins in general.

Clear open front bins

Clear earns its premium when the open face alone does not tell you what is in the bin or how much is left. See-through sides remove the open-and-check step, so someone scanning a wall identifies what they need without pulling containers down. That pays off where time is the metric, which in practice means medical supply rooms and busy warehouses.

Clear versions take the same accessories as the opaque ones. Label them anyway. Transparency shows what is inside; it does not tell you the part number, and an unlabeled bin is a mystery bucket whatever it is made of.

Clear is not offered everywhere. The QUS 200-series color list runs blue, black, red, green, ivory, yellow and clear, and the nesting shelf bins offer clear in all three heights. Clear is not offered on SSB, QMS or QRB, or on the 30 and 36 inch QUS bins; check the color list on the model you want. Where clear exists it carries a premium.

Mistakes to avoid

• Assuming any open front bin will hang. Only the QUS 200-series and SSB advertise a rear hanger for louvered panels and rails. If the plan is a louvered wall, nesting QSB shelf bins are the wrong part.
• Expecting a lid in the box. None of these ship with one. If the contents need closing off, buy a lidded container instead.
• Buying shelving first and filling it with whatever fits. You end up with a mix of depths, nothing stacks cleanly, and each run turns into a patchwork. Pick bin sizes from the parts, then hold depth consistent along a run.
• Ordering everything in one color. It looks tidy on the purchase order and throws away free wayfinding. Color-blocking by SKU family costs nothing and cuts training time and mis-picks.
• Using an open front bin where it does not belong. Our order picking bins guide lists the counter-cases: stock that needs dust protection, a column where the bottom bins need frequent restocking, and parts heavier than the panel or shelf is rated for. Those call for a lidded container, a shelf, or a rack, not an open bin.

Open front storage bins: questions we get asked

Can open front bins be stacked?

The stackable ones can, and that is the design intent of stacking bins with an open front like the QUS line. Stack-and-hang bins use a stacking ledge plus an anti-slide lock so a column stays put while someone reaches into the bin below. Only the QGH giant hoppers publish a maximum, and it is 6 bins high. Nesting shelf bins are explicitly not stackable.

Do open front storage bins come with lids?

No. Nothing in this range ships with a lid or cover, because the open face is the product. Clear covers and windows are optional accessories on some families only, and the QRB rack bins list none at all. If the contents need closing off for dust or transport, buy a lidded container rather than adding a cover to an open bin.

What are front opening storage bins used for?

Anywhere stock comes out of a bin many times a day and the bin should not move; open storage bins are for the parts you touch most. Product pages name warehousing and distribution, manufacturing and repair, hospitals and pharmacies, auto and aviation repair, plumbing supply and service vans, back-of-house retail and hardware stores. The common thread is one-handed retrieval from a bin that is stacked, shelved or hung.

What is the difference between stackable and nesting open front bins?

What holds the bin up. A stackable bin is molded with a stacking ledge and an anti-slide lock so full bins build a column. On the QUS 200-series and SSB it also has a rear lip that hangs on louvered panels; the deep QUS 900-series, QMS, QGH and QRB bins stack but do not hang. A nesting shelf bin has none of that. It sits on a shelf, and empty bins drop inside one another to save space.

How many open front bins fit across a shelf?

Divide the shelf width by the bin's outside width and round down. Depth does not affect it. A 36 inch shelf holds 13 of the 2-3/4 inch wide shelf bins, 8 of the 4-1/8 inch, 5 of the 6-5/8 inch, 4 of the 8-3/8 inch and 3 of the 11-1/8 inch. Every product page prints the count for 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 inch shelves, so you do not have to do the arithmetic.

How do I pick the right bin height?

Nesting shelf bins come in 4, 6 and 8 inches only, and inside height equals outside height, so the listed number is your usable fill depth. Size to the tallest item plus room for a hand over the open front. Height is the most expensive dimension and it sets how many shelf levels fit in a bay.

If the bin has to hold itself up, start with the open front stacking bins. If it is going on shelving you already own, start with the nesting shelf bins and pick depth off your shelf first. The wider range of plastic parts bins sits between the two. Stuck between two sizes, call us with the part and the shelf depth.