Do you ever receive complaints about slamming doors? My guess is that you probably do, and the cause of those slamming doors is likely a broken closer.
As we’ve talked about at great length before, slamming doors can cause a damaging ripple effect to your door and locking hardware, leaving you with misalignment issues, shattered glass, and broken hardware.
“But Katie,” you say, “I have already installed heavy-duty closers on my exterior doors. The problem is some of my doors keep getting blown open, breaking the closer.” Well, my friend, I have a solution for you – invest in a heavy-duty door closer with a dead stop.
Notice I said heavy-duty. If you put a light-duty closer on an exterior door, you will end up with problems regardless of whether or not the closer has a dead stop.
Closers With Dead Stops
What is a Dead Stop?
A dead stop is a component of the door closer that absorbs the impact from the arm and keeps the door from opening any further. This protects the closer arm from opening past the designated opening angle, and keeps the arms and all other working components intact.
There are two kinds of dead stops: bumper dead stops and spring assisted dead stops.
Bumper Dead Stop
The most basic dead stop is a bumper dead stop. The arm hits this and will not open any further. This type of dead stop won’t work well on a light-duty closer. The arms would not be strong enough to withstand the force of strong winds and would likely still break.
Spring-Assisted Dead Stop
The preferable type of dead stop is the spring assisted dead stop. The arm hits a spring, which slowly absorbs the impact, and decreases the amount of force exerted on the arm, should the door be blown open. This is much gentler on the closer, door, and locking hardware.
Here is a video showing you the difference between the two types of dead stops.
If you have any questions or need help selecting a door closer for your commercial facility, let us know. We’re happy to help! However, if you’re having issues with a residential door, your best bet is to go to a local hardware store. They’ll have the answers you need, as we don’t stock residential products.
