How to make sliding glass door slide easier?
James Egan
fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What can I do to
make it slide easier?
-Thanks
Eric in North TX
What I did with mine was: removed the sliding door, cleaned and oiled
the wheels, cleaned the track and reinstalled. You can run it with one
finger now.
LouB
Sounds like a lot of work. How about spraying something?
Lou
The Daring Dufas
Another guy mentioned cleaning and lubricating but
I've seen some that had a height adjustment for
the rollers and it was set too low causing the door
to drag.
TDD
Smitty Two
James Egan <jega...@comcast.net> wrote:
We've been through this before. First, "sliding glass door" is a
misleading misnomer. It's really a "rolling glass door." There are some
little wheels in the bottom.
The height of the wheels is adjustable. Sometimes they just need to be
re-adjusted.
Sometimes, some part of the mechanism is jammed up with crud. Sometimes,
when the mechanism gets jammed up with crud, the wheels stop rolling,
and start sliding. Then they get worn flat.
So, take it off the track, and get a good look-see at how those little
wheels work. You can buy replacement parts if necessary. Last time I did
this, for the g.f., I was pleasantly surprised that I needed no parts,
just had to clean and readjust things.
If you have an IQ above room temperature, you should be able to figure
out what's up when you take if off the track and study it.
Red Green
Sure. Spray it with Roundup.
I mean like why visit basically a DIY group if you don't wanna do anything?
evodawg
Should be an adjusting screw in the hole on the side if not you may have to
pull the door and replace the rollers or at least clean it and the track. I
also like using silcon spray to lubricate.
--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
Website Address http://rentmyhusband.biz/
Red Green
news:59f42e1c-301c-4a9b...@z15g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:
See Eric's reply.
Cleaning the track out is important. The crud normally collected in
there creates a lot of drag. That crud also gets pulled up into the
wheels - more drag.
I have a door that won't come out easily. Between floor being built up
over the years by owners/hackers and decades frame shifting, it isn't
coming out in/outward. Periodically it gets really really hard to move.
Thouroughly clean out track of dirt, dust, lubricants (which attract the
crud), etc. Amazing how much it frees it up.
Unfortunately can't clean wheels. I'd just replace them if I could.
Smitty Two
Red Green <postm...@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> LouB <Lo...@invalid.com> wrote in news:49D42D...@invalid.com:
>
> > Eric in North TX wrote:
> >> On Apr 1, 8:58 pm, James Egan <jegan...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>> I have a double sliding glass door which leads to a sun room. It
> >>> takes a fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What
> >>> can I do to make it slide easier?
> >>>
> >>> -Thanks
> >>
> >> What I did with mine was: removed the sliding door, cleaned and oiled
> >> the wheels, cleaned the track and reinstalled. You can run it with
> >> one finger now.
> >
> > Sounds like a lot of work. How about spraying something?
> >
> > Lou
>
>
> Sure. Spray it with Roundup.
>
Now you've done it. Here comes the big debate about whether or not
Roundup is *really* a lubricant.
Bob F
LOL!
Malcolm Hoar
>
LOL.
He could do worse than spraying it with warm soapy water.
Enough to wash the crud away, clear of the rollers and
tracks.
There's no doubt how it should be done; remove the door,
clean, lube, adjust, replace parts if necessary, reassemble
and test.
--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| ma...@malch.com Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HeyBub
There are times when no amount of cleaning, lubricating, adjustment, or
cursing will mitigate the problem. This unhappy situation occurs when the
track on which the rollers ride is so worn down that the door cannot be
adjusted sufficiently to avoid dragging of the frame.
Fortunately, there's even a solution for that: Track replacement.
Yes, you can get a U-shaped track-cover that restores the track to its
original condition. These replacement stainless steel track covers come in
varying thicknesses and lengths and merely snap on over the nub of the
original.
You should use a few wads of "liquid steel" to even out the gaps and dips in
the original before attaching the replacement. This prevents the weight of
the door causing future depressions. After preparation, installation is a
snap. Literally. You position the new rail over the old and tap it in place
with a rubber hammer.
I put one on my maniac ex-girlfriend's door and it was an immediate
solution. I think a 3/16" x 8' section cost about $8.00.
Aside: She was SO grateful, it was exhausting. So exhausting, I
surreptitiously broke several things around her house just so I could fix
them (did you know a charred cotton-ball stuffed in the smoke detector will
cause it to go off on a whim?).
George
Well american idol is coming on any second and they didn't check their
myspace account in the last five minutes. There just isn't enough time...
The Daring Dufas
Now who's the maniac?
TDD
LouB
Is that of a heated room?
Lou
LouB
To learn the vrious ways of fixing things - including the easiest.
Also. To see dumb replies.
Lou
LouB
> LouB wrote:
>
>> Eric in North TX wrote:
>>> On Apr 1, 8:58 pm, James Egan <jegan...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>> I have a double sliding glass door which leads to a sun room. It takes
>>>> a
>>>> fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What can I do to
>>>> make it slide easier?
>>>>
>>>> -Thanks
>>> What I did with mine was: removed the sliding door, cleaned and oiled
>>> the wheels, cleaned the track and reinstalled. You can run it with one
>>> finger now.
>> Sounds like a lot of work. How about spraying something?
>>
>> Lou
> Should be an adjusting screw in the hole on the side if not you may have to
> pull the door and replace the rollers or at least clean it and the track. I
> also like using silcon spray to lubricate.
Thank You.
Lou
LouB
sligoNo...@hotmail.com
Sorry, but the first thing you need to do is to get it clean.
Then re lube it and if necessary replace worn parts.
JIMMIE
I would start with cleaning the tracks and appling a little silicone
grease also check adjustments. Unfortunately a very common cause is
the header sagging because it was constucted or sized incorrectly or
improperly supported by the jack studs. When the one in my new house
quit working I was going to take the thing out permanently. In the
processI found there was nearly a half inch gap between the header and
jack studs. The header had been downsized to 4-1/2" because there
wasnt enough room for 2X6 and the gap filler between the two pieces of
2-by were just 4 small hand size pieces of 1/2" osb. I rebuilt the
header with th spacer being a solid piece of plywood gluing and
screwing everthing together. I also replaced the jackstuds with
properly sized ones that would actually support the header. That was
18 years ago and all the door has needed since then is regular
maintenance and new weather stripping.
Jimmie
LouB
Lou
Joe
> I mean like why visit basically a DIY group if you don't wanna do anything?
You're spot on there, Red. Some of the sad sack posters here appear to
only want sympathy, not a solution to their problem. So they hedge
their 'request' with preposterous conditions, like 'I want to build a
1000 square foot addition to my house but I won't pay over $500 for
it'. For the true DIY person a git 'er done attitude is a must.
Cheers,
Joe
Red Green
Well no one better dare to say I'm not a contributor!
HeyBub
Harrump! The difference between insanity and genius is the incentive.
Red Green
news:PL2dneOPq5xjPknU...@earthlink.com:
Thanks. Good to know that exists.
k...@bellsouth.net
> I have a double sliding glass door which leads to a sun room. It takes a
> fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What can I do to
> make it slide easier?
>
> -Thanks
This may not be the best way to fix the problem, but it has worked on
several doors for me. Rub a bar of inexpensive bar soap in the track,
work the door back and forth a few times and the door slides easily
The Daring Dufas
for some situations. I like Machiavelli too.
TDD
gree...@neo.rr.com
??? So, the wheels no longer turn, but the door just slip along the
track anyway? Sort of like driving on ice if your wheel bearings have
frozen up in your car. I must be missing something.
mm
>Eric in North TX wrote:
>> On Apr 1, 8:58 pm, James Egan <jegan...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>> I have a double sliding glass door which leads to a sun room. It takes a
>>> fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What can I do to
>>> make it slide easier?
>>>
>>> -Thanks
>>
>> What I did with mine was: removed the sliding door, cleaned and oiled
>> the wheels, cleaned the track and reinstalled. You can run it with one
>> finger now.
>
>Sounds like a lot of work.
It sure is. James if you do this, be prepared for how heavy they are,
and definitely don't let the bottom (or the top) get away from you.
Even my narrow one was hard to handle on my own, especially since I
didn't move all the furniture, but even if I had, it was heavy. The
wider one was heavier of course. And this was with aluminum frames.
And if the previous owner put a broom stick in the channel above the
door, you'd better get that out first. That's the point of the broom
stick, to keep the door from being lifted out of the bottom channel.
If you try lifting a lot and then remove the broom stick, you may be
tired after that and when you can get the door up, you may drop the
door.
> How about spraying something?
Spraying some sort of lubricant is a good idea. I removed the fixed
doors iirc because it made it easier to put burglar alarm switches in
the moving door channels, and because I didn't know they would be so
heavy.
Also the first few posts don't mention that after you lubricate, you
may want to raise the wheels it rolls on. This only works if some
part of the door is scraping on some part of the channel, but that was
the case with my bigger door, and it had probably been that way for
the 4 years the other guy had it and a few years that I had. Or maybe
it was good at the start and somehow got lower. There are two
wheels, one at each end, with a screw in the edge of the door that,
when turned clockwise iirc lowers the wheel and raises the door. IIRC
there is a secodn screw at each end that holds the mechanism in place,
so be sure to get the right screw. You only have to raise it a little
bit probably, and only until the it's not rubbing anymore. After that
there is no point in lifting the door anymore.
>
>Lou
Ulysses
"Bob F" <bobn...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:gr1evs$l5d$1...@news.motzarella.org...
The door should slide more easily if you kill the weeds with the Roundup.
Lee B
James Egan wrote:
> I have a double sliding glass door which leads to a sun room. It takes a
> fair amount of effort to slide open or close the door. What can I do to
> make it slide easier?
>
>
> -Thanks
>
too big for me (5' woman) to remove by myself to clean. I had a
contractor here about something else last year and mentioned it to him.
His recommendation was to spray with with WD-40 (which is I am sure will
cause some comment, but that's what he said). He said then to work it
open and closed a number of times, and after I could get it all the way
open, to take a bar of soap and run it along the track.
That seemed to work for me. It's not like finger tip easy to open, but I
can now easily open and close it myself.
Nate Nagel
Does it have an aluminum lower track? Does it look a little mashed
down? My parents used to have a sliding door in their kitchen and by
the time they bought the house the track was just simply worn out. Dad
went to a store and asked the guy if there was anything he could do, guy
sold him a long length of something that looked like those little chrome
door edge guards they sell in the "bling" section of Pep Boys but was
made out of stainless steel. The idea is that you just remove the
doors, snap it over the old, worn track, reinstall doors, and now it
slides smoothly again. This one was so worn that I think we gooed some
silicone in there before snapping it on and let it set up completely
before installing the door (so as to provide a little extra support.)
Door worked well until they eventually decided to replace it with a
french door (10+ years later) just because they liked the look better.
nate
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replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
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micky
You're welcome.