Door Closers – Why Do I Need Them?

A door closer is a device commonly seen in commercial and public buildings. As the name suggests, it enables a door to close whenever it opens. Most people would not realize the importance of this simple device not until a problem already arises. Before we fully understand what it can do to our homes or business buildings, we must first know the basics.

Types of Door Closers. Door closers can come in different types, depending on what you need. They can be concealed in frame and concealed in floor or surface mounted. Closers that are surface mounted have four different types. These include the regular arm, top jamb mounted, slide track arm and the parallel arm. Overhead type closers are mostly surface mounted, even though there are a lot of manufacturers that offers concealed models also like Norton 7900 overhead concealed and the Rixson 27 series. These are mounted inside of a pocket of the door frame though sometimes they can also be mounted in the floor under the pivot area directly and are concealed completely. The surface mounted ones are those with the small boxes attached on the door’s top corner. The arms that are jointed are the ones extended from the top level of the box on to the frame where this is bolted in.

You may also choose if you want it to be automatic or manual. The ones that we mostly see and are more common are the manual type door closers. Actually, there are over 70% of commercial building in North America that uses this type of door closer. This may be because manual types of closers are much cheaper compared to automatic ones.

How does a door closer works? Manual Door Closer – Either the jamb mounted or the overhead works on the air pressure principle and stored energy. This device is storing the energy that is being generated whenever somebody pushes the door open. After the energy has been generated, it will then use the stored energy to close the door automatically even without someone applying any force to close it. It is also equipped with hydraulic damper or spring mechanism which enables you to control its closing speed.

Automatic Door Closers – These kinds of door closers are using electrical power instead of the energy that is stored by a human. This kind of door closer is usually more expensive. This most of the time comes with a remote control for the device and a security alarm that you can turn on whenever you need it. Automatic door closer is less common than manual ones as it needs more power to operate.

What are the advantages of having a door closer? There are a lot of advantages of having a door closer. Door closers are important because it helps contain sounds from outside of the door, closes the door for security purposes and privacy. Whenever the temperature changes, wind or gusts a door may swing out of control and may be very injurious to very old and very young people. That is why the door closer can also be a safety device that can protect or reduce a potential injury to someone. Also a door closer is very important for fire doors because fire doors must always be latched and closed in a period of time to prevent fire from escaping and spreading.