How to choose a better folding door for your home?

29 Apr.,2024

 

How to choose a better folding door for your home?

Sliding doors, side hinged doors, narrow side doors, invisible doors... Among the current selection of interior doors, the practical and simple folding doors are also deeply loved by designers and owners.

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 In fact, it is not enough to use it well. The folding door is practical and beautiful, and we need to choose it well. However, the quality of folding doors on the market varies from good to bad. How can we choose our favorite product among the many options? There are three points to look at when purchasing aluminum alloy folding doors, and the IMAGERY doors and windows will explain them clearly to you.

Safety is most important

Although folding doors are good, protection and safety are also indispensable. Among the folding doors, a common safety problem is that accidents (children) are prone to pinching fingers when the folding door is opened and closed. In order to make the folding door safer and more reasonable, when purchasing a folding door, we can ask whether the folding door has an anti-pinch design (that is, whether the folding door product is equipped with an anti-pinch soft plastic strip between the door frame. The function of the strip is Guaranteed to be closed and sealed without pinching fingers).

Pay more attention to the quality of all the details

 A high-value folding door can improve the quality of life on the balcony and expand the space of happiness! Fully open folding doors and indoor/balcony spaces are seamlessly connected and intercommunicated, whether it is for transparent lighting, children's play, or living room gatherings are very suitable!

 Not only members of the Appearance Association, but we also need to pay attention to the appearance of the product when purchasing folding doors. Flat surfaces without scratches, soft and delicate feel, clear profile texture...these are all necessary for an ideal folding door. In terms of details, we also need to check whether the door leaf splicing of the folding door is rigorous, whether the quality of the adhesive strips is qualified, and whether the door leaf adhesive strips are loose or fall off. After all, these will affect the sealing performance of the folding door.

Operate open and closed it by yourself

The kitchen is one of the most suitable places for folding doors! The advantage of folding doors is that they can separate the space more freely, unlike sliding doors that have space and size restrictions. In the kitchen, if the door opening is small, you can choose a small folding door, and if the door opening is large, you can choose a slightly larger folding door. In addition, the full opening is also the strength of folding doors, which is one of the reasons why folding doors are simpler than swing doors.

For more information, please visit Aluminum Alloy Swing Door.

The folding door is multi-leaf folding, and it is necessary to check whether the door leaves can be opened flexibly during the on-site trial. Here comes the problem! Is the operation feel of the folding door as light as possible? not necessarily! A good aluminum alloy folding door feels smooth and unimpeded during operation, and the weight is appropriate (too heavy will make it inconvenient to open, and to light will easily cause swinging problems)

 There are indeed many benefits of folding doors, the appearance is stylish and good-looking, the lighting is transparent, and does not take up space. When you buy it, hope you can remember the above 3 points.

Aluminum Door Thermal Properties & ASHRAE 90.1

For non-residential entrance systems, aluminum flush doors and related stile and rail or monumental doors, are popular because of their distinct appearance.  Flush doors offer a variety of options for flexible configurations.   And monumental stile and rail doors always make a classy statement. However, the appearance of these doors can disguise poor thermal characteristics which can lead to energy inefficiency as well as appearance and functional issues. For instance, consider the effects of climate—hot summers and cold winters. The temperature differential from interior to exterior can be dramatic and the door is the separator between these extremes, Summer, Winter, all year long.

As a result, some doors, designed only for appearance, suffer. This is especially true of plank-style aluminum doors. But other doors seem to weather the storms just fine. Why?In addition to designing for appearance, Special-Lite doors are engineered for thermal efficiency.One significant standard in this arena was developed by ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers.  ASHRAE standard 90.1 specifies the energy performance of non-residential buildings as well as a variety of building products and materials, including doors.  It is the definitive energy standard for buildings in the U.S. and beyond and the basis of countless local building codes.For doors, ASHRAE 90.1 specifies performance as a desired U-factor.  U-factor expresses the rate of heat loss or gain.  Heat tends to move from warmer to cooler areas.  In our previous illustrations, the door experiences heat gain in Summer and heat loss in Winter.  A lower value for U-factor is better and indicates a low level of heat loss or heat gain.Further, ASHRAE 90.1 demands thermal performance based on defined climate zones with the most stringent standards for colder climates. These are represented by Zones 5, 6, 7 and 8, covering the northern U.S. and much of Canada.

In these zones, and for swinging, opaque doors, or aluminum flush doors, ASHRAE 90.1 calls for a U-factor no higher than 0.5.  And, for metal framed entrance doors or monumental stile and rail or doors, the Standard requires performance lower than U-factor 0.77.The standard further requires that products be tested per NFRC 100.  NFRC is the National Fenestration Rating Council and 100 is their test procedure for U-factor evaluation.Special-Lite products are tested by third party agencies to the NFRC specification in order to be considered compliant with the ASHRAE 90.1 standard.  Both ASHRAE 90.1 and NFRC 100 are accepted by ANSI, the American National Standards Institute.

So what are the results?

The Special-Lite SL-16, an aluminum flush door, has a measured U-factor of 0.33, well below the maximum allowed by the standard.The measured U-factor for the SL-15, an aluminum monumental door is 0.62, once more well below the maximum specified by ASHRAE.What does all this mean?  For aluminum flush doors and monumental stile and rail doors, you need thermal performance and energy standard compliance in order to achieve your goals:

  • Energy efficiency
  • Great appearance
  • Lasting and reliable functionality

Such products return value over the entire life-cycle cost model of your facility.And that’s just one of the ways we build the special in Special-Lite.

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