Tips for Preventing Patio Doors from Freezing Shut

With cooler weather comes a complete host of life changes. Often associated with the holiday season, winter can bring near a wide range of joys – it'southward no wonder there are countless songs sung about snowball fights, families huddling around the fireplace, and the general feeling in the air brought on by the common cold.

This change of the seasons isn't without its host of troubles though – on a more applied level winter tin can bring danger to the roads, increased ability bills, and pocket-sized inconveniences wrought from freezing.

Patio doors are specially susceptible to this freezing as they are often subject to an unprotected onslaught of common cold weather. If you lot find your patio door is often frozen shut yous should have a look at some of the prevention tips we take outlined here, followed by what to practise if your door is already frozen. Before we jump into either of these though it's all-time to go a better understanding of what causes a door to freeze in the first place.

What Causes a Door to Freeze?

The nigh obvious respond is cold weather causes doors to freeze but y'all already knew that. Not all doors freeze in cold weather though and there is a particular reason for this. Steel, plastic, and glass doors typically don't just sell themselves because they are solid substrates – liquid though, specially water, can easily freeze.

Frozen water often hits the ground in the class of snowfall, but can also plow into water ice in areas were liquid has accumulated. Larger areas like lakes and rivers evidence this on a large scale – merely ofttimes areas like leaves tin can accumulate frost from the humidity condensation on them at dark. This results in the air of a wintertime climate to be much drier than in summer seasons.

This begs the question then – what is causing an outside door to freeze if the air is so dry? While the answer can vary depending on your specific environs, most probable what is happening is that your patio door is leaking a small chip of air from the indoors. This air is naturally acclimatized to your preference, this air is going to be much more humid than the exterior air.

Simply in the same mode that boiling air condensates on a foliage or co-operative in the evening, so does this warm humid air on the colder surface of the perimeter of your door. What happens is that the warm air becomes much colder and ends upwards freezing like all the other liquids.

Prevention Methods

I of the easiest means to prevent a patio door from freezing is to brand sure that it's properly sealed. Open your patio door and check around the perimeter to come across if the weatherstripping is still skilful. If you notice whatsoever flaying, tears, or if it's simply straight up missing in sections you're going to want to replace it.

A ringlet of weatherstripping can be found at your local hardware store and is oft an extremely reasonable toll. Merely cut away the erstwhile stripping with a razor pocketknife, measure the perimeter, and cut the new stripping to size.

While this won't apply for sliding glass doors, if y'all notice that your door has a particularly big gap on the bottom, you lot can install a door sweep to keep your air in. If your door seals are still intact but you still have air leaks, then you might have a door that is just slightly misshapen for its frame or vice-versa.

Adjustment for these doors is often simple enough to do. If you don't accept the know how to do it, y'all should be able to hire a contractor that will do it for a sensible price. Bated from making certain your patio door is sealed tight, there are a few other things you can do to keep information technology from freezing up.

Lubricants like WD-40 take a much lower freezing temperature than traditional h2o and can exist useful for staving off the effects of water ice accumulation around the frame of your door. Other lubricants like Vaseline are similar in this regard in that they don't freeze except under the most brutal winter weather.

During the 24-hour interval, when the temperature isn't nearly as low, you tin can open your patio door for a few minutes. This helps to break off whatsoever frozen particles that may take started to accumulate, along with equalizing the humidity within of the home more than closely with that of the outside. If you lot detect your door is still freezing despite all these precautions, you might need to think virtually investing in a better door.

What to do if your Door is Already Frozen

Yous should never attempt to forcefulness a frozen door open up. If it'southward a sliding drinking glass door, this can damage the rails and even break the glass. Yous should avoid this with more traditional swing doors too, every bit forcing a frozen door tin can damage the frame or pause the lock.

What yous can do is apply a little bit of pressure level around the perimeter of the door – this will cause the material to curve, causing cracks in the ice. If the ice is particularly thick you might need to use a tool to chip away at the ice. While an official ice scraper is platonic just nigh any potent plastic object will piece of work – think of things similar a credit bill of fare or spatula.

Avoid using annihilation metal as this can scrape upwards the pigment and glass. Another technique is to simply melt away the ice. Plug in a hair dryer, signal it at the ice, and shoot away. You tin also fight fire with burn down – or in this example water with water past pouring a bullpen of lukewarm h2o on the ice to melt information technology.

Using hot water is never recommended as the large temperature divergence can shatter window glass. Official deicing products are available as well, but in a pinch homemade concoctions are possible. Modest amounts of rubbing alcohol can dissolve ice, along with a vinegar mixture. Be careful though as these chemicals can cause some impairment to the seals or drinking glass of your patio door.

Final Thoughts

At that place are many different ways to open a frozen door – from specialized concoctions of different household chemicals to a small pitcher of water, or simply a little bit of pressure, these doors aren't impervious even in the coldest temperatures. To avoid having your patio door freeze up in the first place try applying some graphite based lubricants to keep any frost from accumulating effectually the edges.

The best thing y'all can do is to undermine the potential of freezing – with the number one case usually being leaking warm air from the inside pushing humidity to the freezing exterior. Following the same principle of condensation that you tin can often find in your ain lawn in the early morning hours, this warm wet attaches itself to solid surfaces and then freezes in place.

Winter can bring a lot to your home – increased HVAC bills, damage to constitute life, and a general inconvenience brought on by snow and water ice. While all of these issues have their solutions, you tin can know that a freezing door does not accept to be one of them.

Beautiful Patio Doors

Before this wintertime comes, yous'll want to remodel your abode with make new patio doors. At Feldco, regardless of the style you choose, your new patio door will offer the best in security, looks, and dependability. Speak to a production specialist and get a free quote today.

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Source: https://www.4feldco.com/articles/freezing-shut-patio-doors/

Tips for Preventing Patio Doors from Freezing Shut