If you’re replacing your patio door this summer, think “wood combination”, not vinyl. A wood and vinyl combination frame is strong, durable, and therefore extremely energy efficient. Its good looks are also maintained, season after season, year after year.
Many people are still tempted by vinyl frame sliding doors because they believe it is still a reasonable option. That is simply not true these days. Ask any expert. They recommend that homeowners avoid purchasing and installing vinyl sliding doors because vinyl does not have the structural integrity of combined wood and vinyl doors. A vinyl door is simply a temporary solution, which will need to be replaced, over and over again.
Vinyl expands and contracts four to five times more than other materials, including wood and metal. For one thing, that makes a vinyl sliding door less energy efficient and creates a cascading effect of other issues that end up affecting the performance of the entire door. Let me explain.
Energy efficiency
A vinyl sliding door will make your energy bills skyrocket. Why? Regardless of the season, there will be substantial energy loss through a vinyl door.
Have you ever experienced a sticky wooden door that is difficult to open and close in the summer? That’s for expansion. Materials expand when heated. We now know that vinyl expands four to five times more than wood. Therefore, a vinyl sliding door becomes much more difficult to operate in hot weather and when it gets hot. Such expansion and contraction can also cause bowing and warping. You can very quickly get a 1/16 inch crack around your door just with a vinyl frame that expands and arches.
If you think that fraction is negligible, think again. The Department of Energy informs us that a 1/16 inch crack around an average-size window opening is equivalent to a brick-sized hole missing from a home.
Now, in winter, when it’s cold, a vinyl door contracts. When the door contracts, it will separate from the glass unit and the silicone that seals the glass to the frame will begin to move slightly day after day, season after season. Eventually allow air to enter and escape around the glass.
Thermal expansion is the term used to describe how a material expands in warm temperatures and contracts in cold temperatures. Vinyl has a very high “coefficient of thermal expansion” and that is not a desirable quality on your patio door.
Bow and deformation
Warping and warping caused by vinyl thermal expansion may be the first visible sign that something is wrong with your door, but warping and warping is causing other damage as well. The expansion will put pressure on the track and the sliding wheels at the bottom of the door. And when those long rails start to bend and arch, the door panel’s performance will take a hit, too.
Even if you don’t pull the door off the rails, it arches it enough that it no longer closes properly. Once your door’s closing ability is affected, it affects your safety. If someone is going to break into a house, they will not break through a window. They’re probably going to bang on the patio door. Old patio doors have the kind of weaknesses that are an attractive incentive to lurking thieves.
In short, the workings of the handle, the locking mechanism, the rails, the glass panes – everything eventually starts to break and crumble in a vinyl framed patio door. The result is a rather annoying door that doesn’t close properly, doesn’t slide properly, and ends up costing you more money than you bargained for because it increases your energy bill.
Bottom line? If you are looking for a sliding door on the market, you should consider (1) the structural capacity of the product (2) the energy efficiency of the product and (3) the ease of operation. You want a solid door that will stand the test of time and give you peace of mind.
Vinyl simply fails these tests in all respects.