micky wrote
Rod Speed wrote
micky wrote
ONe of the rollers on my sliding glass door seems to have failed.
Quite a few of mine have failed, I have 13 massive great patio
doors, all rooms except the bathrooms and toilets have at least
one and only the bathrooms and toilets and kitchens have
normal windows as well.
It's tipped to one end,
Not sure what you mean by that.
Thanks for everyone's advice.
Just to clarify this, the left side of the door is no longer vertical
and the top doesn't quite meet the frame, so it's tipped to one end.
but the door still rolls easily. How strange.
Yet it still rolls well so I guess the roller wheel is good
but the metal frame of the roller has partly collapsed.
Yeah, very likely.
Not really if its just moved along under the door.
Is the maker of the door written anywhere on
the door? Inside the handle? On the glass?
Nothing like that on mine.
Is there any decent way to buy a replacement
roller or assembly *before* I take the door out?
Not if you cant identify the manufacturer.
Someone may be able to identify the door if
there is something unusual about it mechanically.
Otherwise, I either have to take it out twice, leave the
house wide open while I go to the store, or find someone
to house sit. That's assuming they sell it locally.
And you may find replacement wheels arent available anymore.
The link at the bottom shows 109 designs! so I'm optimistic.
What are the odds they sell it locally?
Impossible to say.
The house and door are 41 years old. The frame
is aluminum. Glass thermopane. Does that help?
Nope, that was very common then.
Do many of the roller assemblies for sale all fit in one kind of door?
Not clear what you are asking there. There are lots of different
roller assemblys even with that particular type of door you have.
I figured that all that mattered is that it fits in the opening in the
door and the attachment screw is (roughly?) the right height to match
the door,
Mine are much more complicated than that. The wheel assembly has
a sort of flat hook like thing that slides into a couple of slots in the
aluminum frame of the door with a screw to keep it in place. And
the whole wheel assembly is height adjustable so you lower the
wheel with a screw that you access thru a whole in the frame
at each end of the sliding door with a screwdriver. That is
to prevent the moving door from being removed from the
frame without the moving pane being unlocked.
And the other variable is the wheel itself, that varys
with the extrusion that the wheel runs on, with a hard
plastic U shaped tire on the wheel. That U shaped tire
is what fails most of the time with mine.
Maybe based only on the thickness of
the door, which is usually the same?
Fraid not.
Would you do this alone if you were 74, fat,
and hadn't been to the gym in a long time?
I can just do it myself, but it's a real bugger putting
it back. And I'm roughly the same age, but not fat.
Got a mate of mine to help me with the last one,
the doors are ****ing heavy.
I think I could do it with a friend, but Corona is another problem.
Yep.
I took it out once 35 years ago and it suprised me by trying
to kick out from the bottom while I was holding it at the top.
Mine don't do that.
Just because you had a better grip on it.
Nope. The wheels on mine are still running on the track
when you have wound the wheels into the frame so the
top of the sliding panel come out of the frame at the top.
So the top comes out of the fixed frame and you then
lift the bottom off the track to remove it completely.
I'm busy holding the top and somehow the
bottom was going in the other direction
until I stopped it with my foot or something.
Mine don't because of the hard plastic U shaped
tire on the wheel still holds it on the track.
This time I'll be prepared for that, but I'm 35 years older.
I did the moving part of each door last time. This is the narrower one.
Mine are the same size for the both the
fixed and moving part, each 4' wide.
My fault. Two separate doors, four panes. this is the narrower, lighter
door but I'm too lazy to go downstairs and measure the width.
I watched a couple videos. Swisco wants me to send them
multiple pictures and measurements and a description.
https://www.swisco.com/blog/2020/11/0...?
Sounds like the best approach.
Ai-yai-yai:
https://www.swisco.com/cl/Patio-Glas...-Wheel-Rollers
Ed, I hate to replace a whole door for a 10 dollar part,
Yeah me too, the doors were bloody expensive
50 years ago and cost even more today. Massive
great armoured glass isnt cheap at all.
but you might be right anyhow.
In the past I got furnace and AC parts and even an identical bathroom
sink to replace mine that got chipped, by noticing when neighbors with
identical houses got new furnaces or AC or a sink, and I used several of
the parts, but I've never seen say, a sliding door frame with broken
glass but good rollers. If I had I would have taken the rollers.
Since I got 13 of the doors when building the house, the
manufacturer gave me a box of spare rollers and locks.
I suppose if any door glass did break, whoever fixed it
removed the old door (and saved the rollers for himself),