STORM DOOR HELP & PARTS Visit Our Parts Store Visit Our Help Center Replacing or repairing your window is a lot easier with the right instructions. Find the right manual and guide for your products and projects, along with performance information.Need help with your storm door? Visit our help center for advice and troubleshooting information. Simply enter your storm door serial number to be directed to information tailored specific to your storm door model. Don’t have your serial number? Our Help Center can help you in identifying your storm door model. Andersen is committed to helping you find parts quickly and easily for your Andersen and/or EMCO storm doors. Visit our online parts store and and use your serial number to find many of the most-common replacement parts for your storm door. Storm Door Parts Store For The Home Depot Associates : Andersen and EMCO Replacement Parts CatalogEvery day I run into people that have a simple problem with their storm door that is causing a lot of frustration.
If you are one of those people struggling with how to fix your storm door, or don’t know why it is doing what it is doing, then this page is for you. Here I address some of the common problems people experience with their doors and simple solutions to fix them. And if it’s not really a problem, I’ll tell you that too. My storm door won’t close and latch on it’s own with the entry door closed. This is one of a storm door’s most common problems. I can’t tell you have many people have argued with me about doors closing and latching on their own when the primary (or entry) door is closed before the storm door closes. From an attorney threatening to sue, builders and general contractors asking me if I’ve ever installed a storm door, to a scientist who actually installed 6 (yes, 6!) door closer pistons on his door in an effort to get the storm door to close and latch on it’s own, this problem drives type A personalities insane. But it’s really not a problem at all … in fact it’s simple physics.
Here’s how the problem starts. You leave through the front door and pull it shut behind you. You hold the storm door open; maybe with your foot or back while you lock the entry door. When done, you get out of the way and let the storm door close on it’s own. But it when it closes, it doesn’t latch. It’s stays open slightly. Now the Type A personality spends the next 4 days adjusting the speed of the door closer(s), trying to find the scientifically accurate balance to make the door close and latch on it’s own. If this is you … stop. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack or a stroke. There are bigger things to worry about in life. Here’s whats going on. Assuming you have an all glass door (or the screen is not down), as the storm door closes it begins to build pressure between the glass and the entry door. Normally, a storm door will close about halfway, the closers (or pistons) then kick in and slow the door down a bit, and then it closes the rest of the way.
But it won’t latch at the end. As the storm door is closing, it forces the air that’s trapped between the two doors out. But there comes a point when the air can’t escape fast enough, so it builds up pressure and pushes back on the storm door and the glass, and that pressure build up forces the storm door to stay open. In the end, the air pressure wins and the storm door remains unlocked. That’s why a storm door won’t latch if the entry door is closed first, and the reason you have to push it shut in order to get it to latch. Want to fix that? Well, you have 3 options (ranked in order from hardest to easiest):Sounds absurd, but in my experience people have demanded it. Put a screen in the storm door or open the window. This will break the pressure seal and allow the door to close and latch on its own. How much you have to leave the window open depends on the storm door, layout of your house, wind direction, how plumb and level your entry door is, what day of the week it is, what season, and a myriad of other factors you don’t control.
Just remember to push the storm door shut when you leave. If that’s the biggest problem you have to deal with every day, you’re doing great!Screen door latches get a lot of use and occasionally need to be fixed. When your screen door won't latch properly and pops back open or does not close all the way, the latch plate is in the wrong position on the doorjamb. This may be caused by the latch plates shifting over time, due to thermal expansion; or because the latch plate was installed misaligned with the door latch. Fortunately, you do not have to buy a new latch for your screen door, just adjust the seat or mortise of the latch plate to fix a faulty door latch. Tighten the screws on all of the hinges with a screwdriver. Test the door, as sometimes a loose hinge can cause the screen door latch to not shut properly. Cover the latch plate with masking tape. Rub colored chalk on the outer edge of the door latch. Shut the door and then open it. Inspect the tape to see where the chalk covered door latch hit the tape.
This will help you determine distance that the latch plate needs to move. Measure the distance from the hole on the latch plate to the side of the chalk mark closest to the right or left edge of the masking tape. This is the distance that the latch plate hole needs to move. If the distance is less than 1/8 inch, you can resolve the latch problem by making the latch plate hole larger with a half-round file. To raise the door and align the latch with the latch plate hole, remove a screw from the top hinge on the doorjamb. Drive a 3 inch screw through the hinge screw hole and into the doorjamb. To lower the door and align it with the latch plate, remove a screw from the bottom hinge on the doorjamb and replace it with a 3 inch screw. Test the door and see if it will latch properly. Remove the latch plate screws and the latch plate from the doorjamb. Place the latch plate in a vice. File the edge of the latch plate opening to widen it by 1/8 inch with a half-round file. Replace the latch plate and test the door to see if it will shut.