Why do Bifold Closet doors break and how to fix them?
Not to be confused with our Magiglide, durable, warrantied bifold closets
I recently visited a new build home in the neighborhood and noticed that they had bifold closets. I walked into a spare bedroom, and saw that the bifold closet door was not installed, but just leaning up next to the opening. This home had been occupied for just over one month. The home owner said that the door had fallen off of the track so many times, that they couldn’t take it anymore and hence, they took the door off completely. Problem solved! (Sort of?! 🤷♀️)
There are common thread issues with regular hollow core bifold closet doors that often go wrong with use and maintenance including but not limited to: falling off of the track, “sticking” when opening or closing, panels broken apart, or the doors creeping open when you try to close them.
So many times when I’m calling on a new architect or developer, I try to avoid using the one word that makes them stop in their tracks and think “NO!” That dreaded word, “BIFOLD.” The reason for this strong aversion, is years and years of bias, usually based on experience surrounding that type of closet. The term bifold, refers to a closet door that while in theory sounds great for a closet door option, often times lacks in terms of usability and longevity. (At Landquist & Son, we manufacture the most durable bifold closet door on the market, none of the common complaints in this article are one’s of Magiglide products, I’ll get into why at the very end of the article.)
The most complained about maintenance issue surrounding bifold closets, is that they often fall off of the track. A hollow core, bifold closet door often has a spring roller ball that will easily fall out. Maintenance with housing, of a development with these types of doors, is used to doing this type of repair. The video below is a well rated fix, where their may be two different culprits for the reason why the door keeps falling off of the track. It could be because the pivot pin in the corner, needs to be tightening so that it stops moving around everytime the doors is opening and closing. Once tightened, the door shouldn’t fall off of the track any longer. Sometimes, as shown in the video, you can tighten the pin hardware, as hard as it will go, and it will STILL move. This means that the actual track needs to be replaced, or you need to manually add additional screws on the inside of this track to prevent the pivot from moving at all.
Often times, a hollow core bifold closet door will stick when trying to open or close it. This can be problematic when something isn’t functioning the way it intended, but also can hurt the user. Bifolds are synonymous with “pinched” fingers, and the reason for this is when the door isn’t functioning properly, when it is sticking, people will fight with it to get it to open or close, therefore injuring themselves in the process. The video below shows how to go about fixing this sticking issue. It all comes back to that pivot pin placement again in the top right and left of the door attaching to the track. Take a look below.
All hollow core bifold closet door panels are held together by a 3 hinge system. When people put pressure on the closet doors, these can often come separated, having the hinge break and needing replacement. The website below, goes through step by step on how to replace a hinge on a bifold closet door.
Often times, with a hollow core bifold closet door, a person will try to close the door, only to find the door will creep into a slight open position. This is very frustrating, as typically the inside of the closet is what is trying to be hidden and not the showpiece of the room. When bifold doors creep open, it typically is a spring hinge issue inside of the track. The website listed below has a nice step by step to follow in order to fix this maintenance issue. CLICK HERE.
Now that we took a look at all of the problems surrounding typical hollow core bifold closet doors, lets dive into why Magiglide bifold closet doors in particular, are not a door to be grouped into with these hollow cores.
Magiglide bifold closet doors are superior to other bifolds in particular when it comes to the hardware that comes proprietary to the door. Many times, architects and developer specify our Magiglide closet doors into projects, as they are a door that people can depend on for years, with optimal performance in high density areas. The first area we will take a closer look at is our heavy duty track. Below is a link to a video, showing our track in motion, moving back and forth with ease, hence “Magiglide". Our pivot guide actually cannot just pop out of the track, in order for the pivot guide to come out, the track must be removed. We have done sturdy tests, where 300 lb people have hung from the top of the door, and the door doesn’t fall out of the track, because it can’t.
Taking a closer look at the hardware isolated here, you can see that our pivot guide was specially made for our aluminum track, fitting perfectly into the slots. No wheel or roller ball that simply pops out at any given moment here.
The nylon pivot guide above is also the reason for this durable bifold closet door being able to glide back and forth with ease. We don’t hear complaints of users pinching their fingers, because they aren’t involved in a door fight with the door. The door glides open smoothly when you want it to, and it closes smoothly when you want it to. Another reason this glide moves so nicely, is because the weight of the heavy duty solid core door is held on the floor pivot bracket. It is not hanging from the ceiling, it is more being supported by the floor, and the ceiling track’s sole purpose is for a smooth straight line glide back and forth. Take a look below at the standard floor plate model without a closet attached vs. with a closet attached.
Bifold closet doors that are not durable can become separated quite easily, since their are typically only 3 hinges attaching panels to each other. Since Magiglide has such heavy duty solid core doors, a 3 hinge system is NOT enough. The inventors of the door 60 years ago, took this into account when formulating their inventive design. Bob Sandburg, thought back then that hardware was everything. He was right. He was so right, that our Magiglide bifold closet door is like the apex predator in the ocean, it has remain unchanged since inception. Seen below is a spin on the typical 3 hinge system, that adds significantly to the durability of the system again. The FULL length piano hinge is propitiatory to our Magiglide bifold closet door. It is the way we know if a bifold is ours, we are the only manufacturer to do this. Often times when giving a product presentation in Chicago, I’ll say to the architects, “I want you to go home tonight, and open up your bifold closet door at your condo/apartment in the city to see if it has this full length piano hinge.” More times than not, they had a Magiglide product at their fingertips without realizing it.
The last issue addressed in the fact that most hollow core bifold closet doors do not remain closed. Magiglide bifold closets have another piece of hardware to compete this. To ensure that the closet door remains closed, Bob thought of installing a spring closure device on the back of the door. This spring closer enacts after crossing a certain threshold shown in the video below on a full scale door. Again, a common misconception of a bifold closet door nuisance, that is just not an issue with Magiglide bifold closet doors.
Magiglide spring closure hardware installed.
Magiglide Spring Closer hardware.
