Sliding Or Hinged Door Wardrobes? (3)

What about the reliability of different types of fitted wardrobe doors?

Sliding door wardrobes do tend to have operation issues attached to them both about the mechanisms breaking down and the perception that they are inclined to come off their tracks. This perception is largely due to the allembracing marketing of cheap steel framed sliding doors in the 1980s and '90s as an affordable but fashionable new type of fitted wardrobe. These wardrobes ordinarily had mirror panels in metal frames that clipped together in the corners and the earlier models were generally 'top-hung' in that the rollers were fitted to the top corners and ran on a track suspended from the ceiling. The problems largely arose from the frames coming apart at the corners under the weight of the glass panels, the lightweight roller mechanisms breaking down or the tracks pulling away from the ceiling with the follow that the doors jammed in the lowest tracks. The harassed user, trying to dress for work would tend to force the jammed door along its track and the whole installation started to disintegrate.

Door Bottom

The manufacturers quickly redesigned the sliding door systems to have the rollers at the lowest of the doors and to run in the lowest tracks. This achieved some improvements in the durableness of the doors, which now being in compression rather than suspension were less inclined to come apart but introduced a new question of the doors jumping out of the tracks if they so much as ran over a sock. Also the ball bearing rollers at the lowest of the doors tended to clog with fluff (common sufficient at the lowest of a wardrobe), with the eventual follow that they ceased to revolve and again the door tended to jump or jam.

These steel framed systems are still ready as prefabricated doors in the Diy sheds and can be used to make an reasonable sliding door wardrobe but the reliability issues persist.

Subsequent advances in the construct of sliding wardrobe doors using aluminium, rather than steel, frames bolted rather than clipped together at the corners and with a new generation of sealed rollers with built-in anti-jump devices have largely eliminated the reliability issues and contemporary bespoke fitted furniture with sliding doors are no more likely to suffer from jamming or jumping than a hinged door is likely to come off a wardrobe carcass.

However sliders do have more complex mechanical systems than hinges and the opportunities for failure are therefore greater. Having said that, I recently revisited a development of apartments in Shad Thames, London and was delighted to see that some aluminium framed sliding doors we installed when the block was built roughly 20 years ago were still performing well.

Today we have looked at the comparative reliability of sliding or hinged doors. Next week we think different construct options.

Options Furniture
37 Grace firm Centre, Willow Lane, Mitcham, London Cr4 4Tu
Tel 0845 375 2959

Sliding Or Hinged Door Wardrobes? (3)

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