WHOA. Today’s Wordless Wednesday photo courtesy of Deputy Jeff Tock of Allegion.
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WW: Exploding Closer
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WHOA. Today’s Wordless Wednesday photo courtesy of Deputy Jeff Tock of Allegion.
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HOW???
A tooth breaks off of either the pinion or the rack, then gets caught between a couple of good teeth on the pinion and rack. That forces the pinion and rack apart, and the weakest part is usually the closer body which then splits open violently. The old (circa 1970’s) Russwin #500 slimline closers were famous for this.
Ok someone needs to post a link to a parts breakdown of a door closure
Weak metal ? Children pushing on it to hard?
There is a specialist attorney for everything?:::
http://www.constructionwitness.com/Published-Articles/Doors-Door-Closers-Door-Hardware/Manual-Door-Closers-Do-You-Have-an-Open-and-Shut.aspx
My sister-in-law had a door slam against the back of her leg due to a faulty closer at a national pizza chain, nearly severed her achilles tendon. The company quickly settled even though she just wanted her medical bills paid.
Cool! Great illustration to be used in the cast iron vs die-cast aluminum argument — this photo’s going viral.
Looks like somebody tried to scare a squid! Or bought a closer at the local big box hardware store.
I’d bet this is a altered photo. A door nerd walks by a door with camera in hand and snaps a photo exactly the right moment the closer explodes. The door appears to be not moving – what would cause the tremendous force?
I’ve watched a closer body crack and fall apart before but exploding is something new to me.
Entertaining but stupid. Leak yes! Explode like this not a chance! Unless someone had left over 4th of July explosives. Cool pic anyway.
Get what you pay for…..
It appears there is a grille above the oil stain and possibly some louvers directly above the closer which may indicate an air curtain. If it is, that may have contributed to the failure. Some heated air curtains, especially steam heated, can throw out some serious BTU’s.
Looks like black paint. If you have ever seen door closer oil, it’s fairly clear, like motor oil.
It is also installed incorrectly. Even though the door is open a bit, it doesn’t look like that arm could be at 90 degrees with the door closed.
The old P&F Corbin pot closers were notorious for losing checking action causing the door to slam. Common on 1930s schoolhouses around these parts, I believe some injuries and lawsuits have been reported.
Pete Schifferli
many years ago I was shown how to make a “reading 600” explode for an end user that didn’t believe there was any difference between cast iron and alum shells except the price. close the sweep and latch speed valves and force it close three times and on the third attempt to slam it closed it goes off. I saw it done once and did it twice.
This underscores the importance of buying a quality closer with UL and BHMA certification from a reputable manufacturer and not a look-alike!
The problem is cost how do you justify the 225.00 for a 4011 4110. All this great discussion on how good cast iron is has built-up Hager and Stanley business. 9 out 10 facilities will buy low bid cast iron.
Every now and then we will get a work order from a school stating a closer is not working.
When we get to the door we see where a geyser of oil has exited one of the adjustment screws
and hit the ceiling.
This tells us that the school janitor has got himself a new set of allen keys.
We replace the closer and forward the work order to the paint department.-sigh*
I as well have witnessed first hand faulty door closures. I would say that a good 99% are a result of field tampering by maintenance staff who just don’t know what they are doing . Whenever we install a unit we always give the maintenance person the installation instructions and set up information. We also tell them when in doubt call us . It’s less expensive than a new unit . For a number of years we also used a voidable mylar label we would put over the adjustment screw valves . This way we knew if someone else tried to adjust the unit .
Today … One of our door closures exploded the same way as the picture shows … looks like it could be the same brand. Now we are worried that the other ones in our building will do the same thing.
This happened to the door at my workplace. The oil inside was black and left a huge mess. The door is at least 40 years old.