I was meeting with a group of facility managers from Atlanta and was asked this Quick Question:  

Our doors have trouble closing every time the weather changes and it’s making our AC work overtime. Is there any way we can avoid adjusting each door every season?  

We’ve heard this one before – maybe even every spring and fall. Everyone has that door. Doors that need constant adjustments due to weather changes and temperature swings.  

Properly closing doors aren’t just a security concern but are critical for energy efficiency – an open door’s effects on energy costs can add up to around $1,000 per door annually. When doors don’t latch securely, they allow airflow to escape, which drives up heating and cooling costs. This is particularly true in commercial buildings, where air pressure differentials can “hold” doors open.  

While you might consider increasing the spring size of your door closer, this can actually create new challenges. Stronger springs make doors harder to open, potentially violating ADA standards, which require doors to be operable with minimal force and close within a specific timeframe – no less than 5 seconds from 90 degrees open to the 12-degree latch zone.  

Instead of adjusting the spring size, a great solution is to use a closer with advanced hydraulic fluid – one that balances energy efficiency and accessibility, like LCN’s all-weather Liquid X hydraulic fluid. 

We put the Liquid X fluid through some rigorous testing, and it shows great consistency from -30°F all the way up to 120°F. Against a simulated 52°F temperature drop, Liquid X-equipped closers showed less than a 0.4-second change in closing time (competitors’ fluids showed variations of over 6 seconds). 

Liquid X comes standard on the vast majority of LCN closers, including the 4040XP, 1460, and the 6400 COMPACT (the full list is here) so you can find a closer that fits your door and be confident it’ll close properly all year round.  

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