External Door Closers

External door closers

There are many advantages to fitting a door closer to an external door, and if the external entrance door is a firedoor, it is mandatory to have a fire-rated closer fitted.

Do exterior doors require closers?

Most egress or fire escape doors (a green sign with icon of a person escaping) are non-fire rated, making a closer optional. A typical exception to this rule is escape doors adjacent a fire risk such as a bin store, or to protect an escape route. In these cases egress doors may legally require a fire rating and self-closing device.

Advantages of fitting an external door closer include:

•          Climate control and energy saving. Ensuring an external entrance door closes behind people helps reduce heat loss and cold draughts. In hot climates, it reduces air-conditioning demand.
•           Security. Door closers enhance privacy and enable security features like auto-locking latches, and mag-locks to engage.
•          Auto closing entrance doors can help keep stray cats out and pets inside.
•          Fire safety. As we often say, an open firedoor is no firedoor at all. Door closers must shut a firedoor properly to slow the spread of heat, flames, and smoke. It is a legal requirement for certain homes to have fire-rated front entrance doors, fitted with a controllable self-closing device. Look for a closer that is rated for your application and approved by an independent scheme such as Certifier or IFC.

Pull-side or push-side, Internal mounted or externally mounted?

Generally, it makes good sense to fit an external door closer to the inside of the door, especially in areas where vandalism is a concern. However, in practice, many entrance doors lack suitable fixing faces above the inner side of the door, especially in domestic settings. Often the gap between the ceiling and the top of door, or the revel is too narrow for a door closer.

Another trend we have seen is the mounting of door closers to the external side of multi-occupancy apartments, to ensure that building management can make timely inspections and repairs with less disturbance to the occupants.

In these instances, an externally mounted door closer can be a wise choice. Choosing one that is rated for external use is crucial, as most standard door closers will suffer corrosion, and hydraulic models designed for inside use can experience problems with temperature extremes.

The UK and EU recognised standard for door closers, EN 1154, grades closers into five classifications when it comes to corrosion tests, with grade 0 (zero) having no resistance and grade 5 having the greatest.  Grade 3 and 4 corrosion resistance door closers are suitable for external mounting in many outdoor situations, but for the longest-lasting closer in extreme situations like exposed coastal locations, you can’t find better than a grade 5.

It must be noted that EN 1154 gives each door closer model a classification score for six performance aspects; the last digit denotes its corrosion resistance. 

BS EN 1154 and BS EN 1670 terminology of indoor/outdoor ratings:

The actual corrosion test is done in a controlled lab by exposure to salt water, in accordance with BS EN 1670. The test results are then used as part of the EN 1154 assessment.

Now that you have filtered down your choice of external closer from a durability and corrosion resistance factor, choose your power size based on the weight and size of the door.   Rutland advise the use of ‘power adjustable door closers’ for external doors, because this gives the fitter leeway for air-pressures and windy conditions. 

Read our guide to choosing a door closer, and for estimating your door’s weight, see our practical guide “How much does my fire door weigh?”

Finally, check that your chosen closer can be mounted for the way your door opens – push or pull side mounting.  Some closers can be fitted either way, although on firedoors it is important to check that the model is approved for your situation.

Rutland Marine Grade External Door Closers

Rutland have door closer models that have been extensively field-tested at sea, in addition to passing formal lab testing to EN 1670 and EN 1154 with the highest corrosion resistance rating possible.Special versions of the TS.9205 and TS.9206 door closer models were developed for marine use, and were put to the test by a European naval ship-building firm for two years before being formally introduced to the UK commercial market. These are classified as suitable for “Service outdoors in exceptionally severe conditions where long-term protection of the product is required” under EN 1670.

• Both the TS.9205 and TS.9206 closers are power adjustable to suit a wide range of doors, Fire tested to EN1634-1, have an opening angle of 180^o, are Certifire approved, and can be fitted in Standard, Parallel arm or Transom fitting position.
• The top-end TS.9206 closer is power adjustable up to size 6, making it ideal for heavy doors (up to 120kg). It has been certified for doors up to 1,250mm wide (push-side fitting) and to 1,400mm on the pull-side installation configuration.

These Marine Grade closers have a solid 316 stainless steel cover plate and other design features that lend themselves to mounting on external doors in highly exposed areas that are subjected to weather and seawater spray.