Sliding glass doors can be a great convenience, at least, until they start to get stuck in their track. Having a sliding glass door that only slides with great effort is about as good as no sliding glass door at all. However, there are some simple maintenance tips for keeping a sliding glass door operating smoothly.
Maintaining Sliding Glass Doors
When a sliding glass door starts to drag, it is a bad idea to keep on forcing it because this can damage the door further, making repairs hard or impossible. Damaged sliding doors can also fall out of the track and break or injure someone, so don’t wait long to make repairs.
Start by opening the door completely and carefully vacuuming the lower track, then scrub it with a brush, hot water, and soap. Allow the track to dry and apply a lubricant, then see if the door works any better.
If it does not, it is probably necessary to remove the door from the track to clean it further. Sliding doors are heavy and awkward, so be sure to have help or contact a repair person before removing the door. Once the door is out, the remainder of the track can be cleaned with a vacuum and washed and the rollers inspected, adjusted, or replaced, if necessary.
Apply the lubricant to all exposed surfaces of the track, top, and bottom, following the instructions from the manufacturer.
Sliding glass door rollers have small adjustment screws for raising and lowering the door, so it travels freely in the track. Sticky sliders often only need an adjustment of this screw to work again. On the other hand, sliding door rollers also wear-out and need to be replaced. Vern’s Glass in Victorville carries replacement rollers for many types of sliding glass doors which you can buy to fix your own door.
