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How Do You Adjust Opening Pressure On A Door Closer?
There are two different types of door closers. Fixed spring and adjustable spring. Both closers operate similarly in which there is an internal spring that stores energy as it compresses when the door opens, and releases energy as the spring decompresses to close the door. What sets these closers apart is the ability to adjust the tension on the spring; or the ability to adjust opening pressure, or opening force that is required to open the door.
For fixed spring closers there is no adjustment for opening pressure. You will need to purchase an adjustable spring closer to do so. Adjustable spring closers can be found
here.Adjustable door closers are the only closers that have the ability to compress or decompress the spring tensions by adjustment, resulting in lesser or greater force required to open and close the door.
ADA Guidelines
First you need to identify your door to make sure you are complying with ADA guidelines. When it comes to adjusting the door opening pressure, no more than 5lbs of opening force is required for interior doors. If it's an exterior door it may not exceed more than 8.5lbs typically.
Other Factors
Many Door closers can be adjusted to ADA compliance. However, your door can have other factors hindering its operation, such as HVAC stack pressure, door weather stripping, bad door hinges, etc. All these issues can be factors that affect the opening force lbs. To check to see if your door is being affected by these factors you need to remove door sweeps, lube hinges, etc so that the door is not binding or experiencing any force that will make your reading difficult.
How To Properly Measure Opening Pressure
The force is measured when the door is unlatched and consistent pressure is used to push it open. NOTE: The initial force to open the door is not counted.
Adjustability
Always reference the door closers manufacturer guidelines before making any adjustments to the closer. Manufacturer guidelines will have an adjustment chart which shows the recommend number of turns they require for doors of varying dimensions.
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I Have Tried All The Above
There are some doors where no matter what you do, the opening force requirement cannot be met. For these cases your only option is using a low energy automatic ADA door opener in order to reach ADA compliance.
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