SDC 1511

I had a telephone conversation with the client who relayed the same frustration as outlined in the original question seeming to blame the cause of the issue on the hardware itself and expressed resignation as to the manufacturer's ability to adequately understand and then ultimately solve the problem.

I asked this client about the balance of the hardware installation who then told me that floor closures were installed. I immediately expressed my doubt in the floor closers as being the proper hardware if they were not correctly specified to the manufacturer to adequately handle a door of this height. I intimated that I had seen several installations in the past where a supplier has provided material as specified to a client only to later learn that the floor closures fail because the client did not divulge the information that the doors were excessively tall which is certainly the case in this installation. If the manufacturer of the floor closer is not aware of all of the parameters of the doors it is very possible that you're going to get a door closer that will not be able to reliably bring the door to the closed position 100% of the time.

I received the images above from the client and immediately noted the positioning of the magnetic locks in the header we're not in correlation with the manufacturer's guideline regarding this. the manufacturer is guidelines states that the magnetic locks are to be installed as close to the leading edge of the door as possible. This is obviously not the case.

I asked the client this single question to which I've received no response:

What is the time delay set to on the relock? How long is the magnet waiting prior to relocking?

I have followed up with the client on no less than four occasions and have continued to receive no response.

Conclusions:

• regarding the manufacturer's lack of ability to grasp the problem I can state from actual experience on multiple occasions that my conclusion is the manufacturer SDC in this case, possesses complete and total mastery of their product line and have without fail aided me in every instance regarding their magnetic lock sets.
• I have supplied Rixson floor closers to clients in the past who later after installation notified me that the material was defective and only upon complete analysis it was discovered that the closers were miss specified originally and obviously supplied incorrectly because the closers were not ordered to take an account all job site conditions including door size and building stack pressure. I fully expect that this was the case on this opening. I believe this because what I pressed the issue regarding being advised as to what the original specification was for the closer the client refused to respond.
• I believe that the issue regarding the location of the magnetic locks in the header is very contributory to the problem because you're not allowing the door to get into as much of a closed position as possible prior to the magnets firing so that when you locate them in the center of the door the leading edge of the door is still quite ajar when the magnet is attempting to seal the door off by locking the armature plate down to the magnetic assembly. I believe this is a significant reason why it's not working reliably 100% of the time in which is why I precisely asked the question:

  What is the time delay set to on the relock? How long is the magnet waiting prior to relocking?

  as the magnetic lock we have supplied is capable of having it's time to relock set up to a handful of seconds and if that's value is set to its maximum time delay the door may be able to get into a a position where there is no further movement of the door through its closing cycle nor any bounce back by and underpowered floor closer.

• it is quite possible that the increasing to the time delay is going to solve this problem however I believe fully that it's a factor of the closer and the location of the magnetic locks as what is causing the intermittent failure rate on this opening.
• I expect that the client fails to respond because somewhere in the above we have discovered and have pointed them in the direction of what the mitigating factors are and have inferred that the magnetic locks are likely at no fault whatsoever. Unfortunately it's likely a problem of the original specifier or unqualified person who came up with the hardware set and then the people who made the decision as to where to physically locate the magnetic locks. I firmly conclude that it's not a problem of the manufacturer in this case but it's a problem of either the architect, contractor, end-user, original hardware supplier of the floor closers.
• In past dealings with this client I can confirm this client is incredibly cost-sensitive and will without exception purchase the material from the least costly source possibly and know that they have ultimately supplied material by going through the Amazon type channel and can only tell you while Amazon might be a good source for DVD’s and and other consumer commodities I would vigorously argue that you don't go to, (what is it affect an online flea market for material that has the potential for the need of extreme technical support so extreme in fact people make a living only supplying and specifying the above-mentioned material), Amazon for specialized goods. It's like having your landscaper defend you in a personal injury law suit.