How Often Should You Schedule Automatic Door Maintenance?

Automatic doors are a critical feature for businesses that need a quick, easy, and convenient way to accommodate foot traffic. Installing an automatic door system not only reduces bottlenecks, it also ensures your property remains accessible to all staff, visitors, and residents – regardless of their age, strength, and mobility. Because they play such an important role in your building, automatic doors need to be serviced regularly, to prevent unnecessary downtime and avoid costly repairs that could damage or disrupt normal operations. In this blog, we’ll review how often you should schedule automatic door maintenance in order to comply with safety regulations and ensure optimal performance.

Why Automatic Doors Need Regular Service

AAADM (American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers) inspections must be performed once a year to ensure safe operation. (High usage doors may require more frequent maintenance.) Regular service is the best way to identify signs of wear and address potential safety issues before they escalate and cause serious malfunctions or injury. Addressing problems early is the best way to ensure:

• Smooth Operation. Routine maintenance is the best way to ensure reliability and keep your doors operating in peak condition.
• Safety and Accessibility. Annual inspections make sure your doors are in good working order, minimizing the risk of accidents and allowing disabled people to enter and exit without difficulty.
• Extended Lifespan. Professional service reduces the strain on motors, gearboxes, and hinges, ensuring that minor problems are rectified before they lead to serious damage that could force you to replace the doors entirely.
• Strong Security. Systematic checks make sure the locking bolts and latches within the locking mechanism engage and disengage as intended, and are adjusted to keep your doors secure during non-business hours.

Inspections and maintenance are the most cost-effective ways to protect your investment. Minor repairs reduce the likelihood of failure and the need for emergency services, which are not only hard on your equipment, but can also be expensive and time-consuming.

How Often Automatic Doors Need to Be Serviced

There are two types of automatic doors: swing doors and sliding doors. Although sliding doors typically have more moving parts, they don’t necessarily require more maintenance. Instead, maintenance schedules are determined by the amount of traffic a door receives.

• High-Traffic Doors. Experience 500-1,000 cycles every day. Some locations, such as transit hubs, might experience over 2,000. As a result of the heavy use these doors receive, we recommend you service them every three months.
• Moderate-Traffic Doors. These systems generally experience 100-500 daily cycles. Common in schools and retail centers, we recommend you service them every six months to avoid breakdowns.
• Low-Traffic Doors. Normally found in small shops and offices, a low-traffic door experiences less than 100 cycles a day and only needs to be serviced once a year.

Proper maintenance routines need to be carried out by certified technicians, who understand how your doors function. Besides inspecting the tracks, hinges, rollers, and drive system, they’ll also perform a series of key maintenance tasks, such as:

• Examining Door Panels. Loose or cracked glass is a potential safety and security hazard. Incorrect alignment can cause the door to rub against the floor or frame, leading to damage.
• Testing Motion and Safety Sensors. Sensors activate doors automatically when people approach. Faulty sensors not only fail to trigger the door. In some circumstances, they cause the door to close prematurely. 
• Lubricating Points of Friction. Lubrication reduces friction, which can lead to premature wear. The technician will also clean out any debris that could obstruct movement or interfere with its operation.
• Reviewing Signage. All automatic doors are required to display signs informing users that the door is accessible.

Automatic Door Repair and Maintenance

Vortex offers professional support for all types of automatic doors covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our technicians not only receive extensive training at our service centers, they’re also certified by the American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers – so you can be confident that your doors will be installed, maintained, and inspected according to the strictest safety and performance standards. Contact us today to learn more!