Front door frozen shut :-(

[wazza]

I have two outside doors. The outer one is PVC double glazed. Once last week and just now it won't open. The bottom of the door is stuck to the frame by ice. The lock works and when you open the door the upper half opens a bit but the bottom is stuck. Have to go out of the house from the rear door and at the front door have to gently kick the bottom of the door to free it.

What can i do to prevent it from freezing? Vaseline or WD40?

[Locknut]

Its not frozen its out of alignment and needs ajusting. this cold weather always jams them up more so if they are hard to lock anyway. more than 2 fingers pressuse is excessive force and will eventually kill the locking strip.

[Russe11]

Happened to a customers sliding patio doors a couple of weeks ago, thawed ice had caused water/moisture to build up in the runner, then the water froze the water locking up the runner to the door.

Basically had to wait for it to defrost and then mop out the water in the runners, I light spray with water displacement to make the door run smoothly again is all that I could think to do.

Only solution is to really make sure you dry out the runner after snow/ice has built up then thawed running down into the runner.

I'd advise against putting any sort of oil or liquid lubricant on the runner as this will attract dirt/dust and clog up the runner over time.

Maybe solid wax, graphite powder, teflon spray could also be used to make the doors slide easier.

[Locknut]

I dont think this is a sliding door though as they say "the top" opens up.

[wazza]

Thanks for the replies.

The door is not out of alignment. It opens smoothly without catching. Once i have freed the bottom then no problems.

It is a normal door on a hinge. It is not a sliding door.

[Locknut]

It doesent have to catch to be out of alignment how hard is the handle to lift? does it have bolts that shoot into the top and bottom run of the frame?

[wazza]

The locking mechanism works okay. It is just that the door was stuck to the bottom seal of the frame. Simple case of water moisture there icing up and bonding door to frame.

[Inactive]

Run a hair dryer around the edge until it opens easily, wipe the seals dry, spray with WD40.

[wazza]

Opened the door by slighlty kicking the base of the door. Wiped it clean and squirted it with WD40. See what happens in the morning.

When it happened last week you should have seen the joy on kids faces when they realised they were stuck inside which meant no school. Their face dropped a mile when i told them they can go out from the rear exit.

[wazza]

Update - since i had sprayed WD40 the door no longer sticks due to ice. Problem solved.