The door closer that I'm going to showyou how to adjust today is the Sargent 1431but this would work the same way with any of our models with ASSA ABLOY NortonSargent, Corbin Ruslan, Yale, any of those would adjust very similarly to this aslong as we have a back check valve, a closing or sweep speed valve, and alatching valve and a power adjustment so I want to show you today how I adjustthe door closer to do a couple of different things.
One, to get a visualrepresentation of exactly what goes on in a door closer and how it functionsand two, how to really quickly and efficiently get to within my tolerancesthat I need for the door closure to function properly on our back checkedside.
Our back check valve is here noted by a B on our closer body, that preventsthe door from slamming into a wall or a window, prevents wind from catching theclosure and pulling on the arm unnecessarily.
We're going to adjust thatthe next we're going to adjust our closing speed valve or our sweep speedvalve and also our latching speed valve and we'll be able to demonstrate exactlywhat those valves do and how they function.
The first thing we want to dois close all of our valves in our closer body rotating them clockwise so to theright with our eighth inch allen wrench the next thing we want to do is actuallyopen our door so didn't mention earlier we need to do this with the door closed so with the door open now you noticed thatI'm putting pressure on the door but the doors not opening that's because I'mrestricting oil from passing through the back check valve.
When oil is restrictedthe door doesn't open need to take my eighth inch allen wrench and actuallyback that valve out so a minute ago we turned it clockwise now we're going toturn it counterclockwise and all the sudden the door will start to openfurther okay you could feel that cushion that we need.
If I let go of the door nottouching the door right now it's not going to close because I'm preventingoil from running through my closing speed valve take my allen wrench andloosen my closing speed valve until I get that timing that I want now notice that the door closed to acertain point well this last few degrees of our closing is our latch position thedoor will not close as long as our last valve is screwed in so we need to backour latch valve out to allow our door to finish closing.
Okayso we're really close to having a perfectly adjusted door closer but nowwe need to check it so I'm going to forcibly push on the door to check myback check once we get our back check perfect then I'll let the door closeand we'll actually use our watch to time the door closing from a ninety degreeopen position.
Right there the back check was a little too loose, so we'll give ourback check half a turn and try that again.
Right there that's about what wewant for our back check the door did not stop abruptly, but came to a stop withkind of a cushion that's what we want.
Next I'll open the door to the 90 degreepoint and actually time with my watch two three four five six seven it's alittle fast so we'll slow down our sweep or our closing speed if that just abouta quarter turn.
We'll see what that gives us.
And that's within tolerance so veryeasily, very quickly I was able to get this closer into a proper closing speed.
We have a very nice cushion back check so we don't damage a window, the wall, apicture or something like that on the other side and I did not have to openand close the door a hundred times to get it to that tolerance.
Now that we've gotour door closing properly, we don't have our door slamming into the stop we havea seven second clothes from ninety degrees, we have a cushioned back check.
The very last thing that we're going to adjust is our power adjustment and onlyif it is necessary to consistently latch our locking hardware we have acylindrical lock or a mortise lock or an exit device.
We want to make sure thatthat lock, that hardware, latches properly into the frame every time that the dooris opened and closed.
To do that on the back of our 1431 door closer is a poweradjustment, but again we only need to adjust this power if the door is notlatching properly.
Adjusting the power will not necessarily speed up yourclosing and your latching speed.
It may increase your speed ever so slightly, butit what it will do is give the door more force or more strength to latch yourhardware.
Take a wrench, an adjustable wrench will work fine, a crescent wrenchwill work fine, and rotating this back piece clockwise increases the force onthe door closing.
Now door closers are sized from a 1 to a 6or they are sold adjustable like this one if they're sold adjustable then wecan increase or decrease the power.
