Condensation on the front metal door: what to do? Why is the metal door "crying"? What to do if the outer front door cries

The front door is a reliable protection and addition to the exterior of any home.

Since metal doors have many advantages, they have become very popular among consumers and are in great demand.

Condensation on the front door is one of the main problems of metal door systems. It does not always occur, so many buyers of iron door systems want to know why front doors sweat and how to prevent such a problem.

Why does condensation form?

The problem of door fogging, as a rule, appears in the fall, and already with the onset of frost, the owners see that their door is not just sweating, but covered with a layer of frost on the door leaf.

The main reasons for the formation of moisture on the door include:

• high humidity in the house;
• low thermal insulation of the door;
• cold bridges.

When the humidity in the room exceeds 55%, condensation collects on the door, the temperature of which is slightly lower than the temperature of the air in the home. At the same time, ventilation devices and the temperature of the heated air in the room have a huge impact on the humidity of the air.

Poor thermal insulation in a metal door can result from poor sealing between the door itself and the frame. Most often, there is insufficient air circulation for the vapors to escape, but this is enough for condensation to settle on the door surface.

Peculiar "cold bridges" on the front door in a private house are:

• peephole;
• doorhandle;
• lock mechanism;
• stiffeners, etc.

Through the "bridges" cold air enters the room and, in contact with warm air, provokes the appearance of condensate. Next sweats not only steel door, but also its slopes.

Danger of condensation

Moisture on the door can be not just a physical inconvenience, but also a serious problem. Many, tired of struggling with the fact that their door is sweating, begin to wipe the condensate daily.

High humidity is very harmful to the metal for the following reasons:

• if the door has a seal, then water penetrates into its pores and after a maximum of six months fungal deposits appear and mold grows;
• the metal from which the slopes are made begins to deteriorate over time;
• moisture causes corrosion (despite the fact that many doors were initially treated with a special anti-corrosion compound);
• the door loses its attractive appearance due to peeling decorative coating on metal.

Manufacturers who value their reputation never save on hidden work: all metal parts are coated with a special composition that prevents corrosion on the metal.

In addition, responsible manufacturers for the manufacture of door systems use only high-quality certified fittings and locks.

Methods for removing condensate

To get rid of fogging of a metal door, it is necessary to ensure the inflow of dry air from the outside and the outflow of vapors from the room.

You can install a special "warm curtain" that will heat the door with warm air. In this way, the door surface temperature can be raised and the dew point shifted.

Unfortunately, insulating the door leaf will not solve the problem. After all, the door sweats due to the large temperature difference between the air from the outside and the air in the room. In this case, experts recommend equipping an unheated vestibule in front of the entrance.

Also, an excellent solution would be to equip the visor, which can protect the door from the scorching sun and precipitation. It is recommended to open the metal front door leaf with powder polymers, and fill the hollow elements with foam in order to exclude the appearance of “cold bridges”.

Features of using metal entrance doors

When the cold weather sets in, more and more metal door owners complain that their door is sweating from the inside. Often, this situation arises due to violation of both building codes and operating rules.

The formation of condensation on the door in the autumn-winter period is inevitable. Cause are too different meanings temperature inside and outside the room.

This is a physical phenomenon that cannot be avoided, but there are ways to greatly reduce it.

The right choice depending on the purpose, the implementation of building requirements and standards, operating rules, will help to significantly reduce the amount of moisture on the inner surface of the door leaf during the cold season.

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The accumulation of condensate on the surface is a common phenomenon that more often overtakes the owners of country houses. This negative manifestation should be eliminated as soon as possible after detection. A sweating structure will not be able to properly protect the interior from the cold and becomes unusable due to deformation and getting wet. Why do front doors sweat so often and how to deal with it?

Causes of fogging

Metal structures are subjected to fogging more often than others. The reason is the high thermal conductivity of the metal (300 times higher than that of wood). The metal itself, which is not equipped with thermal insulation, does not retain heat in any way - it spreads through the thickness of the material and leaves the premises outside (or vice versa in summer).

As soon as there is a temperature difference in the street and inside the room, to which, the latter cools down, giving the "extra" temperature to the street. When air comes into contact with the first, moisture falls out, which is the inlet condensate.

Three reasons why you sweat Entrance door:

1. Poor thermal insulation of the structure or its complete absence.
2. Incorrectly installed internal slopes.
3. Excessive humidity levels in the rooms.

Condensation formation on metal structure- one of the main problems encountered in the process of operation. It needs to be dealt with quickly and calmly.

What are the consequences of the phenomenon?

Some people do not consider front door fogging a problem, they do not care about the reasons why the front metal door sweats. However, this phenomenon spoils comfort and seriously harms the structure itself. List of negative effects:

• Increased risk of freezing, which presents an even greater danger.
• Growth of energy losses in the process of heating (fogging door gives off heat).
• , boxes and the canvas itself up to failure.

If you do not eliminate the causes of fogging in time, you will have to purchase a new one. This will be a lesson for life, but you can go the easy and economical way.

Troubleshooting

There are five proven ways to get rid of condensation. It is recommended to resort to all of the following at the same time:

1. Engage in the manufacture of insulation. Since the metal itself is a poor barrier to retaining heat, you need to take care of its insulation. The metal parts of the structure that face the inside of the room should be isolated - they can be filled with mounting foam, and then closed with a cladding. Another option is to install rubber seal around the perimeter of the box and canvas.
2. Insulate. The ideal option is to close up with plasticine, but in this case it is impossible. We discard this option and purchase a special overlay for the keyhole. In inactivity, it tightly closes the lock, and in order to insert the key, you need to move it to the side.
3. We seal the gaps. The gap between the box and the opening must be tight. Check if it is? Otherwise, you will have to re-fill the holes with mounting foam.
4. We paint the door. It's about about a special "energy-saving" paint, which is popularly referred to as. Getting on the surface, it creates a thin film that does not allow heat to pass through, thereby preventing the surface from fogging.
5. We install the vestibule. This is the most effective method of all those mentioned here. Even an uninsulated external door with a vestibule will not be subjected to fogging. The advantage of the method is overshadowed by the complexity of execution - it is necessary to set the input, and these are the next costs and construction debris in the house.

It is not recommended to install second metal doors in the vestibule, as they will carry heat into the vestibule - the same situation will turn out as it was. To avoid repetition, wooden sheets should be installed as additional ones, since they do not conduct heat and leave the vestibule cold, which in turn prevents the front metal door from fogging.

How to prevent fogging?

There are three reliable ways to eliminate fogging, but it is best to prevent it in advance. The following recommendations will allow you to forget about problems with condensate forever:

• Check the quality of the installation of the structure during its installation. No gaps should be left between the box and the opening - even a small gap of 1 mm can lead to partial fogging and further freezing of the entire structure. Metal parts should be directed outward. It is easier to prevent mistakes during installation than to dismantle the door after a while (sometimes you have to do this in winter) and eliminate the causes of fogging.
• Refuse to install a peephole and insulate the keyhole.
• Make sure you have a vestibule. As mentioned earlier, the vestibule is a 100% way to prevent condensation on the surface of the door, even in severe frost.

It is also recommended to place heaters near the door. They will warm the canvas and the box, preventing the formation of condensate. But do not neglect this method and furnish the door with heaters - follow the measure.

Eliminate the causes of door sweating immediately after manifestation, and then you will not face the need to replace the structure due to its failure.

The metal door is durable and reliable, but has one significant drawback - the metal is easily destroyed by moisture. Entrance iron doors, which are located in the zone of contact between warm and cold air, are especially affected by condensation, which contributes to the formation of moisture droplets on the surface of the door. How to avoid condensation on metal front doors? What should be done to protect the metal sheathing of the front door from premature destruction? We will try to answer these questions in this article.

Metal entrance doors: advantages and disadvantages

Entrance doors provide reliable protection of the home from unauthorized intrusions, they are distinguished by high strength, reliability and durability. They are allowed to be installed in city apartments and country houses, while metal door leaves perfectly isolate the room from drafts, low temperatures, dust, precipitation. Metal door leafs reduce the noise level, serve as an excellent soundproof barrier. In the event of a fire, metal doors prevent the entry of smoke into the apartment and prevent the rapid spread of fire.

With all the advantages of metal doors, the structures have one very big drawback - the rapid deterioration of the metal lining of the front door with constant exposure high humidity. Even special compounds cannot prevent the development of rust on door panels when interacting with water.

Condensation on the iron door: causes of the phenomenon

Condensation - droplets of moisture on the surface of the door skin. Moisture appears at a large temperature difference, when it is very warm inside the room, and outside the doors of the house the thermometer mark drops to very low values. Condensation is especially often observed in country or country houses, in which there is only a single entrance door and there is no transitional vestibule (“cold” corridor).

When the air temperature inside the house rises, warm currents spread throughout the rooms. When the heated air reaches the cold metal front door, it quickly cools down, turning into mist, which settles on the structural door elements. Accumulating, water dust turns into drops flowing down the metal door leaf. A similar phenomenon can be seen on window panes, especially if the glazing is made in one thread.

Often the reason for the formation of condensation is a sharp difference in temperature between the street and the room.

How to avoid condensation and save a metal door?

There are several reasons that exacerbate the appearance of condensation on the door during the cold season:

• The presence of gaps (cold bridges) between the door leaf and the frame of the box. When installing a metal door, it is worth carefully isolating possible voids and cracks, using special insulation materials: mounting foam, tow, mineral wool, mortar, polystyrene. Cold bridges occur in places where locks are inserted, door eyes, inside the metal door leaf in the area of ​​strengthening the stiffening ribs of the spatial frame.

Advice! When purchasing a finished metal door, you should make sure that additional insulation of the door leaf has been completed.

• Moisture can condense not only on the metal surface of the door, but also on the slopes around the opening, which is possible if the tightness of the door to the frame is broken. In this case, the formation of condensate or frost is observed on the slopes (with a significant decrease in the outside air temperature).

The equipment of a special room in front of the door (tambour) or an unheated corridor can help to avoid the problem of condensation. When developing a floor plan country house it is necessary to immediately provide for the construction of such a room.

The equipment of entrance doors with canopies or visors will somewhat defuse the problem. In this case, it is possible to avoid the impact of precipitation.

Additional finishing of metal door panels with special protective compounds or panels with weather-resistant impregnation reduces the risk of premature destruction of the door from condensation.
Insulation of the front door with sheet foam, followed by decorative trim will reduce the occurrence of condensation.

Causes of condensation on the front doors: video

Condensation on the doors: photo

Winter becomes a serious test for all communications and residential structures, including entrance doors. Alas, not all doors can withstand harsh continental winters.

No wonder - the door is metal, and the metal cools down a lot and becomes a conductor of cold. Particularly vulnerable are those entrance groups that go into an unheated entrance, or straight into the courtyard. Sometimes condensation on the front door falls, almost all winter. And homeowners have a quite reasonable question - why does the door, for which a lot of money has been paid, not cope with its duties?

In this article, we will consider possible reasons the appearance of condensation and freezing of the door, as well as techniques and methods by which you can get rid of it.

The main winter problem for the owners of houses and apartments is the preservation of heat in housing. The energy costs that are applied at the same time are truly enormous, because in the middle lane, the temperature difference in the apartment and outside it can reach 60 degrees or more. In such conditions, windows and doors become the most vulnerable in terms of heat retention, which causes condensation to fall on them, and sometimes freezing.

The main causes of door fogging:

1. Large range of temperatures indoors and outdoors.
2. Humidity is above normal.

The key point is the dew point, below which the temperature on the inner door leaf drops. The room air contains water vapor. When the dew point is reached, the steam turns into water and condenses on the door leaf. The stronger the frost, the more the front door flows. Sometimes there is so much condensate that it simply flows down the vertical surface of the door, and at the same time the door leaf can even freeze to the box or seal.

However, sometimes the frosts may not be too great, but the door still sweats. In some cases, she begins to sweat already in the fall. The reason is the high humidity in the room, above 45-60% - an indicator of comfortable humidity parameters for human health. And a humidity index of 65% is often the limit for most modern doors.

The dew point, at comfortable humidity and t 20°C, fluctuates between 7.5 and 9°C. And this indicator falls, with an increase in humidity and a decrease in temperature: the cooled air no longer holds water vapor. And if the temperature of any object is only 1 ° C lower than the general temperature in the room, then at high humidity, close to 100%, condensation begins to form on this object.

What causes high humidity? A common reason is the household activities of the homeowners themselves: cooking, drying clothes, wet cleaning of the premises and the lack of normal ventilation of the apartment. All this provokes fogging of the door. In a damp room, condensation falls faster and lasts longer.

Additional causes of condensation:

1. Poor door installation.
2. Poor quality seals or their complete wear.
3. Violation of sealing during installation of the door.

How to get rid of condensation?

Water runs down the door in streams. What to do? How to resolve this issue depends on the cause of the issue.

• If the reason is dampness and humidity, try, for starters, just ventilate the room well, which is very important for apartments with plastic windows, hermetically sealing all the passages of natural ventilation.
• If this is not enough, try to debug the ventilation system to normalize air exchange.
• Damaged slopes on the door form the so-called cold bridges, due to which moisture condensation occurs. Eliminating such damage, you get rid of the problem of "sweating" the door. At the same time, the use plastic panels- not the most the best way. Mold will form underneath. A more acceptable way is to level the slopes with a sand-cement mixture such as Bolars, Ceresit with a finishing finish with gypsum putty for wallpapering or painting.
• If the door is not insulated from the inside, sometimes it is enough to fill it with a layer of insulation, for which mineral wool is usually used. If this is not possible for technical reasons, you can fill the voids in the door with mounting foam.
• Another reason is the failure of the rubber sealing tape. Just replace it with a new one - the drafts will immediately disappear, and perhaps there will be no freezing.
• It has been observed that when using gas heating or simply gas stove, the amount of condensate increases.
• Interestingly, even a poorly insulated door does not accumulate moisture if a heating battery is installed nearby. Perhaps for some this will be the only way to get rid of the condensate.

And finally, I would like to note that good convection, in itself, can prevent condensation on the door. Moreover, the air does not have to be warm: good ventilation of the entrance area ensures the progressive circular movement of cold air in the vestibule, which is necessary for the rapid evaporation of moisture.

If the condensate appears in a small amount, you can consider it as a natural process and do not take any measures. If the door is lined with chipboard or MDF, such a coating can warp even from a little moisture, and measures should be taken immediately, otherwise the facade or the door itself will have to be changed. In any case, if you notice freezing of the entrance a href="/"> metal doors, you should identify the cause and, if possible, get rid of it.

A sweating door is a door leaf on which condensation forms as a result of a temperature drop. In late autumn, it remains mainly in a liquid state, in winter it freezes, turning into frost and even an ice crust. Some homeowners don't care much about this issue. They probably take this circumstance for granted. However, conscientious owners know that a sweating door in this mode wears out a lot and is the reason that the accumulated heat leaves the room. Therefore, if you do not want to change the front door in a few years, as well as pay extra money for heating your living space, we strongly recommend that you read our feature article, in which you will find answers to the following questions: why does the front door sweat, what are the consequences of this phenomenon and what can be done about it.

Why is the front door sweating?

Basically metal entrance doors sweat. The reason for this is well known. Metal is an excellent conductor of heat. In comparison with a tree, this indicator differs upwards by about 300 times. The warm air inside the room turns into condensate when it comes into contact with the open door. As a result, on the door leaf is formed a large number of moisture. Even in a relatively dry room, it will not dry quickly. If the door is not insulated, it threatens with even more large-scale and prolonged fogging of the front door. Not only does moisture form on the door leaf, a large amount of heat leaves the room. Summing up, there are four main reasons why the front door sweats:

1. Sudden changes in temperature outside and inside the dwelling.
2. Poor-quality insulation of the door leaf and box or its absence.
3. High humidity in the living room.
4. Violation of the technology of mounting the structure in the doorway.

What are the negative effects of a sweaty front door?

If the situation with the sweaty front door is left as it is, it will certainly cause an attack. negative consequences. Firstly, the presence of condensation on the front door will slightly increase the humidity in the corridor and the rest of the living space. Secondly, moisture is an excellent environment for the formation of mold and mildew. It will be quite difficult to withdraw them later. Thirdly, the wear of the front door increases. In this mode, it will last less than five years. Its individual components or the entire structure will fail. And, finally, the formation of condensate or ice crust is evidence that. In this case, there is a large energy loss. If in the summer this fact is unremarkable, in the winter it will become quite noticeable. We believe, having familiarized yourself with the above consequences, you are aware of how important it is to eliminate the causes in time. It is possible and even necessary to deal with this. Moreover, you can do the required work with your own hands.

How to make sure that the front door does not sweat?

There are five main ways to make sure that the front door does not sweat. We draw your attention to achieve best effect, you should do not any of the following points, but all at once (successively):

1. Seal gaps and seams. Often after the installation of the front door there are gaps. If the specialists who installed your front door forgot to do this, insulate the seams yourself. This can be done using mounting foam and a pneumatic gun.
2. Insulate the door leaf. there are several ways: fill the inner cavity with insulation or glue the insulation around the perimeter (or the required segment, for example, between the bottom of the canvas and the threshold). In this case, it will be necessary to dismantle the door and sequentially perform actions according to the algorithm. How to choose the right insulation
3. Seal the keyhole. A draft can enter through a small hole, the size of which is sufficient for cold air to enter. This problem can be solved by purchasing a special rubber insert. In practice, its functionality is as follows. This is nothing more than an overlay that is placed over the keyhole. If you need to open the lock with a key, it moves aside, then returns to its original state.
4. Coat the door leaf with special paint or additionally sheathe it. On sale you can find the so-called liquid insulation, which is applied with a roller or brush to the door leaf. This paint forms a kind protective film. It not only prevents the penetration of cold air into the room, but also prevents the formation of condensate.
5. Install a vestibule or an additional front door. This is the most energy-intensive and expensive way to keep the front door from sweating. In turn, it is the most effective. The vestibule can be organized as an additional space that appears as a result of installing a second front door. It is best for this purpose to choose wooden door suitable parameters. The above comparative parameter regarding the thermal conductivity of materials allows the tree to better retain heat inside the room and not let cool air out of the vestibule.