Sliding Glass Door Roller Selection Guide
If it's getting increasingly difficult to open your glass door and you trace the problem to the sliding glass door rollers, the obvious next step will be to buy replacement rollers. How do you go about finding the correct product? Here are some factors to consider.
- The category
Sliding Glass door rollers can be categorized based on their application and design. Broadly, you can choose from the following:
- Single rollers with die cast housings, extruded aluminum housings, and/or stamped steel housings (with or without mounting tabs)
- Tandem roller housings
- Replacement rollers, such as CRL's stainless steel corrosion-resistant rollers with 1-1/8" in diameter with a 1/4" diameter hole.
- Specialty roller housings
- The mounting style
Sliding Glass door rollers can be tab, top or rail lock mounted.
Tab mounted rollers consist of a small metal housing extension tab. They are either slide into a bottom rail slot or fastened to door frames using screws.
Rail Lock Mounted rollers have rail lock on both sides of the housing. Here, the housing is added into the bottom rail from the open end. When this is done, the rail locks engage a small rectangular cut-out in the bottom rail, to secure the housing.
Top mounted rollers are inserted into the rail from the end or the hollow opening. A machine screw threaded into the housing holds the rollers in the rail. The housings can be taken out by removing the bottom rail from the glass and unscrewing the housing retainer screw.
- Width and height
The above image describes the roller assembly indicating width and height. The roller housings may have dimples, bottom flanges or raised slots on both sides to accommodate bottom rails of different sizes. The overall width of the roller housing can be calculated by measuring the housing width along with the width at the dimples, and seen above.
- Type and diameter
The type of material – steel or nylon – and the exterior diameter are other factors to consider when buying glass door rollers.
If you're unable to match using these criteria, you can always send the manufacturer a sample and their technical department can identify the correct product for you.