If you’re replacing a patio door this summer, think “mix wood,” not vinyl. A combined wood and vinyl frame is strong, durable, and therefore extremely energy efficient. His good looks also hold up, season after season, year after year.

Many people are still tempted by vinyl-framed sliding doors because they think it’s still a reasonable option. That just isn’t true these days. Ask any expert. They recommend that homeowners avoid buying and installing vinyl sliding doors because vinyl doesn’t have the structural integrity of wood-vinyl combination doors. A vinyl door is simply a temporary solution, which will need to be replaced over and over again.

Vinyl expands and contracts four to five times more than other materials, including wood and metal. That makes a sliding vinyl door less energy efficient for one thing and creates a cascading effect of other issues that end up affecting the performance of the entire door. Let me explain.

Energy efficiency

A sliding vinyl door will send your energy bills through the roof. Why? Regardless of the season, there will be a substantial loss of energy through a vinyl door.

Have you ever experienced a sticky, hard to open and close wooden door in the summer? That’s because of the expansion. Materials expand when heated. We now know that vinyl expands four to five times more than wood. Therefore, a sliding vinyl door becomes much more difficult to operate in hot weather and when it gets hot. Such expansion and contraction can also cause bowing and warping. You can very quickly get a 1/16 inch crack around your door with just a vinyl frame that expands and bows.

If you think that fraction is insignificant, think again. The Department of Energy tells us that a 1/16-inch crack around an average-sized window opening is equivalent to a missing brick-sized hole in a house.

Now in winter when it’s cold, a vinyl door will shrink. When the door contracts, it will separate from the glass unit and the silicone that seals the glass to the frame begins to shift ever so slightly day after day, season after season. Eventually allowing air to enter and escape around the glass.

Thermal Expansion is the term used to describe how a material expands in hot temperatures and contracts in cold temperatures. Vinyl has a very high “coefficient of thermal expansion” and that is not a desirable quality in your patio door.

Bowing and warping

Bowing and warping caused by thermal expansion of vinyl may be the first visible sign that something is wrong with your door, but bowing and warping are also causing other damage. The expansion will put pressure on the track and glide wheels at the bottom of the door. And when those long rails start to twist and bend, the operation of the door panel will be affected as well.

Even if it doesn’t take the door off the rails, it tilts the door enough that it no longer latches properly. Once your door’s closing ability is affected, that affects your security. If someone is going to break into a house, they are not going to enter through the window. They’re probably going to force the patio door. Old patio doors have the kind of weaknesses that are a tempting incentive for thieves on the prowl.

In short, the workings of the handle, the locking mechanism, the rails, the glass panels all eventually start to break down and fall apart on a vinyl framed patio door. The result is a pretty annoying door that doesn’t close properly, doesn’t slide properly, and ends up costing you more money than you bargained for because it’s increasing your energy bill.

Bottom line? If you are looking for a sliding door in the market, you should consider (1) the structural capacity of the product, (2) the energy efficiency of the product, and (3) the ease of operation. You want a solid door that will stand the test of time and give you peace of mind.

Vinyl simply fails these tests on all counts.