Noisy Panic Bar

At my church, we have four doors that lead to the chapel. Fire doors (good wood), with surface mounted panic hardware.

the vertical rods rattle like crazy when anyone opens one of the doors. Folks got to get in and out to take screaming babies out. And the rattling doesn't help.

I forgot to check which brand, model, etd. any ideas how to quiet this?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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If you can get the brand, a note to the manufacturer might be a good place to start.

If not... Least-risk thing I can think of would be to introduce some kind of padding behind the rod to gently muffle it without interfering with motion. But I'd say check with local authorities before making ANY change. As you said, this is fire hardware, which means codes are Really Strict...

Reply to
Joe Kesselman

is it not possible to DOG the handle down, so the rods are disengaged, while church is going on? look for a hex UNDER the handle, where it mounts to the door.. some have these, and some do not.. if there is a key lock on the OUTSIDE, is it possible to lock the door OPEN? thereby holding the rods from engaging?

--Shiva--

Reply to
--Shiva--

... Obvious solution, worth trying; it should put the rods under tension, which would also help to reduce rattling.

Reply to
Joe Kesselman

Usually on the rods there is a midway support. This might be designed to have a nylon bushing that is missing. Also check out the upper and lower latch. Often they have rubber bits inside that are worn missing or dried out.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

I think it is dogged down, actually. The vertical rods are very loose, still.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I had a sense that there were some nylon bushings. Which are now missing. I'll have to check on that idea.

Good reminder that fire codes are stricter.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Chris,

For many years I worked as a carpenter for a contractor who did interior trim and finsih hardware in commercial construction. During the eighties and early nineties, we installed the trim, doors and hardware in many Mormon churchs throughout northern California and came across this complaint often after the church had moved into the building. The standard specs the church used at the time allowed for Von Duprin, Yale, Monarch,Precision,and the ever popular "architect approved equal" exit devices. I think you can guess which ones were installed most often. The only solution the church in this area could come up with was to bite the bullet and replace the Monarch and Precision units with Von Duprin units, which are much quieter due to the dampner that softens the release or rebound of the bar. You won't be able to dog these devices open if they are on interior doors, because they are a fire rated device and as such have no provision for dogging. Hope this helps,

Howard

Reply to
miles

That's probably it. My suggestion would be to have your distributor special order the bushings. In the mean time you might try *temporarily* wrapping a layer or two of electrical tape around the vertical rods right where they go through the guides. Just one or to wraps around the rod should be enough to dampen the rattle but not cause them to bind.

Mind you... This is only a temporary fix unless you want to keep replacing the electrical tape every few months on the most active doors.

Reply to
Bob DeWeese, CML

Or, a good hardware store might have some generic nylon bushings that could be modified to work.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

Or a block of delron (white plastic) and make your own.

Sources: Olympus 700 locks used to come with blocks of white plastic for "spacers" lots of great uses for these. The white plastic cutting boards like those used in restaurants are cheep and available anywhere walmart, restaurant supply, home depot, lowes ect

Reply to
Keyman55

I'm nervous about introducing bushings made of a material that hasn't been fire-rated. Asking the mfgr to point you to the proper part really is the right answer.

Reply to
Joe Kesselman

Joe,

While using a factory part is appropriate, you need not check your common sense at the door. A nylon bushing from the hardware store just takes up the slack like the factor bushing, and is probably cheaper by a long shot. This is in the same category as using a screw from the hardware store rather than the ones the factory sells as parts. 8 cents vs. $2.50.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

My Ace hardware store even has teflon bushings available. You can drill them, cut them, even turn them on a lathe. Our local Tap plastics also sells teflon and delrin in rod and sheet.

Daniel

Reply to
dbs__usenet

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