Install a Wind Chain Door Stop
If you live in an area where you get a lot of high winds, it is a really good idea to install a wind chain door stop on all of your storm doors. The chain stop will help absorb some of the shock if the door suddenly blows open. And that prevents all of the torque motion from going to the door closer jamb brackets and trying to rip them right out of your door frame, which usually causes a lot of damage.
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It does this by limiting the maximum distance the storm door can open. So even if you just have a porch light in the way, you can stop the door from hitting the light and breaking the glass or ruining the screen.
Trust me, this $10 part may save you from a $500 headache.
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I’ve done countless storm doors, and every time I come across a chain stop, no one seems to have installed them properly. I’ve seen them backwards, upside down, mounted on the wrong side. It’s really incredible. That’s why in an effort to help you avoid some headache, I have put together this picture by picture, step-by-step guide to installing these things properly.
Begin by opening the storm door as far as you want it and then move the hold open washer on the door closer to keep it open.
Then, put your tape measure on the hinge side of the entry door jamb and ...
measure 19″ from the hinge jamb and make a pencil mark. Then, install the bracket attached directly to the spring on the wind chain over this mark. I usually rotate the bracket 45 degrees so it points towards the storm door like in the picture. Note: if the header rail on the storm door comes too far down in the opening, you may have to add a block of wood under the wind chain bracket to get the chain to clear it when to door opens.
Once you have gotten this far it should look like the picture below right now. Next you’ll take the door bracket and connect it to the bottom of the chain. The “T” looking part connects to the chain link, while the part that has 2 holes in it will mount directly to your storm door.
Now with the storm door set to open as far as you want it, and with the storm door bracket mounted to the chain, extend the chain and bracket to the storm door, taking all of the slack out of the chain. When the chain is tight, mark the screw holes and install the bracket with the 2 smaller screws in the pack. You don’t want the screws to go completely through your new door and come out on the other side.
Now close the storm door and your chain should look something like this. If you are okay with that, stop here. If the chain hanging in front of the window bothers you, we’ll move to the next step.
If you want to get keep the chain out of the way, we’ll pull it back with this guy that should be in the package. It is a small spring with a loop at each end.
Pull the spring and the chain upwards and toward the hinge side of the door until the chain is as close to horizontal as you can get it. The goal is to get the wind chain to stay in the space between your door closer and the top of your storm door. You are going to mount the other loop on the spring to the door jamb of your entry door. Most manufacturers include a 2″ nail, but I find that any screw works better than the nail.
When you open the storm door, the wind chain door stop should look like this. Congrats you did it!
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