Smart Sliding Door Opener/Closer (2019)

Dears,

I have a barn door on my kitchen and I would like to put some kind of motor to be able to close it remotely.

Is there any ready solution for it or any adaptation that I can do?

Thx in advance.

These exist, and prices vary depending on which features they have. You always want to make sure that you get one that has safety features, such as stopping the motor if an obstacle is detected. But they are quite easy to find in both the US and the UK now. I don’t know about other countries.

I noticed that you just joined the forum today. This forum is specifically for users of the Samsung SmartThings ™ Home automation platform, so all of the questions and answers will be in the context of that platform. I’m not sure if you are a SmartThings user or not.

However, because smartThings on its own cannot provide all the safety features, typically People buy the. Same automatic door closer that someone would get who didn’t have smartthings, and then the conversation just becomes the best way to integrate it with the SmartThings system. So you can start from the same place whether you have SmartThings or not. (If you do have SmartThings, let us know, so we can discuss the integration options.)

I’m not sure what you mean by “barn door“ in this context. Usually a barn door is a big very heavy sliding wood door. But I’m not sure that’s what you mean.

Sliding doors

Probably the best known do it yourself brand for sliding doors. is Autoslide. These come with a number of different control variations. They have a heavy duty version which would work for most barn doors. You can get them professionally installed or do it yourself. And they sell in a number of different countries, including the US and the UK. So this is the one that most people look at first. They also sell some of their kits on Amazon.

There is a slightly less expensive Chinese brand called Olide which you can usually get at Amazon. The biggest issue with this brand appears to be that the instructions are terrible, clearly a quick translation from Chinese which is hard to follow. But the device itself seems to be OK.

Swing doors

Skylink is a very popular inexpensive automatic door opener, but it only works for “swing doors“, not for sliding doors. But it would probably be most people’s first choice if you have a swing door.

http://www.skylinkstore.com/store/us/ca-swing-door-opener/starter-kits/swing-door-opener-2.html

You might also find the following FAQ helpful to determine whether you need a heavy duty opener or not:

How to Determine Force Required to Push a Door or Button or Lever

JD,

That is exactly what I’m looking for. Thank you very much. I was not pleased by the price though :slight_smile:

By barn door I mean those with hardware exposed. The second video on your first link:

By the way, I’m a smartthings owner and user. By now I have a Yale Deadbolt Lock that lights up my door entrance once it’s unlocked and have also a sensor presence auto lit porch. One of my intentions was to open or close the barn door by Amazon Alexa commands.

I live abroad, but will be on the US for two weeks late July and will be a great opportunity to improve my smartthings collection.

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Am I making this too simple? I am building an office with many interior light weight barn doors. If I angled the track the door is running on and installed a strong damper or soft closer for when it stops, wouldn’t that work. I have been looking for this topic everywhere. I am not the only one to think of it.
Can anyone see issues other than it will hit harder than ideal when it fully closes?

I’m not sure I completely understand what you are describing, but if it would injure a child when it closed, it will be against building safety codes.

There is also the question of how much strength is required to open it.

If you angle the track only at the top, then there will be a light gap at the bottom of the door when it closes. If you angle the track at the top and the bottom, it is likely to become a tripping hazard. :disappointed_relieved:

There are many door closers on market, some that are smart and some that are manual. Home Depot should have a selection of the non-automated ones. I don’t know of any of that require an angled track, almost all of them are designed to close existing doors.

I have answered you in more detail in your other thread:

Self closing barn door track at an angle?