Electric Doors - Poly or Vinyl?

[srr5008]

We currently have air-powered polycarbonate doors (by Ultimate Supplies) on both of our IBA bays. We are sick of the air setup, and the doors are ready for retirement - so we will be switching to electric.

Right now we are on the fence between staying with the polycarbonate doors (we'd go with the Airlift Alaskan model) or the vinyl doors (Airlift XRS).

Our only hesitation with sticking with the polycarbonate is algae - we currently get green stuff growing between the panes on the door sections and it makes the doors look like crap. Every polycarbonate door manufacturer I have talked to has said this was unavoidable.

On the vinyl side of things, I am worried about wind (we are located on the oxbow of a river, so it's pretty flat and can get a little breezy at times), heat retention (I have to imagine the poly doors are better here) and fading. We've seen some local-ish washes switch to the vinyl doors and it looks like they fade and get pretty ragged looking after a year or two.

I was just wondering if anyone had used both types, and had thoughts one way or the other?

 

[Blanco]

Ive had both types. Air operated sucks and I don't blame you for getting rid of them. Go with vinyl. Worth every dollar. A customer hits them and they slide back in to the track and your back in business. There way more reliable than standard poly doors. The wind will not be a problem and there is a lot less headaches with them in the winter. My airlift alaska doors used to get iced up in the winter and trap customers in bay. My first set of vinyl doors I purchased 5 years ago and there still in great shape. I've got 5 vinyl doors. Four of them are air lift and one is gallop. Happy with both. The airlift doors have a better controller and also have counter weights to take strain off the motor. The gallop on the other hand has no counter weights but has a better built
vinyl door and stainless steel tracks. For IBA I would do airlift but in a tunnel I would do gallop simply because of the control box.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

We have both, vinyl and poly. Both have their pros and cons. When you say breezy...how breezy? That will make a huge difference. If you really have a stiff wind blowing against a stiff cold vinyl door they don't always go down smoothly. The wind can actually hold the curtain stationary while the drum is continuing to unwind causing the curtain to fold over itself or hang up on the track. The 'reset' feature works great on the car wash convention floor but when things aren't perfect, track or curtain are iced up, it can tear up the door rather quickly. We've had some that got tore up pretty badly after one season while we have others that are just needing replacement after 14 years, the biggest difference being the prevailing wind at the site.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I agree that wind can be an issue. I had a couple that were 12' wide. They would sometimes bow enough to come out of the track. I also had three 10' doors...hardly any wind issues. The reset feature working in the wind...forget it. The reset feature is a convention floor selling point, but not really that great in the real world. The doors virtually never need resetting because of vehicle strikes, it's always wind. They need to weight the bottom of the door a bit more and just eliminate the reset parts. I eliminated the resetting clips and a good portion of my issue went away with them.

 

[srr5008]

Appreciate the input folks!

And we don't have howling winds, or anything serious. But because we are on a flat next to the river (with very little development around) when it does get windy, there's nothing to block it around the carwash. I'm going to guess that we get might get 20 mph gusts here and there. More commonly, I'd say we might encounter a 10mph steady breeze blowing against our entrance doors. We would be going with 10' wide doors, so it sounds like the narrower width might help a little with them "bowing out."

Any thoughts on heat retention with the poly vs the vinyl? We run floor heat and an overhead heater in our bays. I will say that the poly doors seem to help "hold the heat in" but I've also been told by the vinyl door reps that neither type of door has much of an "R" value.

 

[Jsshac]

Appreciate the input folks!

And we don't have howling winds, or anything serious. But because we are on a flat next to the river (with very little development around) when it does get windy, there's nothing to block it around the carwash. I'm going to guess that we get might get 20 mph gusts here and there. More commonly, I'd say we might encounter a 10mph steady breeze blowing against our entrance doors. We would be going with 10' wide doors, so it sounds like the narrower width might help a little with them "bowing out."

Any thoughts on heat retention with the poly vs the vinyl? We run floor heat and an overhead heater in our bays. I will say that the poly doors seem to help "hold the heat in" but I've also been told by the vinyl door reps that neither type of door has much of an "R" value.

IMO go with the airlift XRS

 

[GoBuckeyes]

While 10 mph survey won’t blow the doors out of the tracks, it may be enough to make them struggle going down smoothly.
Regarding heat retention, the Poly do a much better job. How much is hard to quantify.

 

[Waxman]

I was so glad to remove my big heavy metal insulated overhead doors on my automatic. I'm installing the vinyl rollup doors on my new automatic project. I've spent so much over the years on annual garage door repairs with broken springs cables hardware and operators. Nothing I had bought was really designed For the car wash environment. The vinyl doors absolutely are designed for the car wash environment. Even if I have to crank the heat up more and spend more on heating costs it will be worth it compared to the broken door expenses and downtime in the bay when your door is broken in the winter.