Choosing the Right Patio Screen Door for Style and Functionality

The single most common door in America is the Patio Screen Door. If you don’t have one, your mom does. They never work that great. Choosing the right patio screen door can save you a ton of money over the long run, and even more headaches.

Vinyl Sliding Doors and Patio Screens

If you bought a tract home in the past half century you likely have a sliding glass door out to your patio and backyard. It’s replaced the white picket fence as the American home standard. Every street on the block, heck, the whole neighborhood has one unless they are remodeled. With it you are likely have a sliding screen door on plastic wheels to keep the bugs out.

The issues are really pretty simple:

1. Even when it was brand new it never felt solid
2. The “slide” was more of a rough push over the vinyl
3. It gets beaten up by the sun all day so the mesh looks terrible
4. If someone ever walked into it, it likely functions even worse

Options 1 for Sliding Patio Screens

You may have called your local hardware store, or your local mobile window screen company. As a default they will offer more of the same. You can elect for a new crappy sliding door, or a deluxe crappy sliding door with metal wheels and a thicker frame. The mesh will be new, but it will wear just like the last one, and the “new” patio door will eventually behave like the original one, even if you opt for the deluxe version.

Option 2: A Retractable Screen Patio Door

If you choose a retractable screen door that is of solid quality (like us here at Apollo) all of these issues go away, forever. Here’s how:

1. Our Patio Screen Doors are made of durable 6063 Extruded aluminum much thicker than any sliding screen patio door- and it’s even tempered for more strength
2. We make our own tracking system over the original that is much more stable
3. When you aren’t using your patio screen, the mesh stays safe and protected in what we call a housing- you may call it a cassette
4. It is VERY difficult to force our doors out of track, and usually our screens are easy to fix yourself

Option 3: Motorized Screens for your Patio Door

The third option you have is the most robust. You can use a motorized patio screen for your door. This has several advantages:

1. You can use a variety of meshes, like solar meshes, not just a bug screen
2. They have the strongest tracking system available
3. They are 100 percent pet proof

But these motorized applications do have disadvantages such as a patio door screen

1. They are significantly more expensive, in the thousands of dollars, not the hundreds of dollars.
2. Except for our motorized door screen, Athena, they are slow to open as they retract vertically, so it is not great for walking in and out a lot.
3. They are bulkier most of the time, and overkill for such a small opening.

Choose carefully when deciding on a new patio screen door. Think about how you will use it, what it’s purpose is, and even how long you will live in your home for the investment. If you decide on a retractable screen door, read my article about the best retractable screen doors if you have time.

Author: Sam Steinberg