XFORT® Satin Chrome Concealed Door Closer for Internal Doors, Soft Close, Auto Close

The item fitted my 1993 made outer door ( replaced the older one)Fitting was a bit nightmare, you need to use the tool to release the tension of the chain to fit the outer part, after fitting the door part.Otherwise working well now

Well made device works on my solid pine doors.

This should only be installed by a professional or very competent DIYer.First thing, throw the instructions awayYou’ll need:- 22mm spade bit- 3mm wood bit- Philips drive head screwdriver- Square tipped pliers- Chisel ~20mm- Hammer- Door wedge1. Choose where you want to position the door closer. It should be close to hinge and the bottom of the door is usually the best place for it.2. Wedge the door into an open position giving you full access to the face of the door hinge3. Using the 22mm spade bit core the hole out into the door making sure to go about 10mm over the full length of the door closer. NOTE: Make sure that if the door has panelling that recedes into the door, that you still have sufficient clearance to core out a hole. If you fail to do this you may cut through the outer face of the door when drilling through. If the door is 35mm make sure your hole is central all the way through or again you risk cutting into the outer face of the door.4. Once the holes drilled, place the door closer into the hole and trace round the face plate with a pencil.5. Chisel the face plate hole into the hinge allowing it to sit flush with the hinge when fitted.6. Drill pilot holes with a 3mm drill bit for the 4 face plate holes. This is important as the screws you get with this kit are likely to shear if you don’t. Once drilled, screw the face plate into place.7. Now close the door, this will imprint the position of the door closer face plate onto the hinge.8. Now using a chisel, separate the door and hinge plates from one another to allow you to get a grip on the hinge plate with the pliers.You will need to separate them by about 15cm and then insert the shim provided in the kit to stop it closing.9. Now trace around the hinge plate onto the frame and chisel away the hinge to allow it to sit flush in the frame.10. Again drill pilot holes for the screws and secured the hinge plate into place.11. Finally, pull on the chain with the pliers to remove the tension enough for you to remove the shim.

By any standards, fitting this is an awkward job. The recommended drill hole diameter for the cylinder is 26mm even though the cylinder diameter is only 22mm.My door is only just over one inch wide so I had no option but to drill a 22mm hole. This makes the cylinder a very tight fit, and once installed (I used a mallet to tap it in) it cannot be removed again. Drilling a wide hole of 22mm to a depth of150mm in a solid wooden door is not an easy task particularly when aligning the drill direction in order to avoid the drill bit appearing out of either the front or back of the door!Installation in a framed door rather than solid wood would be easier,A claw hammer or similar lever will be required to pull the plates apart once the cylinder is installed. This is awkward to do but once done the clip attachment will hold the plates apart whilst the second plate is fixed to the door frame. You will need a chisel to cut the recesses for the plates as well as a large drill bit, and drill. The screw heads are soft metal and your cross head screw driver should be an exact fit if damage to the screws is to be avoided. The job took me around four hours to complete but I’m very pleased with the final result. The fixing is unobtrusive and quiet.which was main main reason for purchase.

I had to watch a YouTube video on how to install this and basically the message was, be careful and use the provided tool to hold the spring. There is no easy way to install. You need a little bit of brute force to slowly lengthen the spring (install the door end first). The tool was flimsy and the spring snapped back a couple of times - my error and my fingers! With vice grips and leverage, I finally managed to pull the chain out enough to secure it to the door jamb. Just be sure that you have the spring adjusted before you do this part though, otherwise you are in to repeat this a couple of times. And mind your fingers! Time taken was about 15 minutes.

It is not possible to adjust this mechanism to close the door gently. I have a panel door between the kitchen and the dining room. The door is quite light. With this device at its lowest possible tension, it still slams the door shut with a loud bang.The tensioning system is a threaded pin that reduces the tension when turned anti-clockwise. I set the tension to the lowest setting before installing the barrel in the door. It still slams. if you attempt to reduce the tension while the barrel is in the door, you risk the pin disengaging from its holding nut, and it is a very fiddly job to get it rethreaded (and you must remove the barrel to do so). It should not be possible for the pin to disengage. This would be a simple fix. However, the main problem is that the pin itself is too short. It needs to be significantly longer to allow more reduction in tension (or the internal spring needs to be lighter gauge).It may work better for heavier doors, but for light (standard) doors it lacks the possibility of proper adjustment.I can't say if other manufacturers have the same design flaws as XFORT, but if I can't get the tensioning system sorted, this will be useless and I will just have damaged the door for nothing.