What can I do about a storm door that gets blown open by the wind?

We received the following question from Neil in South Carolina

We live in SC, where storms doors are almost a way of life. We have a 3 story house that has a Mother In Law suite across the deck on the 2nd floor.... The way it is constructed, it creates a "breezeway" covered by the main house. The problem is the "breezeway" is actually a BREEZEWAY. The wind whips through there with a great deal of force. It blows the screen door OPEN or if you are opening the door, it will pull it out of your hands.

The screen door itself isn't heavy - it's a lightweight metal frame. White. Full glass.

So what do you have that will keep the door from blowing 180 degrees? We have put 3 standard closers on the door and they are a waste of time.

Thanks for the question, Neil!

A storm door wind chain should be used to protect the door from wind damage. 

If you need a new door closer at this point, our SK8730 door closer kit includes a heavy door closer along with a wind chain. It also includes a wider, more solid door jamb bracket (SK25) with long screws to hold more solidly.

If you do not need a new door closer, start by adding a SK14 wind chain. We would also suggest changing the screws on the jamb bracket to longer ones. Typically the screws in the jam bracket are 1”-1-1/4” long #10 screws, If you can get 2” long ones that would help hold the bracket in. 

However, there are limits to even what the chain can do. No matter what, there are just 2 screws going through the skin of the aluminum door, they can only do so much. If it’s really that strong of a wind tunnel, there may always be a problem.

On doors where there are windows, rather than full screen, opening the window to allow the wind to blow through partially helps. If you can change the glass to a screen for the summer months that will of course help, but if that just wastes your A/C then that is not a solution.

Hope this helps!