6 Tips To Choose The Right Glass For Your Iron Doors

Safety

Why can tempered glass be the safe glass of iron doors? Tempered glass is also made of common glass, which is heated and then cooled rapidly in a controlled environment. We call this process a ” tempered process”, this process makes the glass 4 times stronger than regular glass. It also makes it safer, not like the sharp and jagged fragment of the common glass, the tempered glass will yield small pebble-like fragments when broken, which will cause less injury. For more safe details about tempered glass panels, please check my other article: Are Tempered Glasses Of Iron Doors Safe?

Energy-efficiency

Energy efficiency is a key factor we need to think about when choosing the right glass for your entry doors. How to choose energy-efficient glass for iron doors?

Choose insulated glass

There are multiple panes insulated glass, dual-pane insulated glass is widely used for iron doors. In the space between the two panes, it is filled with inert air such as argon or krypton, which can act as a barrier to prevent heat flow, thus boosting up energy-efficiency.

Choose Low E Glass

What is the meaning of Low E, it means low emissivity. Low E glass refers to the glass coated with a thin and invisible metallic oxide layer, whose main function is to suppress the heat flow and reduce heat gain. An entry door with low E glass can reduce solar heat gain in summer and block the heat flow from inside to outside in winter, thus people can have a cooler summer and a warmer winter at home. For more details about energy-efficient insulated glass and low E glass, please click: Are Glass Panels of Iron Door Energy-Efficient?

Visibility

Someone like full sunshine coming in, while someone like invisibility for his home life, you can choose from the following 3 types of standard glass as your taste.

Plain glass

Plain glass, also called clear glass, you can maximize the sunlight coming in if choosing it for the entry doors.

Frosted glass

Frosted glass(also call sandblast glass), is suitable for people who do not want somebody outside to see through the inside activities, it can let part of sunlight in while keeping inside relatively secret than clear glass.

Stained glass

Stained glass, most of the sunlight can not come in through it, some people like its strong color or picture to match the house decorative style. It shows the homeowner’s uniqueness of art.

Beauty

There are many glasses with different textures for choosing, a customized door needs the right textured glass to match the home decoration style, to let the home look more uniform and beautiful. Here I introduced four popular textures.

Plain glass

Plain glass is widely used for windows and doors, it can be combined with low E perfectly since it is smooth enough for the low E layer coated on it tightly.

Rain glass

Rain glass has a beautiful texture like rain trickling down on a piece of glass, this rain texture can be applied over plain glass, frosted glass, and stained glass. The entry doors with rain glass bring a visibly romantic and beautiful effect to your home.

Flemish glass

Flemish glass is more and more popular in modern design and restoration, it can twist the light through it with its ripples, the doors with flemish glass provide privacy, more than that, it acts as also a very important part of the whole building’s aesthetic.

Aquatex glass

Aquatex glass is with slight ripples and it is semi-transparent, it can bring a soft and mellow sensitivity to your home, it’s a good choice for patio doors, and the aquatex glass is popularly used in the shower room.

Thickness

What is the standard thickness for a glass panel? The standard thickness for glass will be from18mm to 25mm, for a dual-pane glass panel, its thickness will likely be 18mm. An 18mm thick dual-pane tempered glass is good enough for safety and energy efficiency.

Security

In most conditions, the iron doors with dual-pane tempered glass are secure, people will ask if it is secure when a hurricane comes or a burglar attacks.

Choose a laminated glass plus insulated glass for storm doors

What glass fit for storm doors? Laminated glass plus the insulated glass is a good choice, it’s strong enough to resist the damage from a hurricane and the flying objects attack, the glass for a storm door has one more piece of tempered glass laminated on one side of the dual-pane glass, its fragment will not scatter on the floor but attach to each other as one piece when broken. It causes less injury. The total thickness for laminated glass plus insulated glass in a storm door will be 25mm, thick enough to withstand the strikes from bad weather.

Choose higher resistance grade glass for resisting burglar attacks

Iron doors are secure when an intruder tries to break into, homeowners can watch what outside happens through the transparent or semi-transparent glass, and they have enough time to call the police when a burglar tries to break into. Even if the homeowners are sleeping, the big noise of broken glass will wake them up to call help. What’s more, the metal scrolls are strong enough to withstand heavy strikes, burglars can not break into easily through an iron entry door.

For a door with a few metal scrolls or without metal scrolls, like a french door, if you want it to be much more securer, you can choose a higher resistance grade glass for it, for example, RC6 rated glass can withstand the attack from heavy tools for more than 15 minutes. And there is bullet-proof glass for choice, but the price is high. The homeowner can make a decision according to the budget and his requirement.

Conclusion

How to choose the right glass type for your iron entry doors? For most entry doors, I will choose the clear, low E, and insulated dual-pane tempered glass. Why? Clear glass is for letting the sunlight in, Low E and insulated glass is for higher energy efficiency, and tempered glass is for safety. The total thickness of the glass panel for most entry doors is 18mm. For the storm doors, we will add one more layer of laminated tempered glass than the common entry doors. The total thickness of the glass panel for storm doors is 25mm.

That is only my advice as an example for your reference, you can determine the right type of glass according to your requirements. In a word, we can pick up the right glass based on the rules of safety, energy efficiency, beauty, visibility, thickness, and security. To get advice and a quote, contact us now!