Customer Reviews

Stanley Hardware 3-Inch Double Acting Hinge, Satin Brass #463040

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My wife and I purchased some folding louvered doors that we expected to separate and hang like saloon doors. It was a challenge to find hinges that would work, either because the louvers did not allow enough room for the hinge to mount, or the clearance at the top and bottom would not allow "cafe" style hinges to be used. I ordered these based on the picture and they worked beautifully. I needed to miter a place for the hinges to fit on the doors to create more clearance, but couldn't be more pleased with how they are working.

The description is misleading; these are single units. You will need to purchase two in order to hang a door.

Ok. Trying to find variety in small double acting hinges is not easy, so you may be forced to use this poorly designed model. I'll explain the proper set-up, problem, then a solution.

NORMAL SET-UP.

The hinges are designed to have adjustable tension. This is good. Depending on the weight of the door you're using and number of hinges, if the hinges WERE NOT adjustable, the door return may be too fast (slam shut), or they may not have enough force to return the door in a timely fashion. The hinge is actually two hinges sharing a common piece, mirror images of each other. So once you figure out one side, you will know how to install and "FIX" the other. Looking at either side of the hinge, you see a vertical cylinder which houses some type of coil spring which runs from top to bottom. Now common sense says that if you expect a door to automatically return when opened, the door would have to be winding a spring (in this case, the spring in the cylinder) so that when let go, the unwinding spring can close the door. Upon examination of this hinge, straight out the box, one finds the hinge rather hard to open because the door is not connected (remember, when you try to open the hinge, you're trying to wind a spring) and without the benefit of the door leverage, is very hard to do. To install, you have to remove the little "top hat" pin at the top of the cylinder. (Top hat is not an actual name, but that's what it looks like and it's important that we identify it from another resembling pin I will mention later). You will find removing this pin difficult as the spring inside was wound before the pin was installed, leaving the wound spring pressing hard against this pin from the inside. So to remove it, you have to relieve this pressure by winding the spring a little using the little brass rod (any finishing nail would work). So what you do is stick the little rod in a hole at the top of the cylinder (not the next available hole) FROM THE TOP HAT PIN. Then wind in the only direction you can (which is the direction away from the pin). Once you wind it even a hair, the pin can easily be removed. Reverse the turning direction (unwinding now) and the little rod can be removed. Once the pin is removed, the spring is not under any tension and the hinges work freely and can easily be installed to the doors. Here's where the fun begins.

ADJUSTING.

Assuming you have the doors installed to the hinge and the hinge secured to the door frame, it's time to return the top hat pin and adjust the tension. This should be easy. All you should have to do is place the little winding bar in any hole at the top of the cylinder and wind it in the direction that the door would open. This is necessary because you want the door, even when in the normally closed position, to be under tension, so it doesn't just wobble open a little. You want the door to return firmly and stay closed. So you wind it a quarter turn or so and HOLD IT turned. While you're holding it turned, place the pin in a hole NEAREST the door (not nearest the door frame) and then slowly unwind. You will see that the pin will hit the hinge and will be held in place by the spring tension, just as it was when you took it from the box. You may want to take a digital picture of it first for later reference. If you want the door to close harder, use the bar and wind the spring more before inserting the top hat pin.

THE PROBLEM.

The problem is that aside from the top hat pin at the top, there's a smaller, flat top pin at the bottom WHICH CAN/WILL FALL out because IT TOO is only held in place by spring tension. It probably should be a threaded screw. That's right, the guys/gals who designed the hinges were real American geniuses (think Budweiser commercial). And if it doesn't fall out right away, it might go flying out (as mine kept doing, good luck finding it!) a day later when the door closes a little unusually hard. If you lose it, I would recommend finding a nail that fits the hole and cutting it about a 1/4 inch long to use as a replacement. If you have a small enough screw, probably wouldn't hurt to try it.

If yours lower flat top pin falls out, do this: 1) Curse the genius who invented it, 2) remove the top hat pin, 3) attempt to return it to its hole. It probably will not go it. So while trying to insert it, use the little winding bar and begin winding the spring slowly. You may have to make several full revolutions before the lower flat top pin flops in flush. At that point, you can rewind the spring and and return the top hat spring.

MY SOLUTION.

Once you have all pins in place, and you're happy with the tension, smear a little Gorilla Glue on them so they're stuck in place. Easy. Just pour a little glue (for you ladies (and some guys), fingernail polish may work) on a piece of cardboard and using a tooth pick, rub a little glue on (and all around) the pin. Put enough, but not so much that it drips into hinge openings or parts that have to move apart/around each other. YOU DON"T WANT TO GLUE YOUR HINGE SHUT, SO BE CAREFUL. In fact, just in case you got a little glue where you shouldn't have, and didn't notice, gently open and close the door in 30 minute increments as the glue is drying for up to 2 hours. If you hear a little snap, that means you were on track to gluing your hinge shut. By opening it (in both directions) every 30 minutes, you're breaking the glue bond before it completely sets and is too strong to break. Finally, you might want to repeat the glue step. I glued mine and one pin still fell out. Maybe I went too light with the glue on that one. Don't know, but I double glued them and haven't had a problem since.

Hope this helps,

E. Winn

I purchased 4 of these Stanley Double Action Spring Hinges for a set of light weight double doors. Two of them functioned fine but the spring tension on each of the other two could not be adjusted on one side.
I tried to contact Stanley on 3 occasions by email to see if there is a fix but got no response
I exchanged them a couple days ago and obtained Everbilt brand. One of these two has the same problem, but I have been unable to find their website

Bought these for a swinging door and haven't used them because I cannot figure out the directions, and no help from Ace Hardware available.