27 Mar The Fascinating World of Hidden Door Automation
It’s no secret that hidden doors are gaining popularity. There are countless clever ways to create a passageway to a secret room, but achieving a truly discreet portal requires meticulous craftsmanship and effort. The mechanical systems necessary for automated concealed doors are both heavy duty and intricate, and they are also why Creative Home Engineering provides the best service and value in the industry.
The Mechanics of a Hidden Door
Whether you want to have a quiet area or a room for your most prized possessions, creating a hidden passageway in your home is only fun when everything works the way you’d expect 100% of the time. To ensure smooth operation and maximum secrecy, we use:
- Concealed hinges: These are installed within the door and frame, providing a discreet solution and clean appearance by eliminating visible hardware. Creative Home Engineering uses its patented pivot hinges, which are fully adjustable to provide more consistent gaps.
- Hidden unlock mechanism: A secret door requires a trigger, be it a statue, a button or a book. Your handle could be anything as long as it’s connected to your door’s latch.
- Compression system: These mechanisms ensure a tight fit when closed, maintaining the concealed nature of the door.
- Surveillance system: A hidden camera system is often integrated to allow you to look virtually through your secret door. This feature is best if you want a panic room.
- Securing mechanisms: Hidden doors require securing features such as concealed latches, magnetic locks or electronic control systems, ensuring only authorized individuals can access the room.
- Motorized mechanisms: In many cases, a secret doorway has motorized features for automated opening and closing, such as gear motors, pressure sensors, optical sensors and microwave pulses to detect movement.
While automation is commonly associated with doors moving independently, it’s essential to know locks possess their own automation. For example, iris scan authentication is an automated method that uses invisible infrared light to scan unique eye patterns. There’s also discretionary access control — a type of security access control determined by user information with supplied credentials, such as username and password.
You can also connect a motorized door to a smart home or building automation system, allowing you to use your mobile device to control the doorway. Owners can pick a style for the door while Creative Home Engineering writes unique door-opening firmware to enable the door to work exactly as the customer chooses.
The Advantages of Fully Motorized Hidden Doors
Fully motorized hidden doors provide several advantages. At the top of the list are the safety features. All automated hidden doors have sensors that can detect obstructions that may block the path. This is necessary to prevent any sort of unexpected collisions.
Features such as auto-reverse are vital to keep people safe from accidents. Since we can program a door to open and close automatically, it eliminates the need for physical interaction.
Creative Home Engineering highly recommends incorporating motorized mechanisms to add extra appeal to your door. If showing off to friends, it can be anti-climactic to have a hidden door unlocked without anything happening. With an automated door, the results of the unlock mechanism creates the experience of opening something that bears no resemblance to a door, like magic.
Does a Hidden Door Need to Be Motorized?
Hidden door motorization isn’t always necessary. Since hinged doors are easy to move, they don’t require automated mechanisms. However, almost all sliding doors need to be motorized, as the weight would otherwise be too much to be conveniently moved.
Fully motorized secret doors offer convenience, especially for individuals using wheelchairs, walking aids or scooters. It’s also the best option if you’re installing a large door that is otherwise difficult to manage.
The drawback to automatic doors is they’re more costly and complex. They operate using various mechanisms that rely on a person’s presence and movement, and the extra safety features that go along with them raise the price tag.
To manage costs, you can inquire about spring-assist mechanisms. Springs help open the door partially upon unlocking rather than opening the entire way. A door with spring-loaded pivots can retain 90% of the charm without spending nearly as much money on costly motorized mechanisms.
Costs can also be reduced by utilizing doors that self-open but not self-close. The designs will be less complex, saving you on upfront costs. This can often be achieved seamlessly with automated hydraulic door operators. These are similar to what you’d see required in commercial buildings, only concealed, allowing the door to close carefully with any actual automation.
When there’s a lack of maintenance, malfunctions may happen. With Creative Home Engineering’s expertise, you can have peace of mind in knowing every door they build undergoes a stringent life-cycle testing procedure and comes with a two-year warranty.
Unique Challenges
Not all hidden doors are built the same, and some hidden door types come with different requirements than others. One popular and creative option is a doorway hidden within a lifting set of stairs. This creates a new challenge, as the stairs need to be fully usable and code-compliant while still functioning as a door.
A secret door that’s a vertical doorway will often require additional automated features. For any vertical door we use lightweight materials like aluminum as opposed to steel to make it safer and easier to lift. Typically the hidden door will employ a combination of gas struts to keep it neutrally buoyant along with low-force motors to further enhance safety. It’s worth noting that with any motorized hidden door, the same obstruction-detecting sensors and auto-reverse mechanics will need to be in place.
How Does a Hidden Door Impact Your Electricity Bills?
A secret door has no significant implications on your electricity bills, whether it’s fully motorized or not. Electromagnetic locking is an ideal energy-efficient option. It helps reduce consumption because there’s no mechanical keyway, eliminating the need for components that can weaken over time.
What happens if there’s a power failure? Electromagnetic locks are in place as backup and battery backups will allow for power to go to the door for 24-48 hours until the battery is depleted (or longer if necessary). If you’re inside the room when the power goes out, you’ll still be able to exit using a manual mechanical latch.
Get the Hidden Door of Your Dreams With Creative Home Engineering
Upgrade your interiors with Creative Home Engineering, learn more about their custom hidden door designs and get inspired by their previous works of art. You can also contact the CHE team to discuss the specifications of your dream passageway.