Rubber vs. Steel Overhead Doors: What Are the Advantages?


Commercial door comparison - steel roll up door vs rubber roll up door

Safety, Durability, and Energy Savings

Looking for the right overhead door comes with an enormous amount of decisions. The first thing that you might need to look at is your price range. Going with a steel or sectional door might fit the bill for the short-term, but a long-term investment lies with a rubber overhead door. Going with a rubber door will save you time and money in the long run, due to its springless design, impactability, warranty, and energy efficiency (and maybe a few headaches). While we can’t speak for all rubber doors, we can go into depth about why the PerforMax rubber doors can serve you the best.

While we stand by all our doors and their benefits, let’s select a handful that best state the universal advantages of rubber doors: safety, durability, and energy savings. At PerforMax, we boast an inventive and safe design for our doors. We’ve taken a variety of steps to make sure that when you purchase our doors, you’re also getting peace of mind. To further make things easier on you, we offer a Limited Lifetime Warranty on all our rubber curtains. By purchasing a rubber door, your maintenance costs are minimized and energy efficiency is maximized. While rubber is a natural insulator, the performance of our doors will result in energy savings. With our focus on safety, warranties, and energy savings, PerforMax rubber doors are made for savings and simplicity.

What is a Springless Design?

One of the largest differences between any steel door and a PerforMax rubber door is the use of springs; we don’t use any with our doors. It makes the rubber door much easier to maintain. Springs have an average life of 10,000 cycles; a cycle being when the door opens and closes. Industrial and commercial doors that undergo high-use will reach this lifetime quickly.

As an example, if a door is used 25 times a day for a year, by the end of the year the springs are used 9,100 times. That number might seem high, but for some industries it’s normal or even low. Without pulleys, springs, hinges, or rollers to worry about, the simplicity of our springless design is ultimately the safest option. This results in minimal maintenance and no worst-case scenario emergency repairs for broken springs. The cycle rating for the PerforMax rubber doors sits at one million.

Thanks to the safety inertia brake on our motor, the risk of doors free-falling and causing injury or damage due to lack of maintenance is eliminated. Safety is a top priority and your own roll-up door shouldn’t be a cause of a safety concern.

How Does an Impactable Door Work?

On the topic of safety and design, PerforMax rubber doors are impactable. When hit hard enough, the rubber doors will break away from the guides and reset. Seconds after an accident, a PerforMax rubber door is fully operational. With minimal to no downtime after an impact, you don’t need to worry about any logistical issues. When a steel or sectional door is impacted, the process is a little more complicated.

Even if only a few slats of a steel door are damaged, there might be a need to replace even more. Damage can also occur to the guides and moving pieces of the steel door, meaning even more replacement cost. There’s the addition of the challenge to properly align steel slats correctly again. If not placed just right, your roll-up door may have gaps between the panels, leading to a loss of heating or cooling.

A PerforMax door eliminates all of these problems with the rubber curtain.

Warranty

PerforMax rubber doors come with a Limited Lifetime Warranty. If you find a tear after an accidental collision with the rubber curtain, we make sure to replace it free of charge. Our doors can withstand harsh and rugged environments where having a safety net is helpful. If there is a collision with our curtains, there’s no need to be worried about investing in another door or getting it repaired.

On top of the warranty for the rubber curtains, there are also warranties on our motors and all parts and components. Your motor is covered for up to two years and all other parts and guides have coverage for one year.

With the Limited Lifetime Warranty, you can feel secure about your door performing to your highest standards.

Since you replaced our 4 vinyl high speed doors with MaxSpeed doors, our heating energy usage has gone down by 30%! They also open faster so we will hit them less. It’s a great door.”

How Can a Door be Energy Efficient?

A traditional steel rolling door has an opening speed average of 10 inches per second. The longer it takes for your door to close means the more energy you lose. With a high-performance rubber door from PerforMax, those speeds can quadruple. The operational status of your dock or warehouse door is vital to effective work flow. It’s vital that your door isn’t driving your heating and cooling costs up.

A PerforMax rubber door is well-built to reduce the chances of breakdown versus its competitors, but that isn’t the only way a PerforMax door saves on energy costs. The MaxSpeed, our most popular high-speed door, was engineered for quick opening and closing speeds. Compared to a rolling steel door, the MaxSpeed is up to four times faster. Jim, Maintenance Manager at Maryland Transit Authority, was ecstatic about his MaxSpeed doors.

You’ll see energy savings from the shorter opening and closing times. Coupled with the low maintenance of the five moving parts, you’ll see your ROI quickly with PerforMax high-performance doors.

Selecting the Right Overhead Door

Rubber doors are becoming a new standard for overhead commercial doors in a variety of industries. With an emphasis on safety, low cost of ownership and great customer service, it’s hard to not choose a PerforMax high-performance rubber door. A springless, impactable design makes it the safest door in its class.

The Limited Lifetime Warranty ensures your door keeps up with your needs. We find the simpler something is, the better it is, and you can’t get simpler than a low maintenance, energy saving door. Seeing is believing, so take a look at our videos to see our rubber doors at work, or request to see a mobile showroom, where you can get a firsthand look at what rubber doors can do for you.


About us

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PerforMax Global brings new innovative technology to commercial and industrial door applications to provide businesses with increased productivity, reduced energy consumption, and improved safety. With our global reach, we provide the best products and customer support anywhere in the world!

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1440 Savannah Ave.
Terre Haute, IN 47804
P: (217) 543-2135

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