Rear Kitchen Door

[HappyHoosiers]

This summer one of the struts on the outside kitchen door pulled away from the door, taking part of the particle board with it. Looks like the screws were installed with some sort of glue. I was able to plug the holes with bits of tooth picks and reinstalled. This lasted roughly 4 months....any ideas? Do the struts go bad?

[DQDick]

Yes, struts do go bad and a wide variety of options for mounting plates and struts are available on the web.

[jcurtis934]

Mine pulled away on day one of ownership. Strut was attached with sheet metal screws and pulled right out of door. Strut was also wrong force at 30 ponds instead of 15 pounds. I ended up inserting tubular spacers into door from outside, using backing plate on inside of door with bolts that go all the way through door with nuts on inside of door to hold it altogether. The spacers prevent the door from being compressed since it is just fiberglass outside, strofoam inside, and a thin 1/8 inch thick panel for inside door surface. The other mounting bracket above the door, mounted into the fiberglass wall is just as delicate unless that bracket mounts into an aluminum joist. This hasn't failed on mine, but probably because I got rid of the 30 pound strut and used a more appropriate one.